Animals and man have depended on the nuts for food for thousands and thousands of years.  Since nuts were an important part of the diet, man has created many different instruments  to crack open the hard shell.  It has been only in the last century that nuts have come to us all shelled and neatly packaged in plastic bags ready to eat.

Picture 1	Picture 2	In the very early times, rocks were used to crack the nuts when they were too hard for the teeth to crack.  This rock or nutting stone, which archeologists have dated as between 4,000 and 8,000 years old, makes  a wonderful nutcracker!  It can be held in the hand and used to hit the nut, or a nut can be placed in the hollow and hit with a second rock.  (picture 1 and 2)  This type of cracking would be called percussion,  because the nut is broken by striking it.
Picture 3	Picture 4	Hammers are often used to crack nuts and special hammers have been made just for this. (picture 3)   There are other kinds of percussion nutcrackers too.  Here is a picture of  a nutcracker made in 1897.  He is called the Tough Nut and you place the nut in cavity, and strike the head to crack the nut.  (picture 4)
Picture 5		When two pieces of wood or metal are joined together with a hinge, or other devise that allows the levers to turn, this part is called the “fulcrum”.  If the nut is cracked between the hinge and your hand, then it is direct pressure.  Here is a metal nutcracker your grandmother  probably has  in her kitchen and the arrow points to the fulcrum. (picture 5)  and a fancy “figural” direct action nutcracker.  The word “figural” is used when the nutcracker is in the shape of a human or animal. (picture 6)
Picture 6
Picture 7		A nutcracker made like a pair of pliers, with the nut being cracked away from the fulcrum is one using indirect pressure.  Here is an old 17th century nutcracker using this method. ( picture 7).
Picture 8		There are some nutcrackers that use both direct and indirect pressure, for different sizes of nuts. (picture 8)   Most of the carved animal and human heads open at the mouth, but also have a place between the levers that is actually where the nut is cracked. Cracking the nut between the levers is direct pressure.   Cracking the nuts in the mouth would be indirect pressure, but might damage the beautiful carving.  (pictures 9 and 10)
Picture 9	Picture 10
Picture 11		Another way to crack a nut is by using screw action.  Here the nut is opened by applying more and more pressure until finally the shell cracks.  This idea has been used for over 300 years.  Many are made of wood, and many of metal.  Some are plain and some are very elaborately designed.  (picture 11 and picture 12)
Picture 12
Picture 13		And then there are nutcrackers that just squeeze the nut until it pops open!!! Picture 13
Now after you have learned all the different ways to crack a nut, which is the method used in the Wooden Toy Soldier that you see at Christmas time?????