Cutlery – Sheathed – Pivoted blade
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-17
2001-10-30
Payer, Hwei-Siu (Department: 3724)
Cutlery
Sheathed
Pivoted blade
C030S158000, C030S160000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06308420
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to knives of the folding kind and, more particularly, knives that have a biased blade.
BACKGROUND
Knives generally and folding knives particularly are well known having been in use in the public for ages. All these prior art knives include common elements. Among these elements are an elongated handle that typically is split into two sides separated from each other to form a spacing. A blade having a working end and a pivot end located in the tang is pivotally disposed at one end of the handle so as to fill the spacing in the handle when in the closed or folded position and when in the open or working position, the knife blade pivots about the end of the handle and extends outwardly. For a spring biased opening folding knife, some form of means is used to retain the blade of the knife recessed in the spacing unless and until either overcome manually or by a mechanism that in either case allows the blade to pivot and move outwardly to attain a working position.
Numerous mechanisms are known in the art for pivoting the knife blade into working position from its recessed or closed position and many use some form of spring means to achieve this pivoting action either alone or with manual assistance. Different forms of such springs have been devised for achieving the desired pivoting action.
For safety reasons it is particularly desirable to retain the blade in a closed recessed position that may or may not be locked in such position. Similarly, when the knife blade is in the open or working position it is completely unacceptable for the blade to prematurely close. Rather the blade when in the open or working position may be locked in that position or be biased against any undesired movement toward closing until it is desired to pivot the blade to its closed or recessed position.
Many prior art knives utilize a spring that may be a metallic leaf spring to provide locking of the blade in open and closed positions such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,584 issued to Bernardini.
Another form of a locking device for a foldable knife is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,304 issued to Campbell wherein the leaf spring forms a means for locking the knife as the spring member includes a v-shaped bend to fit into a notch in the tang of the knife.
In the Collins U.S. Pat. No. 5,400,509, a locking mechanism for the knife is provided when in the open position.
The Opinel Patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,153,995 discloses a biasing means for retaining the blade in the open position.
Other patents of various designs include Leatherman U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,888,869, Yamagishi 4,741,106, Friedman et al. 4,535,539, Naifeh 4,190,953.
None of these patents discloses the blade having a rolling cam, an operating spring to provide a force vector capable of resisting the pivoting of the blade from a closed or folded position to an open position and when in open position resisting the pivoting of the blade to a closed or folded position.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a folding knife that is biased toward an open position after opening and biased toward remaining in a closed position. The knife includes an elongated handle having opposing separate sides forming a spacing therebetween. An elongated blade having a working end and a tang at the opposite end within a common plane, a pivot including a pivot axis connecting the tang to the handle to permit the blade to pivot selectively into an open position at which the blade extends outwardly from the handle and into a closed position in which the blade is nested into the spacing. The blade is provided with a cam, that may be a rolling cam, secured to the blade eccentric to the pivot axis and spaced from the plane that includes the blade. An operating spring is secured at one end to the handle and has abutting contact with the cam remote from the end in the handle thus forming a force vector that is arranged selectively to resist the pivoting of the blade to a open position and when in an open position resisting the pivoting of the blade to a closed position.
REFERENCES:
patent: 812601 (1906-02-01), Schrade
patent: 821176 (1906-05-01), Leland
patent: 1357398 (1920-11-01), Haywood
patent: 1512689 (1924-10-01), Hermann
patent: 1638749 (1927-08-01), Santoyo
patent: 2530236 (1950-11-01), Erickson
patent: 2705832 (1955-04-01), Mirando
patent: 4190953 (1980-03-01), Naifeh
patent: 4502221 (1985-03-01), Pittman
patent: 4535539 (1985-08-01), Friedman et al.
patent: 4741106 (1988-05-01), Yamagishi
patent: 4888869 (1989-12-01), Leatherman
patent: 5153995 (1992-10-01), Opinel
patent: 5331741 (1994-07-01), Taylor, Jr.
patent: 5400509 (1995-03-01), Collins
patent: 5692304 (1997-12-01), Campbell
patent: 5706584 (1998-01-01), Bernardini
patent: 5839194 (1998-11-01), Bezold
patent: 6122829 (2000-09-01), McHenry et al.
patent: 6256887 (2001-07-01), Osborne
Lalos & Keegan
Payer Hwei-Siu
Taylor Cutlery LLC
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