The joist hanger looks like it was forged by a blacksmith, notice the two upper holes unaligned. The pliers appear to be specialized for a particular task, not sure what, maybe wire snips.
Yes, any ideas or suggestions would be great, thanks! It's pretty much worthless junk from about 150 years ago, but there are some stories here. Refashioning as art or even something useful would help those stories live on.