# How to shuck walnuts?



## pdqdl (Dec 20, 2008)

My father-in-law has a tract of ground with a large number of walnut trees. We think it might be worth our time to get a machine to shuck the husks off of the walnuts. Since I have no experience whatsoever in this, I thought I would post a thread here.

I looked at all the other forums on Arboristsite, and I didn't see anything better than this.

Any suggestions?


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## Rookie1 (Dec 20, 2008)

Let me tell you this about nut shucking. I live in wifes Grandparents house with lots of black walnut trees. My FIL talks about PITA walnuts,and how family loved them for eating. He used to have to beat them through a board with a hole in it to peel the skin off. I believe if he lived here he would cut every one down for spite. A former coworker tells me how his father would jack up the car,put it in gear and throw nuts under tire and it would shoot them out at a backstop where the husk would explode off of the nut. Ive never messed with a pro shucker but it dont sound near as cool as the tire method.


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## Nailsbeats (Dec 20, 2008)

Get a baseball thrower and set it up batting cage style, this would be good hand/eye practice and conditioning as well. Though, the tire method sounds tits too.


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## nametrux (Dec 20, 2008)

*Husks*

I have heard of people just driving over them with a car to get the husks off.I think this would be done on a hard surface and one you didn,t wanted stained.


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## (WLL) (Dec 20, 2008)

sun dry em and soak the shellz off


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## Little Monkey (Dec 20, 2008)

if you soak them for a few hours and then put them in your washing machine 
no soap,low temp,long spin cycle it should work a treat,,,,,, let me know how you get on opcorn:


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## treemandan (Dec 20, 2008)

Nailsbeats said:


> Get a baseball thrower and set it up batting cage style, this would be good hand/eye practice and conditioning as well. Though, the tire method sounds tits too.



Yeah you'll want a Tyvek suit and some eye goggles for that


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## Little Monkey (Dec 20, 2008)

is that for when the machine blows up or when the misses catches you 
f****** up her machine


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## (WLL) (Dec 20, 2008)

Little Monkey said:


> is that for when the machine blows up or when the misses catches you
> f****** up her machine


there is more than one way ta get your nuts shucked


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## Rftreeman (Dec 20, 2008)

Little Monkey said:


> if you soak them for a few hours and then put them in your washing machine
> no soap,low temp,long spin cycle it should work a treat,,,,,, let me know how you get on opcorn:


if I tried this I'd for sure get mine shucked...............


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## TDunk (Dec 20, 2008)

Thought this topic was going to lead somewhere else. Just spray some water on them and try to walk on them. By the time your tired of falling on your @$$ you should be good to go.


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## JohnH (Dec 20, 2008)

TDunk said:


> Thought this topic was going to lead somewhere else. Just spray some water on them and try to walk on them. By the time your tired of falling on your @$$ you should be good to go.


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## littlenick (Dec 20, 2008)

I hope you don't mind having your hands black for a few days after your done.... We used to have 2 walnut trees and they were a pain so...:greenchainsaw: :greenchainsaw: :greenchainsaw:


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## John Paul Sanborn (Dec 20, 2008)

I've heard that corn and coffee shellers can be used for walnuts.

I did a quick search on _walnut sheller_
http://www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/r...e/iq=true/zoom=off/_iceUrlFlag=7?_IceUrl=true
This is a coffee sheller






Here's a corn sheller shipped for $330





Might find one for a lot less at an antique store


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## Nailsbeats (Dec 20, 2008)

nametrux said:


> I have heard of people just driving over them with a car to get the husks off.I think this would be done on a hard surface and one you didn,t wanted stained.



This was our method of choice for crushing our beer cans in college. We had a dryer box in the corner and could just chuck the cans 20' over our head and bank them in. When the box was full we emptied it onto the parking lot and we drove my '83 Park Avenue and my buddy's '78 camoflage Malibu over them. We also backed over the shrubs to park and continously roasted rocks at our neighbors windows. Ahh, the memories.


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## fubar2 (Dec 20, 2008)

We just throw them in the driveway for a few weeks.


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## pbtree (Dec 21, 2008)

I get me kids to do it, and tell them the one with the most done in an hour get an ice cream - works wonders...


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## yellowsocks93 (Dec 21, 2008)

I have husked black walnut using an old JD corn sheller and it worked well. Just make sure you get one that the walnuts can pass out of after husking. Some of the John Deere shellers have screens that can get in the way.


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## treemandan (Dec 21, 2008)

Little Monkey said:


> is that for when the machine blows up or when the misses catches you
> f****** up her machine



Man, DId I get flayed by my momma when we boiled up about 20 pounds of horsechesnuts in her pots and pans.
But the suit is for when you are hittin em with a bat. If you get spattered in the face you look a little odd for a few days. In the eye? Well, you will wish you hadn't.


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## TreeTopKid (Dec 21, 2008)

pdqdl said:


> My father-in-law has a tract of ground with a large number of walnut trees. We think it might be worth our time to get a machine to shuck the husks off of the walnuts. Since I have no experience whatsoever in this, I thought I would post a thread here.
> 
> I looked at all the other forums on Arboristsite, and I didn't see anything better than this.
> 
> Any suggestions?



Are these Black Walnuts, or English Walnuts?


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## treemandan (Dec 21, 2008)

TreeTopKid said:


> Are these Black Walnuts, or English Walnuts?



Black. English are easier and taste better. They are what they sell in the stores. I don't remember what a black walnut taste like but as kids we had busheles of black walnuts. Let them dry and it wasn't that bad if I recall correctly.


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## treemandan (Dec 21, 2008)

Then, of course, there is always someone on CL selling black walnuts. Sometimes they are free but you have to pick the from the ground yourself.


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## TreeTopKid (Dec 21, 2008)

treemandan said:


> Black. English are easier and taste better. They are what they sell in the stores. I don't remember what a black walnut taste like but as kids we had busheles of black walnuts. Let them dry and it wasn't that bad if I recall correctly.



The reason I ask is because the husks may be more valuable than the nuts. I don't know if you know this the Native Indians used to use the husks for fishing. You fill a sack with husks, and throw it into a swim of water that contains the fish, and they float to the surface. The practice is now illegal (I've learned since my original post) but it could be a useful survival tactic!

Just wanted to share that. I'd love to try it. Good job I don't have a Walnut tree.


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## Rookie1 (Dec 21, 2008)

We have Black and wifes family used them more for desserts than for eating alone. FIL says its too hard to get whole nut out of shell. I forgot to menion the dye that stains your skin. A couple years ago newspaper had article about old man that made ink out of rotting husks.


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## treemandan (Dec 21, 2008)

TreeTopKid said:


> The reason I ask is because the husks may be more valuable than the nuts. I don't know if you know this the Native Indians used to use the husks for fishing. You fill a sack with husks, and throw it into a swim of water that contains the fish, and they float to the surface. The practice is now illegal (I've learned since my original post) but it could be a useful survival tactic!
> 
> Just wanted to share that. I'd love to try it. Good job I don't have a Walnut tree.



Interesting.


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## John Paul Sanborn (Dec 21, 2008)

Rookie1 said:


> A couple years ago nespaper had article about old man that made ink out of rotting husks.



Oak galls are supposed to make even better ink. Now that sounds tedious, cutting and boiling all those little galls!


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## Little Monkey (Dec 21, 2008)

just back from local river where i threw in a couple sacks of husks,
not sure about fish but two guys that were swimming there look awful p***ed
off and inky brown, :monkey:


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## TreeTopKid (Dec 21, 2008)

Little Monkey said:


> just back from local river where i threw in a couple sacks of husks,
> not sure about fish but two guys that were swimming there look awful p***ed
> off and inky brown, :monkey:



LMAO


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## (WLL) (Dec 21, 2008)

TreeTopKid said:


> The reason I ask is because the husks may be more valuable than the nuts. I don't know if you know this the Native Indians used to use the husks for fishing. You fill a sack with husks, and throw it into a swim of water that contains the fish, and they float to the surface. The practice is now illegal (I've learned since my original post) but it could be a useful survival tactic!
> 
> Just wanted to share that. I'd love to try it. Good job I don't have a Walnut tree.


true stuff:agree2:


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## treeslayer (Dec 22, 2008)

2 tidbits for ya,

I know some old school trappers that boil the traps in walnuts to get rid of human smell. 

and walnut husks are used as a medium in "sand" blasting operations for fine cleaning.


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## TreeTopKid (Dec 22, 2008)

treeslayer said:


> 2 tidbits for ya,
> 
> I know some old school trappers that boil the traps in walnuts to get rid of human smell.
> 
> and walnut husks are used as a medium in "sand" blasting operations for fine cleaning.



Man! I'm going to start saving those husks. You can break into a someones under pant draw and put skid marks on all their underwear with one single husk! : )LOL


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## Rookie1 (Dec 22, 2008)

Little Monkey said:


> just back from local river where i threw in a couple sacks of husks,
> not sure about fish but two guys that were swimming there look awful p***ed
> off and inky brown, :monkey:



 Thats funny


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## treeslayer (Dec 22, 2008)

TreeTopKid said:


> Man! I'm going to start saving those husks. You can break into a someones under pant draw and put skid marks on all their underwear with one single husk! : )LOL




dude. that's just plain nasty. 


















how did you get in? I knew they weren't mine.:hmm3grin2orange:


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## pdqdl (Dec 22, 2008)

*My research revealed !*

JPS: as always, you're on target. A corn sheller seems to be the most popular suggestion that I found for a machine that would do the job, and I hadn't heard of the coffee sheller. Thanks.

This thread seems to have digressed, and nobody offered another source for a walnut skinner. The reason for my inquiry is that my father in law is already tired of driving on the hulls with the car. So that kills that suggestion, as we already knew about driving on the hulls.

Other methods of shucking the husks: build a commercial shucker with a car tire and a surround-screen. power it with some sort of motor, and you get rapid action walnut husking.

Another old guy published an article on his methods of processing walnuts. He stated that he did best with a knife held with a vise: cut the equator, twist both hemispheres loose, then toss the shell into a bucket of water for washing later. No mess, and the halves separated from the shell easily once cut with a knife.

In my research, I found that there IS a market for the hulls of the black walnuts: apparently, they are much sought after by the oil industry, both as an abrasive and for some other purpose I don't remember. And they are popular as an abrasive in general for other industries. 

The oak gall ink is supposed to be blacker than the walnut ink, and the formula for cooking ink up was rather simple: mash up the rotten husks (or galls) boil 'em up real good, filter the mess, then boil it down to 1/2 the volume. More ink than you need for several years.

Thanks for all the input, guys. It's been fun. 

Now: does anybody know of any brand of machine that was made to shuck the husks off walnuts?


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## Rookie1 (Dec 22, 2008)

The partys over.


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## pdqdl (Dec 22, 2008)

I figured after the skid mark comment, this thread needed to get back on track.


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## woodchux (Dec 22, 2008)




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## Little Monkey (Dec 25, 2008)

ok seriously, i collected walnuts as a kid and would collect about 100lbs at a time. to remove the shellls i would just dump them into a big barrel , stir them up with a big stick to bruise the husks a bit and ad water, after about a week or two the husks would soften as they were starting to rot and a would power hose them in the barrel to blast the husk off, then i would pour them out on the ground and pick out the nuts, this is ok for the home bit not really commercial, :monkey:


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## (WLL) (Dec 25, 2008)

TreeTopKid said:


> The reason I ask is because the husks may be more valuable than the nuts. I don't know if you know this the Native Indians used to use the husks for fishing. You fill a sack with husks, and throw it into a swim of water that contains the fish, and they float to the surface. The practice is now illegal (I've learned since my original post) but it could be a useful survival tactic!
> 
> Just wanted to share that. I'd love to try it. Good job I don't have a Walnut tree.


use fresh green husks and slap em of the ground ta bruise them after you sack em up. the fish will be poisoned/stunted/drugged soon after they start nibbling. I'm pretty sure you can poison yourself by eating poisoned food you would be safer to just eat the nuts. i was told this method of fishing was outlawed cause the fish don't recover very well and most of em die. you will harm every fish that takes a nibble so hope your hungry!


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## pinemartin (Dec 25, 2008)

cement mixer and a little water. almost commercial speed but a redneck approach, worked just fine for me


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