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Lesson Two |
WHAT MATERIALS ARE
USED TO MAKE NUTCRACKERS?
WOOD...
The wooden toy soldier nutcrackers are
made of different kinds of wood, but linden wood is used
more than any other. Birch, beech, and other woods are
also used.
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Many early
carved nutcrackers were made of boxwood, a very
durable kind of wood. The museum has many carved
boxwood nutcrackers that are 400 to 500 years
old and are still in excellent condition. There
is also one nutcracker made of ebony, a wood so
hard that it will not float in water. Other
carved nutcrackers are made of fruit wood, maple
and walnut. When softer woods are used, such
as pine or fir the nutcrackers are not as
durable and will not last very long. It takes a
strong wood to crack a nut! |
METALS....
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BRASS...Brass
nutcrackers have been made since the 15th
century, and you can tell the brass by it’s
beautiful golden color. Brass is an alloy of
copper and zinc, and most brass nutcrackers
are made by pouring the hot metal into molds
. This is called “casting”.
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IRON AND STEEL...Iron
and steel (which is a mixture of iron and
carbon) have also been used for centuries to
make nutcrackers. Most of them are cast, but
many are hand wrought, that means that the metal
is manually beaten into the desired shapes. In
earlier days, a man working with iron and steel
was called a blacksmith. You probably saw a
blacksmith working in western movies, when he
was fixing horseshoes for the horses. Today a
man working with iron and steel would be called
a machinist.
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SILVER AND SILVER PLATE...Silver
by itself is too soft a metal to be used for
nutcrackers but many nutcrackers have been
silver plated over iron or brass to make
them more attractive. Since nutcrackers
were used in the olden times at the table,
many nutcrackers made to match match the
dinnerware. Sometimes the handles were made
with sterling silver, but the cracking part
made of brass or iron and silver plated.
Nickel and chrome plating was also used
over iron and these are much cheaper than
silver plating, but give the same shiny
effect.
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BRONZE...Bronze is a mixture of copper
and tin. It is reddish in color, not like the
golden tone of brass. It is a very strong
metal, and makes an excellent material for
cracking hard nuts. |
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ALUMINUM... This metal is made from
an ore called Bauxite. It is very
strong and light weight. Many nutcrackers
in kitchens today are made of aluminum.
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IVORY...Ivory, both from the tusks of
elephants and walrus, has been used to make
screw type nutcrackers. Since Ivory
is not a durable material for nutcrackers,
only a few have been made. It is more
commonly used as the handles on lever type
nutcrackers.
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PORCELAIN....Yes, even porcelain was
used to make nutcrackers, although the
actual cracking mechanism was made of metal.
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Ask your mother and grandmother if they
have a nutcracker in the kitchen and see if you can tell
what it is made of.
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