The One-Piece Nut Pick: A Point Hardened by Squeezing

"Heretofore in the construction of these nut-picks it has been customary to form them from two pieces of metal, the body or handle portion and the point, which have been united by a screw-thread, and in forming the point the flat portion of the latter has been removed by 'milling,' and the curvature of the point afterward given to it." "The ornamented handle imparts a high degree of finish to the instrument, and prevents its slipping in the user's hand."

**Handle.** Cut two 15 cm lengths of 4 mm mild steel rod. File a criss-cross pattern into 9 cm of each with the edge of the file, so the fingers grip it. **Point.** Chuck the other end in the cordless drill, run it slowly and hold a file against it to taper the last 3 cm to about 2 mm, then to a point. **Harden and soften.** Lay one point on the anvil and hammer the last 15 mm lightly from two sides into a flat, slightly curved blade: that is Quackenbush's squeeze. Hammer the second point the same, then heat it red with the torch and let it cool slowly in the air, which softens it again. **Test.** Clamp each pick in the vice 15 mm behind the tip. Hook the spring scale on the tip, pull sideways in 2 N steps, let go after each step and note the force at which the point stays bent. Compare with the notebook, then pick out five walnuts with the hard one.

**Henry Marcus Quackenbush** of Herkimer, New York, filed US 296,450 on 24 March 1882; it is dated 8 April 1884. He embossed or ornamented the rod before turning the point, then compressed the point in a die, "condensing the metal simultaneously with imparting the desired longitudinal curvature", and polished or plated the finished pick. **Honest limits.** Filing stands in for his embossing and lathe, and hand hammering on an anvil for his die. The notebook treats the point as a straight round beam; its yield strengths and sizes are examples. Your bend forces are the result.