Author Topic: Corn Sheller really work on Walnuts? (Read 1874 times)

Brad_bb · « **on:** November 01, 2011, 10:22:56 pm »

Today I spent 4 hours hulling black walnuts, with a friend helping me. We only filled a 5 gallon bucket with hulled nuts. I have at least 100-150 gallons of unhulled nuts left. Of course unhulled takes up a lot more space than hulled. Is there a better way to hull them? Does an antique corn sheller really work well? Faster? Do they get clogged too easily? Which type is best? Is there an adjustment for size? I have some very large walnuts, and medium sized ones, and smalls I don't bother with. I can't find any youtube video showing a corn sheller being used to hull black walnuts, though people have written that you can.

Jeff · « **Reply #1 on:** November 01, 2011, 10:29:54 pm »

http://www.lawn-gardening-tools.com/welcome-forestry-forum-members--foresrty-forum.html

beenthere · « **Reply #2 on:** November 01, 2011, 10:41:42 pm »

I'm going to an auction Thursday and may just pick one up there. But I recall several fall days as a boy picking up black walnuts and running them through the corn sheller. This was the antique kind that would shell on ear of corn at a time. Also, lay them out on the drive and drive over them a few times. Put them in a 5 gal bucket and hose them down good, blasting the shucks off. Lay them out to dry some and then lay them out under cover to dry for the winter. Even after the corn sheller, they need to be washed off good with the hose and left to dry. The attic was a good place to spread them out on old newspaper.

This YouTube sheller was very close to the one we used. But we did eventually outfit it with a small electric motor.

When the pulpy shucks get mushy (and they will pretty quick) then a pair of rubber gloves works to just hand shuck them for the water wash.

Friend of mine would dump a bushel or so in his cement mixer with some rough rocks and water. Let them tumble around in there for spell. Then wash them off and dry them.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #3 on:** November 01, 2011, 11:04:24 pm »

Jeff, no hulling device on there.

Beenthere, your vid shows corn being shelled, which there are plenty of vids of that on youtube, but none showing the same type of sheller being used on Walnuts. I need to know how well that type works with walnuts, do they clog up, how fast do they work etc.

Today I had Nitrile gloves, with knit gloves over them and was hulling by hand with a knife and twisting the hulls off. I have a lot of hulls that are softening already.

The Cement mixer is an interesting idea for cleaning the hulled nuts (tumbling after they dry a bit to get them cleaned up).

beenthere · « **Reply #4 on:** November 01, 2011, 11:38:34 pm »

Just use your imagination on the nuts instead of corn. It works, trust me. About one or more nuts at a time.

Here is another video of another method. A bit more redneck but I've heard of others doing it..just had not seen it.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #5 on:** November 02, 2011, 05:38:39 am »

For drying butternuts we used beenthere's method, in the attic. Butternut husk is paper thin so it doesn't take long to break down and dry, we just rubbed it off.

Cedarman · « **Reply #6 on:** November 02, 2011, 08:11:59 am »

We have used the pickup truck method for years. Works like charm. We have the nuts in 5 gallon buckets and pour the bucket slowly into the trough. We use a sheet of 5V tin for the chute. Keep the nuts single file. About a bucket a minute. Have to rake the nuts from in front of the tire to make room. Then the fun begins picking the nuts from the hulls.
Make sure the truck is well blocked.

Chuck White · « **Reply #7 on:** November 02, 2011, 01:25:00 pm »

Your garage air compressor with a blower nozzle on it will work too, only not quite so fast as some of the other methods!

I just went out to try it and I husked 50 walnuts in 12-13 minutes.

NOTE: Wear leather gloves to protect against the high-pressure air and a face shield or safety goggles to protect against flying particles. Hold the nut out at "about" arms length.

I just held the walnut in my left hand and put the nozzle against the hull and pressed the lever and the husk popped, then I just moved the nozzle around and then took the nut out of the husk and blew off the remaining husk off of the nut.

Worked pretty good, but if you wanted to do a lot of nuts, it would probably seem to take forever.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #8 on:** November 02, 2011, 05:51:23 pm »

Yeah, that's why I'm asking about the corn sheller. I have a lot of nuts to do, and if they work, and if I can connect an electric motor to it....then I would just have to feed them in. But seeing as no one here seems to use a sheller, and there are no youtube vids of people doing that, I'm starting to think that the corn sheller must not speed up the process, or be effecient enough because no one is using it to hull walnuts?

Cedarman · « **Reply #9 on:** November 02, 2011, 06:06:30 pm »

The hand crank corn sheller will work great and it is quick. We used it a lot when my brother and I were kids. It takes 2 people though, one to crank and the other to feed the nuts in the top. Just as fast as you can drop them in, they will grind the husk off and spit it out the bottom. Still have to sort and get the nuts.

beenthere · « **Reply #10 on:** November 02, 2011, 08:07:11 pm »

Quote from: Brad_bb on November 02, 2011, 05:51:23 pm

.............I'm starting to think that the corn sheller must not speed up the process, or be effecient enough because no one is using it to hull walnuts?

Or...that no one has a corn sheller. As well, maybe the rest just don't have an interest in shucking black walnuts.

If you saw a video of it working, would you go out and buy a corn sheller?

Are you going to crack the black walnuts for the walnut meats?

Here is a method using a hay crimper, an old ironing board and some ingenuity.

Jasperfield · « **Reply #11 on:** November 02, 2011, 09:42:19 pm »

The single-ear, hand-cranked corn sheller is effective and quite consistent. I've used one for several years and no longer look for other methods to remove husks.

If motorized, I believe it would as effective than anything on the market today.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #12 on:** November 03, 2011, 04:41:02 am »

Any corn shellers on lawn and garden?

Cedarman · « **Reply #13 on:** November 03, 2011, 06:07:54 am »

Hay crimper for walnuts, American ingenuity is very much alive and well.

Upside down even.

Don_Papenburg · « **Reply #14 on:** November 03, 2011, 10:50:52 pm »

I use an old Marsailles corn sheller . It has a wood infeed table that my dad made . I fill it with walnuts and start cranking with one hand and start pushing walnuts in with the other . I use a push stick as sometimes a couple walnuts will jamb the enterance , the stick makes the reluctant walnuts submit to there fate. It is a very fast efficiant operation. I do this on the concrete drive . use a stiff push broom to seperate the hulls from nuts . I put down a couple of 2xs to make a nut corral .
A five gallon bucket takes about two min. to husk
You guys realy wash them? I just sun dry mine and then step off any dry husk that might be left and put them in a bucket for use later.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #15 on:** November 03, 2011, 10:59:17 pm »

I spent all day hulling walnuts by hand with my friend. We washed and hung up 14 gallons of hulled nuts so far. I think it's too late for a corn sheller this season. A lot of the nuts are getting quite soft. Some are still on the ground getting mushy. I will see if I can get a huller before the next nut season, and make sure it's in good working order, and maybe set up with an electric motor.

beenthere · « **Reply #16 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:03:26 pm »

Another neat trick I learned looking at YouTube videos was the use of side cutters to dismember the walnut shell after the initial cracking. Tried it out and it really works slick. More control of where the shell cracks and less smashed nut meats.

Good that you have your walnuts shucked Brad. I have a couple bushel to pick up that I've been driving over the last couple weeks and letting the rain and sun do the rest. Now just pick 'em up and dust them off.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #17 on:** November 04, 2011, 04:56:26 am »

I have a few here Brad, but not 14 gallons.

Some are still on the trees. They don't get as big up here as down in VA. If I ever have a lot of butternuts, I sure would like to try one of those nut crackers.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #18 on:** November 04, 2011, 09:47:06 am »

Yeah, I still have twice as much that are not hulled yet, and this is all from one tree! Not sure how much more I'll get done. Depends on if I get volunteer help again. I must be nuts.

Don_Papenburg · « **Reply #19 on:** November 04, 2011, 10:37:08 pm »

hey you are only about anhour away . Load your pickup up with unhulled walnuts we can hull them in a short order. Let me know.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #20 on:** November 04, 2011, 11:17:19 pm »

I appreciate the offer. I'd really like to try it. I'm a little concerned about transporting them far for fear of spreading something. I heard that some sort of canker or something is supposedly spreading in black walnuts in IL? Have you heard this? I have them already loaded in two large rubbermaid garbage cans, another half size tote so they wouldn't be hard to transport.

Ron57 · « **Reply #21 on:** November 05, 2011, 12:19:42 am »

I helped my dad this fall using a corn sheller to hull walnuts and it works pretty good, once in a while it plugged but didnt take long to clear it out and get going again.
I just put them down on the lane behind the shop and run over them with the truck or tractor a few times and it seemed to go a lot faster and was a lot easier than cranking the corn sheller. We got 11- 5 gal buckets after they were hulled.

Chuck White · « **Reply #22 on:** November 05, 2011, 01:22:15 pm »

Why wouldn't a cement mixer work.

Put some fairly small stone (like what they use when paving a road) in the mixer and turn it on, then dump in a bunch of nuts.

I think the husks would be pretty-much on the top once they are dislodged from the nut itself.

You could take a course screen, like chicken wire over a 5 gallon pail to separate the husks and nuts from the stone.

beenthere · « **Reply #23 on:** November 05, 2011, 06:04:21 pm »

Cement mixer works (see post #2 ) ok. Can just keep adding water and the offall just floats out and away. Just pick out the nuts and leave the stone for the next batch. Give it a try without the stone, and the results might be quite favorable too.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #24 on:** November 07, 2011, 08:06:47 pm »

Don_Papenburg is the man! I took him up on his kind offer to help me hull my walnuts(3+ full size rubbermaid garbage cans worth) with his corn sheller. It did work awesome and was far faster than by hand. To put it in perspective, 2 people working 7 hours could hull 1 garbage can worth. So this would have been about 3 full days work for 2 people by hand. We hulled all of it in with the corn sheller in 2 hours. I do still need to pick the nuts out of the hulls, but it has really taken 85 percent of the work away using the sheller. I guess now I have to find a good sheller and fix it up/prepare it for next time.

Now to decide how I'm going to crack the nuts after they are dry....$450 for the stainless drill powered cracker? ....too bad I don't have one of those hay crimper things....Powered is definitely nicer than by hand. I can sure appreciate that now.

I really appreciate how many good guys are on the FF. I'm very thankful Don was willing do donate the time and effort to help me out. Hopefully I'll be able to return the favor to him or another. I also had a great time sharing stories and talking about projects with him.

beenthere · « **Reply #25 on:** November 09, 2011, 12:00:36 am »

Quote

Or better yet video. Remember on here if no picture, it never happened.

How about that video to go with the famous quote.

A good video was hard to find, so perfect opportunity to add to the archives.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #26 on:** November 09, 2011, 08:58:52 am »

I thought Lawn and Tractor had butternut and walnut crackers for $250?

beenthere · « **Reply #27 on:** November 09, 2011, 10:00:10 am »

Hulling and cracking are two different operations.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #28 on:** November 09, 2011, 10:11:34 am »

Yes, but he said a $450 cracker in his last post.

Don_Papenburg · « **Reply #29 on:** November 09, 2011, 09:13:01 pm »

I think that he was thinking of the fancy electric cracker that you just dump and catch cracked nuts with a flip of a switch.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #30 on:** November 10, 2011, 04:47:29 am »

I can buy a lot of shelled walnuts for $450.

WH_Conley · « **Reply #31 on:** November 10, 2011, 07:43:03 am »

Quote from: SwampDonkey on November 10, 2011, 04:47:29 am

I can buy a lot of shelled walnuts for $450.

Yep.

Don_Papenburg · « **Reply #32 on:** November 10, 2011, 07:36:33 pm »

Ya but storebought ain't as good as homegrowed.

SwampDonkey · « **Reply #33 on:** November 11, 2011, 02:31:51 am »

Yes, I suppose. But in my case of wanting butternuts, it's all home grown. Being a rare commodity the price of the meats must be about double ain't it? Always had a pipe dream of a butternut orchard on 150 acre field.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #34 on:** November 11, 2011, 07:33:36 pm »

Yeah this is half or more for fun. A $450 dollar investment would take a while to pay back. I can envision building a motorized cracker via one of Don's ideas, but that would take time and work, which I have too many projects going on now as it is. It's a dilema. I'm guessing I have 35 gallons of hulled nuts drying. It's too much to do with a hammer or even a vice I'm thinking. Motorized is the way to go I think. Any other options, I'm all ears. Maybe Rent the sheller out to try to make up cost?

WH_Conley · « **Reply #35 on:** November 12, 2011, 12:01:14 am »

How about an arbor press? It would be faster than a vice and easier on the fingers than a hammer.

Brad_bb · « **Reply #36 on:** November 12, 2011, 12:40:08 am »

You still have to load them one by one with that method. In order to speed up the process, need to be able to keep them flowing like in the corn sheller hulling. We fed a constant single file stream into the sheller.

Don_Papenburg · « **Reply #37 on:** November 12, 2011, 08:26:44 pm »

Take them to a metal fab shop that has a press brake . Line them up in the bottom die ,12' of walnuts , then lower the top die crack !!!!!!!!!!!!!! sweep into a bucket ,repeat. How many walnuts can you fit in a 12' Vdie? Now your talkin.

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Author Topic: Corn Sheller really work on Walnuts? (Read 1874 times)