Knife from Fishertown
Nairn Museum

This Shellbert knife was used for shelling mussels and similar shellfish for bait.   

The Fishwives of Fishertown, Nairn carried out an extremely important role within the community. In the days, when a great deal of fishing was carried out by fishing lines containing upwards of 500 hooks, the industry was very labour intensive.   

Fishwives would gather bait, such as mussels or lugworms, shell mussels, and bait the hooks. They were also skilful at smoking haddocks and herring to create the once famous Nairn ‘spelding’.