These are used to clean out nut shells – most especially chestnuts! My grandparents had a wooden bowl that looked like a hollowed out tree trunk with holes that held these & a place for a nutcracker as well!
They go with the matching cracking tools for seafood. Lobster, crab, etc. You Crack the shells and use the picks to get the meat out of the small areas.
After you crack a nut open. Use those to get the meat out. I remember them from my childhood.
2) Vintage HMQ Nutcracker set- 1 cracker, They often make a handy little tool for so many things too!