OT- Skinning Walnuts

[Pitchy]

I just dicovered that a old corn sheller works great to remove the skins from black walnuts.





click on picture for video.

[gamekeeper]

Durn Squirrels got all mine, while my back was turned

[Tycer]

Cool!

I'm going to try an electric cement mixer and a shovel full of gravel.

[Blaine]

That is one messy job by hand....dang brown stays on for a week or more

[O.S.O.K.]

Pretty cool Pitchy. Now you gotta get crackin!

[Pitchy]

Learnin somethin new here, learned your right Blaine about black fingers should of wore gloves.
Don`t know how long ya gotta let them dry before ya get to crackin

[Cimarron Red]

My dad used to line the black walnuts up in the driveway, then run over them with the family car. Next, he'd shovel them into a bushel until they dried. After that we'd completed the husking by hand. I learned early the meaning of nut-brown hands!

[Bill in Oregon]

Well now dang it Pitchy, you've got more cool old contraptions around your place than anyone I ever heard of. The other day it was an antique brass governor, and now this!

[Pitchy]

Wish i had a half scale of that gov. for that new engine i built, hard to find cheap.

[DadsMod12]

My Dad used an old corn sheller to remove the husk and tossed them in a cement mixer. He then poured them into a mesh cylinder to dry.

On a side note - if anyone lives in central Ohio and wants any walnuts (unshelled) let me know. My daughter has a couple trees on her property.

[HEAD0001]

One of my favorite memories of my dad was every year the two of us would go on a squirrel hunt that always turned into a walnut picking trip. Me and my dad would always pick a couple 5 gallon buckets of walnuts. Then every year we would sit by the pot belly stove in his out building and process the walnuts.

I picked a bucket last week. And started a new cycle with my best friend's young son. We have to pass on these 'little things". Tom.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Those Walnut husks make a fine leather dye. I am waiting for the local walnuts to start dropping so I can pick up a bunch to make some die from.
Simmer them in water for several hours and strain off the juice to die your leather projects with.

[Pitchy]

Don`t tell but this is my first time.

[AJMD429]

My dad used to line the black walnuts up in the driveway, then run over them with the family car. Next, he'd shovel them into a bushel until they dried. After that we'd completed the husking by hand. I learned early the meaning of nut-brown hands!

That's the way my mom (a city-girl and librarian no less) advised us to try it back when I was a kid. We just cut a couple of the trees which resulted from the 1970's driveway pile' some of which weren't retrieved, and sprouted. No real 'value' wood, but some firewood, and maybe a few pieces I can try (remember, it's ME, and my woodworking skills are similar to that of the average box-turtle) to make a few pistol-grips out of. Still, lots of memories.

[Beaker]

Careful Pitchy someone is going to claim your a real nutjob.

[Pitchy]

Careful Pitchy someone is going to claim your a real nutjob.

Already known fact.

[JerryB]

The black walnut crop in north central Arkansaw is non-existant this year. On our 40 mile drive to church we have seen very few black walnuts. A few trees may have ten or fifteen nuts on them. I have used a sheller like pitchy's a couple of time, the driveway deal is pretty messy. I reckon black walnut cakes and cookies will be pretty scarce around here this winter.

[adirondakjack]

Black walnuts are about gone here (folks took the trees for furniture eons ago). We have "Butternuts" though, and they do make a fine leather dye (will do a job staining a car too when squirrels leave em up on top in the sun).

A pickle jar of peels and some denatured alcohol and ya gots some fine leather dye or wood stock stain.

[piller]

Uncle of mine made a large bin to keep the walnuts in out of those parts from an old combine which are large squares of metal with a bunch of holes pinched in them to let the chaff get blown off of the wheat. I do not remember what they are called. He took six of them and wired the bottom and sides together and just set the top on. The squirrels had to make do whith what he left for them as they could not get into his contraption.

[M. M. Wright]

We just pour them out in the drive and retrieve after a couple weeks of driving over them. Course we only get what the squirrels leave. Store them in paper sacks in the garage but if you leave the doors open the squirrels get them too.

Pitchy, they need to dry at least a couple of months before cracking.

We sold our walnut recently but they only took the huge trees so still have plenty left for nuts.

Have a bunch of grafted trees that my Dad and uncle did several decades ago. Green walnuts the size of baseballs and the dried nuts are twice the size of natives. Thinner shells too so lots of "goody".

[Pitchy]

Thanks for the replies, we have cold weather coming pretty soon so can they be left out in freezing temps or should they be brought inside to dry.

[kimwcook]

Never messed with walnuts. Good info.

[Pitchy]

I put some of the husks in some hot water and mashed them then strained them, then added a little linseed oil. Put some on the can crusher which is a mix of popular and pine and oak, looks pretty good.

[Mokwaw]

Bumper crop of walnuts this year in my area. All the trees along the roadsides have hundreds of nuts laying on the ground could use a small scoop shovel to pick them up. Problem is I just don't care for the taste of walnuts, too bitter. Guess maybe could scoop up a few buckets and see if there is a market for them.

[ollogger]

dont have any walnuts here just horse apples

[Ysabel Kid]

Very cool! Had a bunch of walnut trees around when I was growing up. Haven't seen a one down here though...