Crackers?

[T i m]

<snip>

Ah.

So how do you release the jaw to be able to open it up then?

OK, I get that, it give you something to lever against (or you would have to pull it open between strokes) so maybe it would be better for you to describe how you would use it ITRW?

eg, I was assuming the 'ratchet' was part of a way of gaining mechanical advantage, eg you worked the lever till it made contact with the nut (like a manual hydraulic press) and then you might have another two or three strokes to go from 'contact' to 'cracked open', or is the ratchet mech simply a way of suiting the crackers to all sizes of nut and then you only get one 'go' with the lever to crack / open the nut?

Or is the jaw held from re-opening by the ratchet and a (releasable) pawl on the body and the main lever also able to use the ratchet for building up the load?

Cheers, T i m

[Robin]

Interesting. /Any/ manufactured device you buy will come with a carbon footprint (from extraction of raw materials through to delivery to your door). Given you have a wider range of tools and the physical strength to use them I suggest all you need - and the better course - is to use one or more of them. The site below has some ideas (but not my recourse to lump hammer on the back step when faced with Brazil nuts).

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Lidl sell already cracked/ shelled nuts by the checkout. Various reseable packs of the same nuts, or a bag of mixed nuts for around £1.50. I have gone through several of these packs over the past few years and have yet to find a single bad nut, which contrasts well for both cost and quality with nuts in their shells, which no matter where I bought them, I found many were bad.

I can happily open a pack and munch away in very dim light, confident that all of them will be perfectly edible.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

Robin wrote on 26/12/2020 :

If I had to, I used to use my bench vice in my workshop to crack nuts. Absolute control and no squeezing to hard.

[T i m]

<snip>

Can you use the tips for a more focused grip / pressure?

I don't get this. If they are sold as 'nutcrackers' and almonds are 'nut's', why don't they deal with them?

I have a 10 tonne hydraulic press but I wouldn't have to expect to (have to) use that rather than my general purpose nutcrackers? ;-)

Yeah, I've had some almonds in this last batch where the shell_to_nut ration was pretty bad but I'd still expect *any* tool sold as a nut-cracker to be able to deal with them.

I'd also expect them to deal with any nut easily, such that a child or weak person could use them.

In theory, if something had sufficient mechanical advantage and was well designed it would be less dangerous (less chance of pinching your fingers or the things snapping and sticking into your had). ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

I saw those in my searching but because it looks like the nut would be gripped all round and therefore require even more pressure to break? Or is it because few nuts are actually round so you still get 2 or 3 pressure points and the shells not that flexible (so they don't contort to be 'rounder') it's gets them ok?

They do look like they have reasonably long arms (good leverage) and I'm guessing you could put then into the cone to whatever depth still gives you a reasonably comfortable grip span?

Will they also do a 'tough' almond and if so, which way would you orientate them in the bowl (if you need to for the best result), across the long edges maybe?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

Of course.

Yes, I *can*, but is it beyond the abilities of man to develop a single tool that can 'easily' deal with all the nuts one is likely to see for this sort of thing (the existing range of Brazil, almond, walnut, hazelnut and pecan for example)?

Like ... I expected *every* telephone answering machine to record the date/time stamp of every message, along with the message and display the number of messages in a numerical form (not count-the-flashes). I also expected the message to be recorded straight after the message (no delays so twin tape in the early days).

Anything less was no use to me or anyone (really)?

Sure but the question wasn't 'how can I break a nut', it was 'can anyone recommend a nutcracker that will crack all the nuts we are likely to expect to get in a nixed nut selection'? ;-)

As mentioned elsewhere, my 10 tonne hydraulic press would probably turn the hardest nut into a pretty flat nut / shell disk blend, but I neither want that result nor to have to go down the workshop to do it.

If there actually isn't such a single tool made today (and there have been some suggestions here that there might be), maybe there is a earning opportunity for an engineer here?

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Yeah, I generally have a bag going here.

So much for being a hunter gatherer though. ;-)

Is this in your cave? ;-)

I think you will find they are all 'edible', just that we might not be able to eat the bad ones without some bad reaction (because of our delicate digestion systems).

Cheers, T i m

[Michael Chare]

When you release the lever and its spring returns it to the fully open position, the pawl is moved away from the jaw, and the jaw can then be moved as needed.

If you only partly release the lever as you squeese a nut the pawl drops to a lower notch on the jaw and you can then squeese the nut a bit more.

Once the jaw has made contact with the nut one more squeese (stroke) is generally enough to crack it. I tried to avoid more strokes as these tend to destroy the contents.

[T i m]

But not exactly practical when you might prefer to be sitting in front of the TV?

My point is that we are supposed to evolved this massive brains but have to resort to the action of Neanderthals to be able to break open a nut?

I know many animals also use tools for such things but they don't generally have access to CAD machines ...

And use water displacement to get them in the first place.

Clever creatures. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Michael Chare]

See

[Jeff Layman]

Yes, but of course the lever effect is less the further the nut is from the pivot point.

There are some better photos - even though very small - at this website:

Sounds like you're almost into the realms of those trying to design a better mousetrap! :-)

[Andrew]

Nuts inside a plastic bag and 'tap' then with a club hammer

[Andrew]

[Clive Arthur]

A sharp tap with a hammer does brazils nicely, but not on the table.

[Jonathan]

Something like this:

Jonathan

[newshound]

Fine on the welding bench.

I have a hydraulic piston out of a lorry or something similar, about 100 mm diameter. If you put that on top of a good table mat or a bit of 6mm rubber sheet you *can* use it on the dining table.

Surprised no-one has mentioned water pump pliers, the long handles and simpler mechanism than a mole makes them suitable for the less engineering minded (as long as they understand how to adjust the jaw gap).

Otherwise a selection of Moles. In the days when I went to that sort of party I used to take a Leatherman Crunch which would produce amusement and appreciation in equal measure at the "nuts" stage.

I did like the nut-splitter idea, though!

[Tim+]

As long as you orientate your almond correctly they?re easy to open with these. They really are the apians? genua.

Tim

[T i m]

Yeahbut the point load might be greater/ sufficient for those nuts that open easily and fall in half (like walnuts / hazelnuts).

Cheers,

<snip>

Well, only if we had a working mousetrap in the first place. ;-)

It seems I'm not alone in observing that what many might consider to be 'standard nutcrackers' simply don't work on many nuts and yet they are still sold for the purpose (often alongside the nuts themselves)?

I'm sure I wouldn't be the first person with a pretty strong grip to leave a selection of nuts in the bowl un cracked because we feel that pushing any harder is likely to break the crackers or hurt yourself if the nut suddenly 'gave'?

And I'm pretty sure there would be a load more undefeated nuts left in the bowl if my Mrs was eating them (with her arthritic hands).

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

<snip>

I was really hopeful when I saw the Youtube link and (and I did look for some there myself) but unfortunately it fails to show how you would use them in practice? ;-(

Like, the only way you would know how you retracted the jaw is from what you have told me previously ... and that's when the actuator lever is completely open the jaw can be slid back?

Even if they hadn't actually cracked a nut (that would have been nice to see) it would have been useful to see when you could or couldn't re-open the jaw.

So say you put an eraser in the jaw, you couldn't keep cranking up the pressure as there is nothing to cold the jaw forward when there is 'elastic' load on it between lever actions (or is there)?

Cheers, T i m