Nut Cracker or Sheller

This topic has 13 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 5 months ago by LauraVA.

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June 14, 2016 at 3:02 pm #1514
Rascals1
Participant
Looking for a nut cracker mainly to be used on pecans. I'm not interested in the plier type I need something that will work good for like 5 big black trash bags full. Any help is appreciated.

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June 14, 2016 at 4:37 pm #1516
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
Something like this may work for you:

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200442219

My mother spent hours every winter sitting at the kitchen table with a sad iron and a tack hammer cracking walnuts.
- This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.
- This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by Mike Nolan.
June 14, 2016 at 6:14 pm #1524
BakerAunt
Participant
Rascals: Let us know what works. I'm currently working my way through a lot of pecans using a hand cracker. We won't have the pecan tree after we move north next year, but we will have access to a lot of black walnuts in my husband's woods, and those are going to need something really intense (or we will have to find a place that will shell them for us).
June 14, 2016 at 7:06 pm #1527
LauraVA
Participant
The one that Mike linked to, or a similar model/another manufacturer, works wonderfully, for pecans. You can usually get the entire nutmeat, very few broken.

BakerAunt, the best tip we ever got, for shelling black walnuts, was to find an old corn sheller, which turned up at a favorite antique shop a week later...lol! One person feeds, the other cranks. There are now Youtube videos showing folks doing this, too.

Have fun, everyone!
June 15, 2016 at 12:40 am #1529
Nina Beyt
Participant
Coming from a pecan shelling family, I think I've tried every kind and take my word for it, the one in the link Mike gave you is hands down the best. Laura nailed it. You'll get the least amount of broken pieces.
June 15, 2016 at 8:22 am #1548
BakerAunt
Participant
Hi, Laura. I did some web-surfing for corn shellers, so that I would have an idea what I might be looking for. There appears to be great variety. Can you give me an idea of what I should be looking for as I cruise antique stores and estate sales?
June 15, 2016 at 10:32 am #1561
S_Wirth
Participant
Yesterday, when I saw your post re nutcrackers, I had husband dig out two of his. One did not have a name on it so I Googled on lever nut cracker and saw three pics similar to his. One was the very same one Mike gave later from Northern.

I know you said you didn't want the plier type, but the one he uses most is this...Google on Texan York Nut Sheller. It is so easy to use and there is a video on the Google search. He says it takes off both ends and then the shell usually just pops off, leaving perfect halves.

He said the lever one is messy and if he says something is messy it must be really bad as his specialty is making messes. I think you could just use newspapers under it to catch the mess.

Wal-Mart sells the Texan York Nut Sheller.
- This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by S_Wirth.
June 15, 2016 at 12:05 pm #1563
LauraVA
Participant
Hi, BakerAunt...mine is big, and green...lol! I'm sure that's a lot of help. However!!!...here is a modern one, carried by Pleasant Hill Grain...and much less than we paid for ours, years ago...:

http://pleasanthillgrain.com/maximizer-hand-corn-sheller-manual-walnut-maize-dehuller?_vsrefdom=gpshop&gclid=Cj0KEQjw-YO7BRDwi6Stp7T296ABEiQAD6iWMYGAB0BLZO3v0R__YIHIvmURCqXzqEdsyJkcHMr7C3EaAmfy8P8HAQ

The one we purchased had been owned by the family who owned the shop, and they guaranteed that it functioned properly. It had been in use, up until the time I purchased it.

Hope that helps!
June 15, 2016 at 12:27 pm #1564
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
I wonder if the walnuts they're referring to are English walnuts? Black walnuts are very hard and difficult to crack.
June 15, 2016 at 1:00 pm #1566
S_Wirth
Participant
Shelling ear corn was my favorite thing to do on our dairy farm where I grew up. Ours was mounted onto a square wooden box and sat by the feed mill where dad ground corn for our dairy cows and chickens, etc. It was so much fun to see the kernals pop off the cob and the cob to be ejected.

Here is a picture of the working guts like ours. minus the wooden box:

http://www.strombergschickens.com/product/hand-crank-corn-sheller/feed-mills

Husband says these would get the green/nasty outer hull off black walnuts but it would not crack them.
- This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by S_Wirth.
June 15, 2016 at 1:04 pm #1567
S_Wirth
Participant
I watched some of the videos at the Texan York Nut Sheller Google search and there was a guy testing three nut crackers. He liked the inertia one with rubber bands the best for non paper shell pecans. We have one of those, too. All of our nut crackers are from the late 70s-early 80s.
June 15, 2016 at 1:11 pm #1569
Mike Nolan
Keymaster
We used to use a large wooden box with a hardware cloth bottom. Us kids would walk across the walnuts, sliding our feed to scrape off the green goo. This was not something you did with shoes you wanted to wear anywhere else, though.
June 15, 2016 at 1:27 pm #1570
S_Wirth
Participant
I typed in the patent # of our inertia nutcracker and it pulled up the item:

http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/texas-native-inertia-nutcracker-mib+instructions

Scroll down for a few more pics.
June 15, 2016 at 1:43 pm #1573
LauraVA
Participant
Ours was used to de-hull the black walnuts, we still had to crack them, separately. This way we didn't get the stain all over our hands.

The first autumn I owned my Golden Retriever, I was walking him out past the black walnut tree...his eyes got SO big, when he saw all the green unhulled nuts. I'm sure he thought he was in heaven, and that his Mom had a tennis ball farm...lol...then, he found the chestnut tree, even better, but spikey, too...
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