TomTrack44 Loc: Petaluma, CA

Marion; search for Nut Crackers on the internet, someone makes one just for black walnuts! My dad and I would pick them up by the gunny sack full, put them in cement mixer with large gravel and water, mix for hour or so then wash them up, let them dry, cleaned all the husk right off. We used a hammer, but these were called"soft shell black walnuts" they were bigger than a regular black walnut and could be cracked with a hammer, but they did sting the finger tips when they broke. Good luck good eatin and tight lines! Tom

Papacon357 Loc: West Texas (Permian Basin)

Perhaps holding one with channellock pliers and halving or quartering the shell with a Dremel tool. Slow but precise. I have a diamond blade on mine that will literally cut Anything. Best of luck with your solution.

Apollo Loc: Grand Lake, Ok

My parents had a peach orchard and they also grew English walnuts which we harvested when they fell or where shaken out of the trees in the fall. There was one black walnut tree in the orchard that I was told was used as a pollenator for the English walnuts. We never harvested the black walnuts because they had a bitter taste compared to the English walnuts, and were not worth the effort to meat ratio to crack. My dad did give permission to a few people to come and harvest the black walnuts from the ground so they would not go to waste. One of the ladies who picked up the walnuts made tinctures and ointments from either the walnuts or the husks which she said would cure parasites. Never tried them so can't say if they worked or not. My dad would always give a warning to wear rubber gloves when removing the green husks for both the English and black walnuts because of how badly it would stain your skin from the juice of the husks. It would literally take a month for it to wear off your skin.

Justoldjim Loc: JUNCTION CITY, OR.

I used black walnut shell slices for ear rings for my daughter and a few of her friends. sliced and polished they looked great and no two walnuts were exactly the same

Barnacles Loc: Northern California

You gotta be kidding, Spirit! While I've never seen a black walnut orchard, many miles of country roads here in Northern California are lined with black walnut trees! When I was in high school, I gathered the nuts and sold them for $2 a gunny sack full, to accumulate the funds necessary to pursue a social life!

Years ago, my Brother added on to his house and there was a black walnut tree that had to go. It was about 4 feet in diameter at the base! He contracted with an outfit that removed the tree, sliced it into slabs about 3-1/2" thick, and cut out blanks for gun stocks. The wood from down in the base of the tree had an incredible, wavy grain that the gunstock makers will pay big money for! As they were slicing the tree into slabs, we found quite a few bullets. That tree had spent time with targets pinned to it! That was in Chico, by the way.

I was raised in Southern California halfway between Los Angeles and Pomona. Our property had at one time been an English walnut orchard, and we had trees on our lot. My Mom seldom baked anything without walnuts in it. To this day, a cookie without nuts in it is just kind of 'blah' to me. Having an unlimited supply of English walnuts and finding black walnuts to be so hard that we didn't bother with them, I never developed much of a taste for black walnuts. Can't get enough of the English ones, though!

Justoldjim Loc: JUNCTION CITY, OR.

Highway between Tracy Ca. and Stockton Ca. was lined with them in the 1980s When I bought this house 35 years ago the property had been an english walnut orchard we had two very large english walnut trees

Spiritof27 Loc: Lincoln, CA

Well now you've piqued my curiosity. I'm gonna have to go out searchin, see if I can find some, Where do ya suppose would be a good place to look?

Storeydoc Loc: Sarasota, Florida

This might work.

Barnacles Loc: Northern California

Highway E7 (Pedrick road) going North from I-80 used to be lined with them. Frankly, I haven't paid much attention for a long time because they just get to be part of the background, so I fired up Google Earth and it looks like not as many as I remember but quite a few still there.
Also, I think that there are still a few on Industrial Blvd (the OLD highway 65) between Lincoln and Roseville.

Foodfisher Loc: SO. Cal coast

👍I see possibilities all over that

Justoldjim Loc: JUNCTION CITY, OR.

Near the exit to the army supply depot if it is still there

Spiritof27 Loc: Lincoln, CA

I think the nut would pop out before it cracked. Those guys are the epitome of the tough nut to crack. We used to have one very similar but the "nut" was much wider and eventually it wore out where the nut attaches to the screw. Can't imagine what cracking a bushel of walnuts would do to it. It's a great idea, but you would need something much more robust to hold up to that kind of abuse.

MAS fish Loc: Peoria,IL

My neighbor in Arkansas had a walnut cracker that she had purchased but that was many years ago. It had a cup that the walnut sat in with a pin on the end of a lever that would be forced into the nut shell and would crack it easily. She was 90 years old and still using it.
MAS fish

Iowa Farmer Loc: Iowa City Iowa

Years ago a friend gave me a nut cracker that had 2 metal rods and a cam on a lever. Worked great. My wife's grandmother would boil the nuts before cracking, don't know how that worked.

Iowa Farmer Loc: Iowa City Iowa

My wife's grandmother would boil the nuts before cracking. A friend gave me a cracker that had 2 steel bars and a cam with a handle that worked great. Rusted solid after several basement floods. Looked something like this, but was horizontal rather than vertical.