French Country · Encyclopedia of objects
Wrought-Iron Tools
Everyday tools were forged one at a time, and many carry symbols: hearts, rings, birds facing each other. (Les outils en fer forgé)
Forester's marking axe (hache de forestier)
Wrought iron
Small and not meant for felling, this axe marked trees for cutting. The edge removed a square of bark and the butt struck initials into the wood, engraved in reverse so they read the right way. Rare examples carry a fleur-de-lis or a crown.
Figured chopper (hachoir)
Wrought iron
Butchers and households used choppers with handles shaped as figures or animals. The openwork between the animal's legs weakens the tool, but these rare pieces delight collectors.
Sugar axe and sugar nippers (hachette à sucre, pinces à sucre)
18th–19th century · wrought iron
Sugar was sold in large cones. In the eighteenth century a small axe with a hammer head split the cone into blocks and then broke them up. Later nippers, loose or mounted on a wooden base, cut sugar into small lumps.
Chest keys (clefs de coffre)
17th century · wrought iron
Large keys whose bows are cut with rings around a heart, rings and wings, or two birds facing each other above the rings, all symbols of union.
Carpenter's square and compass (équerre, compas de charpentier)
Walnut
Tools of the compagnons who trained on their Tour de France. Every trade repeated the saying: "When you look for a compagnon, you find him between the square and the compass."
Nutcrackers (casse-noisettes, casse-noix)
17th century and earlier · brass, bronze, iron
A brass nutcracker polished by use dates from the seventeenth century; an older one in finely chased bronze has jaws shaped like an animal head; a third in wrought iron cracks walnuts as well. The Renaissance museum at the château d'Écouen shows a nutcracker of the same form.
Source: Les Trésors de France: vieux métiers et objets d'autrefois (Éditions Rustica, Détours en France collection, 1995), pp. 120–123. Descriptions summarize the book's reportage and captions; the book was published in 1995, so workshops, people, prices and figures are described as the reporters found them then, and some workshops may since have closed or changed hands.