The web is full is great information. It is also full of baloney too! For instance....I researched on the art of taking off those little nuisances....aka thorns. Lot's of baloney! "Use a blow torch to burn of the thorns"......."using a kitchen knife, scrape"......."Wear leather gloves to hold the fruit"....."Use thongs to hold the fruit". Lot's of baloney!
Here's what I came up with: Get a carpet knife from Home Depot. It has a curved blade as seen in this bad photo that I took (above). Next...get a decent size kitchen knife that is long and narrow, as seen in the crummy picture above. Oh.....and you need a bowl of prickly pears too.....
Take the knife and "shish ka bob" the fruit from the bowl.....sticking the knife into the bottom of the fruit, inward till the knife's tip protrudes from the top of the fruit.
Now take that carpet knife and simple scrape off all the thorns.....but not the end thorns. Now that that is done...pull the "shish ka bob" out, and proceed to cut off both the top and bottom of the fruit. Flush with running cold water. Takes about 15 seconds to clean on fruit.
To damn simple!
