Cutlery – Cutting tools – With guard and/or guide
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-17
2003-11-18
Payer, Hwei-Siu (Department: 3724)
Cutlery
Cutting tools
With guard and/or guide
C030S289000, C030S314000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06647628
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to hand tools for carpet installation, and more particularly to a carpet-cutting tool having a tuft-parting component that facilitates cutting along a desired row or wire.
2. Description of Related Art
The term “carpet cutter” refers to a carpet-cutting tool. It includes a blade-holding structure that the carpet installer grasps with one hand and slides along a piece of carpet in order to cause a downwardly protruding blade to cut the carpet along a desired row or wire. Carpet cutters are well known and commonly used tools. Examples of a cushion-back carpet cutter and a loop-pile carpet cutter appear in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,543,400 and 3,543,401.
In using the carpet cutters, the carpet installer cuts between adjacent pile tufts so that the carpet pile tufts are less prone to be cut off by the blade of the cutters. A longitudinally extending guide is provided on the blade-holding structure to facilitate the process. The guide includes a downwardly facing, carpet-contacting edge that extends to a forward portion or “nose” of the guide. The carpet installer slides the carpet-contacting edge along the carpet while burrowing the nose through adjacent tufts, and this helps separate the tufts to in order to help the carpet cutter avoid cutting the tufts.
The problem is that the nose of the guide is not entirely successful in parting the tufts, especially during the initial stage of making a cut. Initially, the carpet installer forces the nose downwardly between the tufts in order to position the carpet-contacting edge against the carpet. But the nose of the guide simply does not burrow in between adjacent tufts as desired. Often the nose simply flattens the tufts instead of parting them. The blade will then cut or sheer off the tufts.
Confronted with this problem, carpet installers often use a ball point pen or awl to part the tufts. But that technique involves the time and inconvenience associated with using another tool. Moreover, the carpet installer must develop the skill to hold and operate both tools simultaneously in order to part the tufts with one tool while making the cut with the other, or undertake a two-step process with first the separator tool and then the cutting tool. Thus, carpet installers need a carpet cutter with a better tuft-parting arrangement.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of this invention to overcome the forgoing and other disadvantages of prior art carpet cutters. This object is achieved by providing an effective tuft-parting structure on the nose of a carpet cutter. The tuft-parting structure is part of the carpet cutter. It takes the form of an elongated member on the nose of the guide that extends forwardly beyond the nose to a tip of the elongated member (preferably conically shaped). The tip sticks out beyond the nose in position to effectively burrow between and part adjacent tufts without the need for a second tool.
To paraphrase some of the more precise language appearing in the claims, a carpet cutter constructed according to the invention includes a blade-supporting structure with a guide and a tuft-parting structure. The guide has a forward portion (i.e., a nose) and a carpet-contacting edge that a carpet installer slides along a carpet when using the carpet cutters to cut the carpet. The carpet-contacting edge extends along a first axis toward the forward portion of the guide, while the tuft-parting structure is on the forward portion of the guide where it functions as means for parting tufts on the carpet in order to facilitate carpet cutting.
According to a major aspect of the invention, the tuft-parting structure includes an elongated member with a tip. The elongated member protrudes forwardly beyond the forward end portion of the guide along a second axis that intersects the first axis. Arranged in that way, the elongated member facilitates the carpet installer's task of positioning the tip of the elongated structure in between adjacent tufts of the carpet as an initial step in parting the tufts and as the carpet installer positions the carpet-contacting edge of the guide against the carpet.
Preferably, the tip of the elongated member is conically shaped and the rest of the elongated member is cylindrically shaped. The illustrated embodiment is composed of metal and it is attached to the forward portion of the guide. The first and second axes form an angle in the range of about five degrees to about sixty degrees. Preferably, that angle is about fifteen degrees. The tuft-parting cutters can take any of various known forms of carpet cutter, including that of a cushion-back cutter or a loop-pile cutter.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3009247 (1961-11-01), Mueller
patent: 3543400 (1970-12-01), Scott et al.
patent: 3543401 (1970-12-01), Scott et al.
patent: 4028802 (1977-06-01), Houghton et al.
patent: 5044081 (1991-09-01), Nguyen
patent: 5347719 (1994-09-01), Scharf
patent: 5561906 (1996-10-01), Desmarais
patent: 5881463 (1999-03-01), Casteel et al.
patent: 6421924 (2002-07-01), Anderson et al.
Hanson Loyal McKinley
Payer Hwei-Siu
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