One fabulous thing about WordPress is that it shows you the search terms people use to access your site and I have had an amazing number of people searching for a macadamia nut cracker. They have come searching as I mentioned in one of my posts that I was waiting for Maus to make me a macadamia nut cracker (I had broken the last one she made).

Since so many people are interested, this is how you do it.

All you need is a piece of hardwood and a woodworking enthusiast. Lucky for me, both are close at hand.  We, in Western Australia, are lucky as Jarrah trees (Eucalyptus Marginata) are indigenous to the South West and Jarrah is a particularly hard wood.  And I am especially lucky, as Maus loves to play with wood.

So here are the instructions:

1. Saw a piece of Jarrah about 34cm long, 4.5cm wide and 5cm deep.
2. Cut the Jarrah to form a wedge that starts at the top right corner and finishes about 2.2cms above the left base (about 85°).
3. Discard the top piece.
4. Slice the remaining piece of wood into two by cutting 1.5cm off the base of the wood.
5. Get three macadamia nuts: one small, one medium and one large.
6. Drill three holes in top wedge with hole saw or spade bits to generously fit the three nuts.  Make the smaller hole at the thin end of the wedge and the largest hole at the thick end of the wedge.
7. Clamp the two bits of wood together and outline the inside of the holes on the bottom piece of wood.  Remove the clamp/s.
8. With a palm router, pare out some wood from the bottom horizontal piece to make the holes the right height to allow the nuts to just pop out the top of the hole.
9. Glue the bottom piece of wood to the top piece of wood.
10. When the glue is dry, trim the small end to finish it off and make it neat.
11. Drill two holes from the bottom into both pieces of wood, insert a screw into each hole to reinforce the join.
12. Round off the edges of the wedge and holes with a palm router.
13. Sand wedge with coarse through to fine grade paper until you have a smooth finish.
14. Coat with Danish oil to make it look nice.

If you have a question about any of the steps, just leave a comment and I’ll ask Maus to explain more fully.

How simple is that?  Pretty hard if you ask me but, then again, I am no woodworking enthusiast.

Once you have your wedge, all you have to do is put a nut in the hole which is the best fit for it and give it a whack with a wide headed hammer.

The wood will protect the kernel from being squashed.  It works perfectly.  The worst case scenario is a few kernels may end up in half rather than full.

Sometimes the outer husk is a little difficult to get off.  We use a chisel to ease it open.  If it still won’t come off, we put the nut in the large hole, husk and all, and give it a whack.  The husk breaks quite easily.

See it works, it really does.  A nice bowl of macadamia nut kernels.  Now what am I going to make with these?