Cherry Pitters or Stoners

Cherry pies can be enjoyed fully only when the eater is confident that there are no pits to break the teeth. Homemade pronged sticks were used to push a pit through a cherry. In 1863 a cherry pitter was patented in the United States. The device was a cast-iron, horseshoe-shaped frame with three legs, a hopper, and a crank. Cherries swere poured slowly into the hopper while the user turned a crank to move a ribbed wheel that rubbed the stones out and away while the mangled fruit was channeled into a bowl. A cherry pitter patented in 1870 was a box and frame that held twenty cherries. The device was fitted with a hinged presser and twenty wooden dowels that pushed out the twenty stones at the same time. Later patents generally followed the 1863 concept. By 1890 handheld stoners with a spring-action prong were being used to push stones from one cherry at a time. This type continues to be manufactured in the early 2000s.