These were perfect for the hazelnuts. The groove I chose left the nuts whole. They were smaller than average and pretty tough. I think those are the 20" pliers, tons of leverage.
Apparently I have 2 pair. They haven’t been very useful on any fasteners I’ve tried, so I was happy to find a good application for them.
affordable too!
Looks good for thin-shelled nuts, but I’m not convinced it would handle a black walnut. I’d be happy to be proven wrong, of course!
I’ve seen some people say they can crack black walnuts with vise-grips, but I’ve never managed to get that to work.
I’ve been quite happy with using a heavy duty 4” speed vise for black walnuts. But it seems all but impossible to get anything but fragments.
I purchased a specific nut cracker for black walnuts many years ago on Amazon but it broke to pieces after cracking a few nuts. Black walnuts are tough!
I will consider any other device if it can make larger pieces with less trouble. But given the internal structure of the black walnut, I doubt it is possible.
I don’t like walnuts, so may never know.
These are probably only twice the mechanical advantage of vice grips. But the teeth are also more aggressive, and you can get a good lever length with both hands.
youd think it wouldnt be too hard to make an automatic nut cracker that runs off a motor with rotating drums for a reasonable price. Similar concept to rock crushers no?
Probably one of those chinese clones of the Master Nutcracker. They are notorious for failing. I would put Gerald Gardner’s cracker up against any black walnut no matter how thick the shell and have done so many times.
Sure thing. You can buy one for about $800. Do some searching online and there are 3 or 4 available, one even uses a 1/2 inch drill for power.
The goody getter is good at cracking out 1/4’s and occasionally 1/2s, and I think most of the other ones in the videos would do as well. A pair of nippers/offset pliers helps release any uncooperative kernels.
Yeah, nut stealer too!!! They found my stash of tropical almonds…
Are there any nutcrackers that would work on tropical almonds? Been using my machete, but it’s a crude method to extract the kernels
Any heavy duty nutcracker should be able to do the job on almonds.
I timed myself using a Master Nutcracker on Kanza pecans. Without rushing, I can do 20 pecans per minute. It took 5 pounds of Kanza pecans to shell out 2.5 pounds of nuts ready too cook. It took about 20 minutes total to crack them. I could have done it in 16 minutes if I had pushed. I shelled them by hand taking nearly 2 hours. I prefer to go slow and recover as many halves as possible.
I haven’t tried timing myself with black walnuts, but would expect I could do 12 to 15 per minute.
I have done 60 pounds of black walnuts. IT TAKES TIME, and lots of it.
In a good year, I get a pickup truck load of black walnuts from my trees. I have cracked and shelled as much as 400 pounds one year just because I had the walnuts and the time. Two years ago, I had 500 pounds of pecans to distribute to friends and family and to shell for myself. I wound up with about 20 gallons of shelled pecans in the freezer.
This is the cast iron version (when you can find them) on various platforms of ‘The May Nutcracker’
Then here is their Aluminum model (you should buy) if you haven’t first found the cast:
No matter which, I build this platform for holding the nuts to be cracked and the shells falling from the crack process…
You can crack nuts one after another, quickly. This is a 1918 tool I believe.
Pecans are the only thing that this should be used upon.
I was about to call it a night when it occurred to me that @Fusion_power is cracking at the same rate of speed with ‘The Master Nutcracker’.
Here again we should recognize the usefulness of a C.E. Potter nutcracker that can almost at any moment be up for sale on eBay. It’s the same damn thing; close too.
I asked Fred Blankenship about those Pounds 2 I sent from him to you and he stated that pollen from another walnut changed the internal cavity. He said another of his Pounds 2 trees near grafted black walnuts receiving pollen from them has a completely different cavity. He did this on purpose to show us all something is what he did. That’s pretty smart of him to do so.
I like these nut crackers designed for more volume.
knacki from germany seems good for larger amounts by hand or drill.
Jcguarneri, thank you for sharing your feedback about my product. My product are in stock and plenty. It will crack any kinds of hard shells from small to large except more than 1 3/4 inches might not fit but we do have the custom rams for the larger ones. When someone said about hard shells, you can make a difference. How? Leave them in water for 3 days then 7 days dry time. It will be easier to crack and you will get more nutmeat fatter. Thanks again about this product. I had more updated videos with more details last week.
A good friend gave me an older Grandpa’s Goodie Getter he bought years ago at an auction. The auctioneer didn’t know what it was. My friend didn’t either, but he bought it for $5. I cleaned it up a little and regreased the cam and proper contact points. I put it on a board of persimmon wood. It came with a small nut ram as well, and I bought a pair of shears from GGG. The newer models of GGG have changed a few things, one of which is a beefed up handle from what I’ve read. The model I have the handle does feel weaker than my King Kracker’s handle, but the GGG does have more mechanical advantage on its side. I’m looking forward to giving it a really big test run this fall.
Nice score! Where did you find a board of persimmon wood? I’d love to swap out the pine board I currently have mine on.
The one other recommendation I’d make on the rehab is to get a nut to thread onto the pivot end of the lever. It keeps the threaded rod from backing out during use.
The persimmon board is from a batch of lumber I milled out of a large dying male several years ago. It’s extremely hard. Planing it down made my planer scream even making shallow passes.
A trip to the hardware store for a nut and lock washer is on my list of things to do. I noticed in a video on YouTube that the newer ones came with a nut and lock washer.
