nut crackers

I'm having an incredible black walnut harvest here this year and am already starting cracking and picking them out. Anyone that has done this knows this is a hardshell nut. anyone bought any commercial nut crackers? Any thoughts?

Kathyjo who is cracking with an old hammer.

I' m too busy picking and canning/freezing/drying when the Black Walnuts start to fall. But - after a few years of mistakes, I find that getting rid of the outside husk and scrubbing the nut allows for later cracking without getting those black "bits" on the nuts. They seem to keep just fine until November or so. We have a giant (to me) vice in the barn that would crack the tree itself if it could open wide enough. It is mounted to a ledge on one of the walls - so it's a bit awkward - but will never move and you can control the "crack" so as not to end up with just nut crumbs.

I have a pecan nut cracker that has an adjustable screw for nut length. I suspect it would do well for black walnuts and maybe even Brasil nuts. I bought it in a Pecan Store in GA.

Thanks darius. Wish I had some pecan trees.
I have poured lots of walnuts out on the driveway , so that vehicles driving over them will break off the outer hull. After they have dried a few days without the hull they are much nicer to work with.

And don't your hands look "lovely" after all the cracking, LOL. I always hated that stain!

oh my goodness. Nothing like a good walnut stain to try to get off your hands. Don't know of too many people that expect my hands to look too good though.

Check tjhis site out for black walnut nut crackers
http://www.redhillgeneralstore.com/nutcracker.htm?source=goadd

I like it! I might get serious about getting one.

KathyJo I just started looking for some "fix" for the pain of cracking the blackwalnuts as my tree is loaded with them and wondered if you ordered the nutcracker and if so was it worth it??
Sandy

No, I didn't order the nut cracker. This year doesn't look like there is going to be a lot of nuts.

I have a nut cracker for pecans "somewhere" packed away. I think I want to try to find it and use it before I buy another.

Hi,

We have a very old shagbark hickory. It's about 400 or more years old and this year it's making bushels of hickories. Can anyone suggest a hickory nut cracker. Have considered buying one like they sell in Gurney's but would like to know it works or if this is something better. Thank you!

Green-Ox

I still have never bought a new nutcracker. We have a farm show here in Missouri , usually in November where I know they usually have a booth with someone selling nutcrackers.... I will make sure to go this year and see what they have...

KathyJo Would'nt It be nice If you could find something that would do lots of walnut or hickory nuts at once? I've only cracked them with a hammer and struggled to pick out the often crushed meat. I guess I'm lucky because I don't care much for nuts anyway. I hope you find something before this years crop falls to the ground.

My pick for a black walnut or thick-shelled hickory nut cracker is the "Mr. Hick'ry" nutcracker, designed and built by my friend & mentor, Mr. Fred Blankenship, who is one of the foremost authorities on superior nut-producing hickories.
Not cheap, but still under $100, I think. Should last a lifetime, and will work on any thick shelled nut, regardless of size.

Fred Blankenship
161 Highway 376
Rhodelia, KY 40161-5001

The NNGA Marketplace page - http://www.northernnutgrowers.org/adlist.htm - has several hard-shell nutcrackers listed, including the MoHaBi brand, which can crack large numbers at one time - I've not seen it or seen it in operation, so I can't attest to how well it works, but I have used most of the other types(Hunt's, Kenkel, etc.) at one time or another, and they all work reasonably well, though you can only crack one nut at a time.

With any of the hard/thick shelled nuts (Black walnuts, hickories, butternuts, etc.), it helps if you'll soak your clean nuts in a pan of hot/warm water for an hour or so prior to a session of cracking - the shells absorb enough moisture that they bend, buckle, and split, rather than 'exploding' when you reach 'critical pressure' - you'll get more intact halves & quarters, instead of fragments.

good infromation Lucky Thanks I will be soaking mine this year for sure that was always the worse part .. I can still remember knowing I needed to keep twisting the vice but dreading that explosion .