How to split walnuts?

Question

I need the walnut shells to do something out of them. How do I split the walnut so the shells come out good and even? I dont have any nut cracking things in my house

Answer 1

you can open it with a butter knife

Answer 2

You don't need nut crackers to open walnuts and be able to salvage the shells.  

Insert the tip of a knife into the seam that splits the two shell halves.  Slowly work your around the shell braking the seal around the shell.  The walnut meat will prevent the two halves from separating, so break the meat to allow the halves to separate.  

You can glue the halves together after cleaning the walnut meat out.

On the other hand, if you wanted to save the walnut meat as walnut halves, you would use nut crackers and crack (not crush) around the perimeter of the shell, perpendicular to the seam.  Pick the shell parts off and the meat should be intact ready to be separated between the two parts.