I didn't know black walnuts before. More accurately, I had seen the fruit and the pungent inner shell, but I had no idea what to do with it. I had the opportunity to pick it recently while hiking in the eastern Bakony.
It has a thick green fruit, much larger than the common walnut. When I opened the seed inside, the green part of it stained my hand. My nails turned black and they stayed like that for weeks.!
At home I cleaned the seeds with a nailbrush and dried them.
Because they are very hard, it was difficult to saw them in two. So far I have only cut two of them in half with a small hand saw.
The exciting thing is that you can cut in different directions and get different patterns.
If you cut it lengthwise, you get a very nice heart-shaped pattern.
The nuts inside are high in oil and have a strange smell, but birds love them. I used a bad pair of nail scissors to pick out these bits. Now it looks like a skeleton, or even more like an alien skull.
I cut another one crosswise. I was sweating by the time I finished.
Without the oily inside
I actually needed a thin slice of 5 mm. This would give me a fully openwork, lace-like pattern, which could be polished to make a beautiful pendant or earring.
Well, I was successful!
Most people can't imagine how such a small, round, very hard and prickly nutshell can be sliced with a hand saw without a clamp.
But I had an idea. I took an old sponge and with this, squeezed the shell with my left hand against a small wooden block. Underneath was a tray into which the shavings fell. When sawing, care had to be taken to make the slice as even as possible in thickness. My left hand was sore, but I managed to cut a few slices. I then sanded the pieces first with coarse and then with fine sandpaper. Of course, I also sanded down the outer spikes.
Drilling was easy. I took out my cordless Makita and drilled holes in them with the thinnest drill bit I had. But if I wanted a coat button, I didn't even need that tiny hole. The "bridge" in the middle makes it easy to sew onto the fabric.
More ideas: belt or bag decoration, clasp, buckle. A rustic felt bag would look especially good with this decoration!
