Nut-crackers

See also: Nut-crackers (homonymy)

A nut-crackers (sometimes also called nut-cracker ) is a kitchen utensil being used to break the Noix, and more generally the dry fruits with hull, such as Amande S, Noisette S, etc

Three physical principles are generally employed:

the percussion (the hammer and the anvil);
the reduction of the force applied to a arm of lever;
pressure by a screw.

Although this ustensil, or rather instrument of kitchen, also used with table, is of a relatively limited employment, it exists about it an infinite variety of achievements, which illustrates imagination without end of the human spirit.

The oldest process is without question that of the percussion. It is that which the Primate S employ to break their nut between two stone S. It is that used traditionally in the areas of production of nuts at the meetings of énoisage, which consists in striking nuts of a dry blow and proportioned well, using a wood mallet, to break the shell and to extract intact green walnuts.

The most widespread process is that of the grip, which uses the action leverage, but which presents the double disadvantage of not allowing a precise proportioning of the effort, with the risk to crush green walnuts and to let escape remains from the shell.

The nut-crackers with screw, which one more rarely finds, allow on the contrary a progressive crushing of the shell, but its employment is not practical.

The inventors thus proposed improvements of the nut-crackers with grip, of which much was Brevet ées, in spite of their very anecdotic interest. The materials used also are very varied: Metal (Iron, Steel, Aluminum, Bronze, Copper, Alloy S…), wood of various gasolines, in particular the olive-tree, plastics and resin S.

The nut-crackers are manual instruments, but there exists with the the United States electric nut-crackers, which make it possible to break the very hard hull of certain dry fruits, like the Noix of macadamia.

Certain nut-crackers with lever, out of painted wood, appearing of the characters (soldiers, kings…) are produced traditionally in Germany in the Metalliferous Monts. They became objects of decoration and collection.

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