Why do some scissors have teeth on the inside of the handle, like this?
That is a nutcracker, often part of kitchen scissors.
That was fast. Thanks!
If you are lucky you can also align the teeth with the cap on a beer bottle to use the scissors as a bottle opener.
It’s also used for opening metal capped ketchup bottles and the like.
Yikes that seems dangerous to have a nasty sharp pair of blades flailing around on the far side of a nut cracker. Might as well put a match strikeboard on the side of a gasoline can.
It can also be used to crack bones and the like.
And I’m pretty sure that’s its actual intent - very helpful in deboning a chicken, and kitchen scissors, which I always think of as poultry shears anyway, are great for cutting up a whole chicken in no time at all.
My mother had a pair of kitchen scissors that had the nut cracker and some other little variations including a regular screwdriver tip sticking out of the top of one of the loops. I believe it was sold as a multi tool of some sort claiming to be several tools in one. I think these were popular in the late sixties. She once went through what all the various tools were supposed to be. Many did seem a bit dangerous but some were quite convenient. The screw driver was especially nice for prying things open.
Why? It’s no different to using the scissors as normal.
Well, it is, because you’ve got nothing in between the blades, and are probably applying a lot of force to the “nutcracker”, with potential for harm if it slips and something gets caught between the empty blades. That said, it’s unlikely to be lethal.
When your cracking a nut/bone, the blade tips are maybe 1/4 inch apart. Unlikely to be dangerous unless you stab someone with it.
Looking at the various kitchen shears for sale on the web, none of them describe “nutcracker” as a use. When the jaws are described at all, they are referred to as a tool for opening bottles and small jars. I would hesitate to use them for much of anything, as the gripping surface is slim, the leverage poor, and the opportunity for injury high.
This pair looks like an upscale version of my mom’s shears. Google nutcracker and scissors and you will see the notched gap listed as a nutcracker on many pair of kitchen shears.
'Scuse the hijack, but in case anybody comes in here looking for an explanation of scissors that have “teeth” on the blades rather than within the handle(s), those are called “pinking shears”. They’re designed for cutting raw edges of fabric in little zigzags rather than in a straight line, so that the edges will (a) look nicer and/or (b) be less likely to fray.
[/hijack]
Nope. There’s another little hook-like protrusion on the left half of the scissor pair shown just between the finger opening and blade portions that’s intended to remove bottle caps of the beer type.