Nutcrackers

(Page 2 of 3)

November/December 1986
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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Wisecracker

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Manufacturer: Blockbusters, Ukiah, CA 95482
Cost: $24.95

The most attractive of all the nutcrackers, the Wisecracker works on an old principle: Force = Mass X Acceleration. A 6-ounce oak mallet provides the mass, and you supply the acceleration. A heavy brass cup set into a 4" hardwood cube contains the force of the blow and the fragments of shell'. Frankly, we're not certain that the Wisecracker was meant to take on black walnuts, but it does a fine job on most every other nut, including small-shelled varieties, which can be rapped with the brass tip on the mallet handle.

Crack-All

Manufacturer: J&H Crack-All, Inc., 40866 Deerhorn Rd., Springfield, OR 97477
Cost: $29.95

If you plan on cracking black walnuts exclusively, the Crack-All may be something of a disappointment. Though the castaluminum implement is well built and easy to use, it just didn't deal with the hardest of our local "blacks" consistently or all that successfully. Part of the problem is that the height of the ribbed cracking drum must be perfectly set to do its job, yet the nuts passing beneath it vary in size. On the bright side, the tool is adjustable, comes with a handy hopper, and clamps to the edge of a bench or table. Like the others, it works very well on a variety of less obstinate nuts.

Hyatt Deluxe

Manufacturer: Kenneth D. Hyatt, 1877 State Rt. 603, RD 4, Ashland, OH 44805
Cost: $85

Ken Hyatt is a black-walnut connoisseur who dedicated a good deal of time to developing a farm-scale walnut huller. With that project successfully behind him, he designed this structural-steel nutcracker for individual use. Its best feature is the adjustable seat, which can be threaded up or down to accept nuts from 1/2" to over 2" in diameter. The double-jointed pressure lever features a 15" handle and is effective and easy to control. The model we tested had a walnut base and pedestal, but other versions are available with common wood ($65), or without the wooden base and handle ($45).

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