Keith, I had some "mini Indian corn" that I had saved and wanted to get the kernels off to share seed and had the same problem -- I ended up just holding the larger end of the cob in one hand and, with a leather garden glove on the other hand, just kind of grabbing the other end and twisting, which worked amazingly well. Those were pretty small ears, though, so I'm not sure if it would work as well with the larger "regular-size" corn.
