Brain storm, or.......

[bassboogieman]

Brain fart? Yesterday, before I cut my grass I had to pick up a few hundred walnuts. The rear of my yard abuts a wooded area and the edge is full of black walnut trees. Squirrels love them, to me they are a nusance (yeah, the squirrels too). Then the thought occurs to me that walnuts are tasty. So I pick a few up and remove the hulls and I have them drying in the garage, so I'll see how good they may be.

But then the light bulb goes on! I like tinkering with stuff, so I get the idea of how great it would be to make my own wood stain. Yeah, the black (actually decomposing) hulls are what "walnut stain" is made from. I think I have a little linseed oil in the basement, let's I see what I can come up with. Man, my own stain - I could become rich if this works.

So, I get a couple dozen of the black hulls, peel off the soft, juicy hull and put them in a bucket. Mashed the hulls with a piece of 4x4 (left over from my home made trailer modifications - I don't waste nuttin'). Then I strain the mash through some cheesecloth (well it was actually a tee shirt, nobody hase cheesecloth laying around anymore). Mixed it with the linseed oil and I gotta say - it turned out great. First thing I stained was the handle of the knife I used to cut the hulls. It now has a beautiful dark wooden handle. Looks brand new, it's 15 years old, I have hit my peak of ingenuity.

Except, I forgot one thing rubber gloves. But after I peeled the first couple hulls the damage was done, so why bother.................


I think my IDIOT Card has been renewed for the next year.

[nobass]

my dad us to do same thing. only he would use two pices of wood i think he used oak drill hole in 1 end of boards and tie with strong rope. you place walnuts in boards and the u step on boards and roll broads around would crush hulls and not walnuts. he used the hulls to boil his traps in and we would soak some in achol for staining stored in qt jars how many hulls he put in depended on how dark he wanted stain close with lid and let sit. lot esier on hands that way. but we are talking two or 3 qunny sacks full. full of walnuts when you have three kids for cheap labor it did not take long to do. he sold most of the walnuts and mom kept some for cakes and cookies. if you never had a homemade black walnut cake with coconut icing you haven,t lived yet. oh and bruce good luck getting stain of hands

[bamabassman]

hahahaha...idiot card...YOU'RE A LIFETIME MEMBER LIKE THE REST OF US BRUCE! but how about posting a pic of the knife handle? this is interesting to me seeing as i am a "wanna-be" norm avery. would love to see the mixed sulution too. how many per ounces and so forth. i wonder if you can do this with acorns and other types of nuts also. thanks pal in advance.

[Marty]

I've got a couple of walnut trees in the yard and one time I decided to cut one open just out of curiosity and ended up with hands like yours. Haven't opened any up since then.

[Bassin' Gal]

The curse of the walnut! We have one on our property right at the edge of our access road. That is the most productive tree I have ever seen We have to go out at least every other day and shovel them off the road. Now that the tree is losing its leaves it looks as if there are still hundreds of th little devils still hanging in that tree!

[kennethdaysale]

For some unknown reason this strikes as funnier that it probably really is, maybe I'm just tired.

[Jrob78]

Yeah, I want to see some pics of the knife handle and anything else you stain. Sounds like a great idea to me. Personally, I think the black fingers is a good look on you!

[bassboogieman]

Guys - the knife handle was a kitchen knife, AND it got stained from use as were my hands. That was supposed to be funny, sorry you missed it. It actually is a nice color, but I didn't do it intentionally but I'll put up a pic anyway, because you are just so dang interested and it does look pretty good for color.

The top kinfe has a similiar handle and is an approximate "before", the bottom is the one with my homie stain. Now, knowing how simple (NOT TO MENTION CHEAP} it is, I don't think I'll buy a dark wood stain. Not that I do much of that, but it's simple to make and you can always relate the story of the dumbarse that put you on to it.

[keithdog]

I guess being retired and all, you need to find something to do in your spare time. I don't think I'd be handling any of your crankbaits soon. haha Maybe try brewing your own home made beer next!

[Jrob78]

Man, it stained the crap out of that knife handle, especially if it was just incidental exposure from your hands. I'm sure you evened it out but it's really dark! You may well be on to something.

[bassboogieman]

Do ya like DARK cork handles? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Au Natural........

[Jrob78]

Hmmmmmm....if wood takes it that well, cork would really take it. That's a good idea! You could get the look of burnt cork without the added weight.

[bamabassman]

i like it myself jrob. looks really good. bruce, oyu may indeed have come up with something. thanks for the pic man.