Hi As the owner of these tools perhaps I should have won the teeshirt.... For anyone who is interested, and to bore those who aren't.... The bottom tool is an oyster knife used for opening oysters - it is french, and a little bigger than those commonmly used in the UK. The larger of the other two tools was given to me by a french friend as he knows I collect old billhooks (US fascine knives), and the smaller one I bought on eBay... My guess was tools used in sea water due to the amount of corrosion, and thoughts were for use in oyster farming.... Lots of e-mails to french oyster farmers over a 12 year period brought nil response - but a web search this year for serpette (a small french billhook) threw up a french website showing tools used in oyster farming, and the modern wooden handled version... after many years a postive ID....
As the owner of these tools perhaps I should have won the teeshirt.... For anyone who is interested, and to bore those who aren't.... The bottom tool is an oyster knife used for opening oysters - it is french, and a little bigger than those commonmly used in the UK. The larger of the other two tools was given to me by a french friend as he knows I collect old billhooks (US fascine knives), and the smaller one I bought on eBay... My guess was tools used in sea water due to the amount of corrosion, and thoughts were for use in oyster farming.... Lots of e-mails to french oyster farmers over a 12 year period brought nil response - but a web search this year for serpette (a small french billhook) threw up a french website showing tools used in oyster farming, and the modern wooden handled version... after many years a postive ID....