Stone Crab Claw Cracker

Cracker

My wife and I both love Stone Crab Claws and when we winter in Florida we can’t get enough. Beautiful claws in mustard sauce. Because they are so hard and not easily cracked with a nutcracker, I use a little wooden mallet. Of course the shells go all over the place. I’m pretty good at it so I can get them flying 15’ in all directions and then comes the dirty looks cause we know who’ll be cleaning up. OK so maybe I can look for an alternative, and there it was, right on the Web, Stone crab crackers for 90 bucks and up. Are you serious?? No way??. So I decided to design and make my own.

First step was to go to my local welding shop and purchase approx 28” of 1” aluminum stock, then to the hardware and bought 3-- 3 ½ “ x 5/16” hex head bolts with those nylon lock nuts. Total cost so far 12 bucks. I already had a beautiful piece of ¾ inch oak and that was my base.

All pieces were cut to size

2 pieces 4 ½ “ long

1 piece 4" long

1 piece 3" long

1 piece at 12" long

Next came drilling all the holes, which was a little trickier than I thought, but I got them all done with only 1 hole in the wrong place.. Then the burrs were removed using my dremel tool.

Just prefitting it. Note the 2 deck screws countersunk on the top horizontal piece. They go through both pieces and are screwed into to the wood.

Assembly started with the 3” piece and 4” piece screwed together with 2 - 2 ½” deck screws and then screwed into the wood base; This is the anchor point for the whole cracker. Everything went together smoothly and with no problems. I ended up countersinking the 2 deck screws to keep cleanup easier.

And here it is, a $90 cracker for $12. Unfortunately we didn’t have any claws to crack, but when we are in Florida this winter I’ll post a picture. I did steal my dog's bunny just for effect. Please note: No animal was hurt during this demonstration. I will refine it in the future will more accurate holes and a covering on the handle. OK got to Florida for the winter and picked up some claws, worked perfect.

Cheers.