Purpose of old knives

[olderdogs1]

Here are three knives that I have no idea of the purpose of them. The blades look to be either tortoise or imitation tortoise in most instances. These knives came in an antique collection and again I wonder what they were produced for. Any help from the experts would be appreciated. They do not have a brand on any of the three.
Thanks in advance


Tom

[Mumbleypeg]

Nice find, Tom! I believe the tortoise shell blades are toothpicks. The blade with the small "scoop" is an earwax spoon (at least that's what I've been told by others here).

I have an old "gentleman's grooming knife" of European origin from the late 1800's which has both a tortoise shell blade like those on your knives, and an earwax spoon like yours. And both have that same extends-beyond-the-bolsters fulcrum lever for accessing them.

Ken

[blade objective]

I've seen friction folder letter openers with tortoise shell blades but I could be wrong from not knowing the size of the instruments.
To test whether the tortoise shell is real heat a needle or pin with a flame and touch it to an inconspicuous area.
If it smells like skin or hair burning it's real. If it smells like plastic burning then it's synthetic.

"Ear Wax spoon" yuck.....

[knife7knut]

I've seen friction folder letter openers with tortoise shell blades but I could be wrong from not knowing the size of the instruments.
To test whether the tortoise shell is real heat a needle or pin with a flame and touch it to an inconspicuous area.
If it smells like skin or hair burning it's real. If it smells like plastic burning then it's synthetic.

"Ear Wax spoon" yuck.....

DO NOT USE a hot needle to test whether it is tortoise shell or not! That is like using acid on a knife to see whether it is made of gold. Examine the blades and handles under a loupe and if it is tortoise shell you can usually see a,"layering" effect similar to a wood grain but more subtle.
From what I can see of them,there appear to be two that have ivory handles with tortoise blades and the one with the tortoise handles looks to have blades made of bone.The Haversian canals are readily visible.
I have a couple of these that are very cheaply made from Czechoslovakia but yours are NOT cheaply made.If I had to guess I would say they may have been made in England or possibly Austria.

[Mumbleypeg]

"Ear Wax spoon" yuck.....

Yep, pretty yucky by today's standards of hygiene. At the time these knives were made daily bathing was rare. Some of the implements on old knives were quite useful for daily hygiene at the time.

Ken

[olderdogs1]

Appreciate all of the help. One of the knives is genuine pearl and yes I believe one is ivory. They are very small so not suitable to open a letter. I would appreciate any more information anyone has.
Thanks, Tom

[orvet]

I have mentioned before that I managed a cutlery store in the 1980s, part of my duties where to order products for our inventory. One company from which we ordered a lot of our grooming implements such as hair shears, specialized razors, ect., was the German company; Dovo. While going through their grooming implements catalog I noticed they carried ear spoons. I knew what they were because my grandfather had one that he used. The salesman informed me that the company only produced one catalog for Europe and America and he could not sell ear spoons in the US as their sales are banned here, but they were still very popular in Europe.

That is about all the info I have on the subject of ear spoons. I hope it is helpful.

[olderdogs1]

Thanks Dale, very interesting information.

Tom

[kootenay joe]

The ear wax spoons could also be used to snort 'snuff' and smelling salts. I don't know what smelling salts were composed of but it supposedly revived a person who had fainted. Today's use certainly includes snorting cocaine and other drugs (heroin can be snorted). Easier to use than rolling up a dollar bill to snort a line on a mirror as shown in the movies.
kj

[knife7knut]

The ear wax spoons could also be used to snort 'snuff' and smelling salts. I don't know what smelling salts were composed of but it supposedly revived a person who had fainted. Today's use certainly includes snorting cocaine and other drugs (heroin can be snorted). Easier to use than rolling up a dollar bill to snort a line on a mirror as shown in the movies.
kj

I remember awhile back McDonald's used to have these neat little mini spoons for stirring your coffee that were quickly adopted by the snorting portion of the drug culture. After learning of this McDonald's changed the design to a flat stirrer. I used to use them for stirring paint.

[Mumbleypeg]

When I obtained that knife my initial thought was that it was a snuff spoon. After posting pictures of it here someone (IIRC it was either Ray - k7k or Dimitri - Miller Bros who stated it was an ear wax spoon, which prior to that I had never heard of. A little research (not that I doubted those learned gentlemen ) validated the ear wax spoon assertion.

Ken

[kootenay joe]

I do not try to clean inside my ear canals but have never had a build up of wax that needed to be removed. I practiced medicine for about 35 years and often examined the external auditory canal and ear drum with an otoscope. Some people do have a build up of wax but it is rare to see a build up that extends to the outer end where a small spoon could scoop. And patients with little wax usually claimed they did not use Q-Tips to clean their ears.
I do not doubt that the intended use is to be an 'ear wax spoon'. What i wonder is why it was needed 100 years ago but not now. Whatever it is that stimulates the cells in the ear canal to make wax must be less common in our environment now.
kj

[Doc B]

Maybe the Q-tip...put the blades out of business. I'm thinking we wised up. A habit of poking things in the ear canal never ends well.

[Mumbleypeg]

What i wonder is why it was needed 100 years ago but not now. Whatever it is that stimulates the cells in the ear canal to make wax must be less common in our environment now.
kj

Could it be related to frequency of bathing, and perhaps access to and use of warm water? Folks bathe a lot more frequently now than was typical over 100 years ago, or even 50 years ago in some places, at least in most modern Western societies. The pervasiveness and convenience of indoor plumbing that we often take for granted now changed that. Also the advent of Q-tips (not sure when those became commonplace).

But I’m pretty ignorant regarding anatomy of the ear and to what extent bathing affects it, so I could be wrong.

Ken

[kootenay joe]

Possibly related to amount of dust in one's environment. The purpose of wax is to trap dust particles and move them to the exterior. Most ear canals have a slight slope towards the exterior. More dust stimulates more wax formation. At least this is the medical theory as i understand it and as taught about 50 years ago !
kj

[blade objective]

I've seen friction folder letter openers with tortoise shell blades but I could be wrong from not knowing the size of the instruments.
To test whether the tortoise shell is real heat a needle or pin with a flame and touch it to an inconspicuous area.
If it smells like skin or hair burning it's real. If it smells like plastic burning then it's synthetic.

"Ear Wax spoon" yuck.....

DO NOT USE a hot needle to test whether it is tortoise shell or not! That is like using acid on a knife to see whether it is made of gold. Examine the blades and handles under a loupe and if it is tortoise shell you can usually see a,"layering" effect similar to a wood grain but more subtle.
From what I can see of them,there appear to be two that have ivory handles with tortoise blades and the one with the tortoise handles looks to have blades made of bone.The Haversian canals are readily visible.
I have a couple of these that are very cheaply made from Czechoslovakia but yours are NOT cheaply made.If I had to guess I would say they may have been made in England or possibly Austria.

I used to work for a museum and the hot pin is the test historians use to this day to verify natural or synthetic material.
I've done the test many times without damaging the historic piece.
Those bone canals can be and are faked all the time with restoring an antique piece and you can't tell the difference without the pin test.
It is the most effective,cheap and reliable way to tell authenticity of natural animal products used years ago.

What is a "loupe" and how do you look under it?

[Mumbleypeg]

loupe
[lo͞op]
NOUN
a small magnifying glass used by jewelers and watchmakers

For example:
viewtopic.php?f=98&t=62145

I don't see how Haversian Canals could be faked.

Ken

[knife7knut]

loupe
[lo͞op]
NOUN
a small magnifying glass used by jewelers and watchmakers

For example:
viewtopic.php?f=98&t=62145

I don't see how Haversian Canals could be faked.

Ken

I too would be very interested to see how Haversian canals could be faked.

[JACK OF ALL TIRADES]

This ear talk is interesting. I had this wax problem a few times, at least. There has been no problems in the last several years and now I am thinking it is the same period of me doing very little drywall work.

[just bob]

Here is one of these for sale at a reasonable price if anyone is looking for one. Isn't it eerie that the ear wax spoon and toothpick or so close together?


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-2-GERM ... Swh-JdzoAW

[1967redrider]

If you missed the German one, try the Czech-

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-SMALL- ... 0012.m1985