Hawaiian Shells and Tools

From prehistoric times, man has used shells for tools and utensils. Household dishes, cooking pots, cutlery, scoops, spatulas were often made from bivalves and larger gastropods. Food pounders were made from the giant clam in the South Pacific. Storage containers for such things as perfumes, ointments and medicines were made from some of the larger bivalves and univalves such as the nautilus. Oil lamps made from shells are a frequent find throughout the Middle East. Fishing lures, octopus lures, hooks and sinkers were made from abalone, pearl shell and cowries. Tweezers, tongs and claspers were made from bivalves. Building tools designed to split and smooth many building and thatching materials such as palm fronds and bamboo canes. Farming tools, shovels, plow blades, hoes for tilling the soil, adze, knife, and axe blades were made from shells with sharpened edges. Blades and scrapers for cutting and skinning hides were made from shells such as the ark shell. Drills, chisels, scrapers, sanders were made from various shells such as the Red Helmet shell. Bailing buckets made from ‘bailer’ shells are still in use by native fisherman in the South Pacific and Australia today to bail out their boats.

In the 16th Century, natives of Central America dumped Purpura Patula snails into cauldrons and crushed them. The mashed snails oozed purple dye that could color cloth. By 1648, the natives had started producing this dye for export to Spain. Because of the high demand for the dye, they were forced to find ways to maintain their supply while not endangering the population of snails. By imposing conservation measures, they learned to pluck a snail off the rocks, gently blow into its shell and collect the dye that trickled out. The snail was then returned to the rocks unharmed. Central America wasn’t the only part of the world where clothes were dyed with mollusk juice. Mollusks in the Mediterranean were also used in this way. Antony and Cleopatra had sails that were colored ‘tyrian purple’. Rome’s emperor Nero was the only person in the empire allowed to wear cloth of this color.