Harpy worked great on my nuts

[chinook]

I had to harvest the remaining crop on my two English walnut trees this weekend to keep the bluejays and squirrels from raiding them all. After shaking the limbs and knocking them loose some green hulls remained intact around the shells and had to be cut off so the nuts can be dried. (A 3 week process on racks in the loft above the kitchen with the ceiling fan going in reverse)

The Harpy worked perfectly for this. I sliced thru at the stem end and rocked the curved blade down and back and then twisted to break the hulls loose from the shell inside. It got pretty slimey as the day went on, butt the G10 handles maintained a good grip for my rubberfaced gloves.

I keep finding this Harpy to be a terrific tool around this place and would hate to lose it, so I have picked up a spare and secreted it away in its red box.

Neighbors and family can thank Spyderco and the Harpy when they receive their baskets of walnuts and pumpkin-nut bread this Xmas.



Disguised as a responsible adult

[JiM]

Well Chinook, you certainly got *my* attention with the title of your post.

Ye gads man! <img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle>

Nice to hear of unusual uses of Spydies from others. Good plan on the &quot;spare&quot;, can't ever have too many, ya know?

Never let minor details like the facts get in the way of telling a good story.

[Brandon]

I respond to almost every post with the word Harpy in it Praising the Harpy as the best knife since the one that slices all of that sliced bread. But with the title of this one i was gonna let ya know that there are some things that even the wonderful Harpy was not meant to do. Obviously I was wrong the Harpy took to your nuts like a fish to water and now you get to share your nuts with everyone. I'm sure no one will forget where those nuts came from and maybe they will even appreciate what it took for you to give your nuts up. dam I love my harpy.

[sam the man..]

wow! that's one nutty job dude! glad the harpy held up to its expectations! <img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle>

Sam

have spydies will travel

[mundele]

Thought you might be interested in how my family removed the husks from walnuts. (doesn't involve spydies though) My grandparents had a gravel driveway and we would collect the walnuts and leave them in the driveway or several days. As cars came and went, the hulls would get &quot;smooshed&quot; (technical term) right off. These were black walnuts, which have really hard thick shells. English walnuts might not be strong enough to withstand that, but it sure is easier than cutting the hulls off (less messy too)...

--Matt

[Jeff/1911]

Chinook,

Glad to hear of your success with the Harpy on your Walnuts. I gotta' git me one of those! G-10 Harpy that is.

Jeff/1911.

[chinook]

Let's see now, you want me to run over my nuts with my pickup?

Actually I have found that it works very well when I run over them with the riding mower (blade disengaged) butt it leaves a mess on the lawn. I don't have a gravel drive. I don't think they would survive being &quot;smooshed&quot; by my Dodge Ram, tho.

Besides it justifies my buying a spare Harpy to my wife. (gotta come up with a justification for all these other Spydies)

Disguised as a responsible adult

[Jeff/1911]

Chinook,

I have been tempted to buy a stainless Harpy, but the G-10 model does certainly seem more versatile and useful.

Jeff.

[pyrguy]

the wife and i have 4 or 5 g-10 harpies.

get a new one every time i find one for a good price.



There's a fine line between "it's a hobby" and mental illness.

[chinook]

Jeff...
I only have one SS Spyderco, a Worker. I know others love them for their solid feel and classy look. Butt I prefer the lighter weight and textured surface of G10 on a hard use knife, and micarta on a go-to-town model.
Butt I'm sure the SS Harpy is a capable cutter.

Disguised as a responsible adult

[clipiteer]

That certainly caught my attention! Especially when I scrolled down and read the part about running over your nuts with a Dodge Ram without reading that you meant &quot;walnuts&quot;! Lawnmower...Ouch!

[Knife Knut]

Another Classic Thread

Knife Knut on a shoestring budget.

[Alan2112]

Keep that Harpy away form my nuts; sorry, I couldn't resist! RKBA!

[dialex]

Man, you have a way of posting your threads... Oh well, at least your nuts are drying now in a safe place <img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>

[cmassicotte]

Classic Threads - &amp; this one about a clasic knife. I just got my G-10 harpy - not even 24 hours old yet &lt;img src=&quot;spyder.gif&quot; width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0&gt;<img src="smile.gif" width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0>&lt;img src=&quot;spyder.gif&quot; width=15 height=15 align=middle border=0&gt;.

It is a GREAT! knife. I can't believe I have never owned one of theese. And I like Chinook, already have thoughts of a spare. Perhaps the SpyderHawk will do the trick. Would be nice if they would produce a G-10 version though.

Jeff/1911 - did you ever get one? If you haven't, you really need one. And I do mean NEED!!! one.

Chuck

There is no right way to do a wrong thing

Edited by - cmassicotte on 11/7/2002 10:31:16 AM

[chinook]

Sigh...
A year has gone by?? Oh well, I could tell that by looking in the mirror.

This year's crop is drying in the loft right now, along with all the counters in the kitchen. We had an early frost last week, got down to 23 one night. Pretty much froze my nuts. I had to knock them all down at once. They turned black and shrivelled up like raisins. Had to hurry and get the hulls off because they start to mildew so fast. The Harpy was used again this year as my fav hulling tool.

Nothing butt the best for my nuts.

Disguised as a responsible adult.

[fredswartz]

Your post brought back lots of memories. I live in Appalachia and Black Walnut trees abound (or used to anyway). We didn't know what poor meant because we were all in that condition. Anyway, we used to gather sacks of black walnuts to hull (which means removing the green outer covering). I have seen people hull them by hand with a knife etc. and their hands and arms were semi-permenantly black for weeks, from the natural dye in the hulls. Here is what we did: Jack up one rear wheel of a car (didn't have positraction then)and lay a 1&quot;x8&quot; board under the wheel. Adjust the space between the tire and the board to the size of the inner walnut. Start the car and put it into gear and throw those suckers under that spinning tire. They came out almost completely clean. Those SE blades are looking better to me all the time.

[fredswartz]

Double post...Sorry. Guess I was thinking about &quot;hammering my nuts&quot;.

Edited by - fredswartz on 11/7/2002 4:00:01 PM