An oyster knife has two parts. The handle is a square piece of stock.
The blade is rounded so that it can pry up the valves. The technique
involves a sharp strike with the square end, to break the shell,
followed by a prying motion with the blade end. Then you scoop the
oyster out with the blade end, throw it in your gaping mouth, and
follow quickly with undrinkable beer. The reason you use undrinkable
beer (coors, bud, miller, etc) is that you don't want to preserve any
semblance of a sense of taste.
The square handle apparently derives from a practice that was also
common among prehistoric residents of the Delmarva peninsula. If you
smash an oyster at the edge of the valve with a round implement,
fragments will get into the mantle and be swallowed when you slurp
down the meat. The sharp edge makes a clean break, disables the
hinge, and leaves no gritty residue.
On a shell midden near St. Michaels Md., we found lots of oyster
shells with the characteristic sharp break, but also lots of angular
hammerstones. In this land of water-washed round rocks, an angular
rock is regarded as an artifact. Indeed, it seems that the Indians
made oyster knives out of cobbles to impart that sharp break.
At 4:24 PM -0500 3/28/02, Daniel H. Weiskotten wrote:
>Geesh, Ned!
>
>It was an alternate hypothesis. Ron left out the key piece of info
>that the knives were much warn, I phrased it in terms of "on the
>other hand" "likely" "probably" etc. Also, not being one to eat
>oysters, in fact I haven't a clue what an oyster knife looks like, I
>am inclined to think that there are others out there who are not
>users of oyster knives, although it is possible that they were in
>possession of them for a variety of reasons. Heck, I could have a
>box of them and think them fancy screwdrivers (no, I'm not that out
>of it). In my days working as an Auctioneer's Assistant I have seen
>tons of perfectly good stuff that was given as wedding presents,
>never taken out of the box, shoved into a closet for 50 years =
>antique, great condition, good quality and materials, worth plenty
>in today's market.
--
*************************** Ned Heite ([log in to unmask])
Put your world in perspective. Go to:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0011/earthlights_dmsp_big.jpg
|