FR2718935A1 - Knife for opening oysters - Google Patents

Abstract

The knife has its blade (1) or handle (3) made with one or more teeth, an abrasive section, or a combination of the two for filling or cutting a hole in the edge of the oyster shell to facilitate opening.The teeth or abrasive section can be made on any part of the knife blade or handle, or on an attachment used with the knife, and the teeth can be in a variety of different shapes.

Description

-1 The present invention relates to an oyster knife or all

hand-held devices for

  the opening of oysters or other bivalve shells.

  From now on and for simplicity, we will only talk about the case of oysters, but this

  which will be said concerns all bivalve shells.

  Opening oysters sometimes poses delicate problems. In addition to the fact that it is sometimes difficult to achieve this by spending too much time, it is not uncommon for a more or less experienced operator to end up injuring himself by trying to open oysters with the current knives, even if these last, sometimes including a special guard to avoid injuring their fingers, are

  deemed specialized for the opening of this type of shellfish.

  The problem of opening oysters is not new and it can be estimated that a certain number of more or less satisfactory solutions have already been provided to facilitate their opening, in particular with the famous oyster tongs. However, these pliers are bulky and the part which serves as a blade for cutting the muscle of the oyster is not always very suitable for its work, sometimes no more than the beaks of certain pliers. In addition, with articulated parts which can end up taking play, the oyster tongs sometimes become

less effective over time.

  With oyster tongs, there may also be a psychological problem insofar as the use of one of them, as opposed to the use of a knife, may be perceived by some as a confession of a definitive incompetence or clumsiness of

  the operator, which can socially interfere with the latter.

  There therefore remains a place for the invention presented here in which it is intended that the knife

  oysters have a specific toothing or roughness system.

  the accompanying drawings illustrate the invention:

  Figure 1 shows such a knife having a single toothing (2).

  Figure 2 gives a variant with 2 teeth, (2) and (4).

  the normal use of the toothing or the system of asperities which has already been mentioned makes it possible to file, slightly saw or use the two joined valves of an oyster in order to create a small opening in the form of light or only a small weakness on the edge of the oyster in a place where the two valves of the oyster meet to make joint as indicated in (10). Once practiced, the small opening or weakness will allow to introduce with great ease the blade (1) of the oyster knife to then proceed to the complete opening of the oyster in the usual way with a traditional knife. The purpose of using the toothing or the asperity system is therefore to make, if necessary, that the introduction of the knife blade between the two oyster valves never requires forcing. This will prevent injuries that can be done either directly with the blade, or when the hand or fingers come after

  skid violently hit the seashell.

  2- It should be noted that some oysters or certain species of oysters are easier to open than others. Here, even those whose edges of the valves make undulations sometimes of strong amplitude, cannot then escape the action of the teeth allowing the filing or the sawing, as one will like, whereas in such a situation the oyster tongs are sometimes of an awkward job. The use of an oyster knife with its special toothing or roughness remains psychologically and socially that of a classic oyster knife of a size

  identical, in no way presuming the skill of the operator.

  To have produced a prototype and to have used it, the inventor considers that this new type of oyster knife with its special toothing or its roughness system, can be just as suitable for a beginner as for a professional. chipping, the latter obviously less often needing to use, for example, the teeth to file or saw off the edge

  oysters to facilitate opening.

  The teeth to be provided as an example are given in (2) and some possible profiles in (11) (12) (13) can be cut in the blade by machining, or obtained in whole or in part, in their final or rough dimensions , at the time of forging or forging or any other conventional manufacturing operation known in the current state of the art. We will call here "hollow teeth" (2) teeth arranged in this way. Note that in this provision,

  for n hollow there is then n-1 roughness.

  The teeth can be located on all or part of each side of the blade, i.e. on the cutting edge (s) or on the blade foot (s) (if the two sides of the blade have identical thicknesses, we can choose to consider them as two cutting edges or two feet). The presence

  another series of teeth (4) gives an example of this possibility.

  These same teeth can also be added to the blade by any means known in the current state of the art, such as by crimping, screwing, bolting, welding, soldering, bonding, etc. The blade can also be manufactured in such a way that, reported or not, the set of toothing here particularized by the average crest line of its teeth, appears to extend beyond the natural line of the rest of the blade thread, if this notion always to be, that is to say if the corresponding side of the blade is not serrated over its entire length. Such

  teeth, except if the whole of one side of the blade is serrated, will be called here "raised teeth" (4).

  Note that in this arrangement, for n troughs, n + 1 roughness occurs, including the case

  particular of 0 hollows which can however correspond to only 1 roughness.

  On the same side of the blade, one or more combinations of hollow teeth and raised teeth may be found, or more generally irregularities in

  the arrangement and size of the teeth.

  -3- Whether in relief or hollow, the toothing, even in its most reduced design, must have at least asperity allowing it to exert a filing, sawing or abrasion action on the valves of the 'Oyster. The depth and number of the teeth, or more generally the number and size of the asperities, can be adapted to the operations envisaged and to the ways of proceeding of the users. For common oysters, the experience of using a prototype seems to have shown that a toothing with 7 to 8 roughness with a depth of 2.5

  at 3 mm seemed to be suitable, but this is only one possibility among others.

  The teeth, whether regular or not, can have different shapes as examples are given in (11) (12) (13) as well as possibly different inclinations towards the bottom or the top of the blade as indicated in ( 14) and (15), thus making it possible to give more or less bite in the upward or downward direction of the action of the hand manipulating for example

  the oyster knife to obtain the filing or sawing action.

  All or part of the handle (3) of the oyster knife, provided that the material of the interested party is hard enough, may include one or more teeth or asperity system as described for the blades, and as examples are given ( 6) (7) and (9). Always the same for the blades, the use of these teeth or this system of roughness being to allow filing or sawing beforehand of the oyster valves at an appropriate junction point (10) in order to

  facilitate for example the introduction of a blade for their complete opening.

  Whether on the blade (1) or on the handle (3), it is also possible to provide a system of roughness (5) as an example is given. These roughness may recall the surface of certain wood rasps, those of certain ceramic saws or that of paper or abrasive cloths. This device can be obtained by all means of the current technique such as cutting or various shaping, bonding, etc., whether this occurs directly on one or more parts of the oyster knife, or is carried out on one or more inserts of which an example is suggested in (8). This or its added parts can also be assembled or fixed to the blade or the handle of the oyster knife by any means of the art

  or of the technique currently known.

  The invention applies to any device for manual use, comprising at least one blade or handle, intended to allow, by its sole use, the opening of oysters or bivalve shellfish. The blade and possibly the handle can be made of different materials, in two or more pieces assembled or molded according to what allows the current state of the art. The blade and the handle may also form a single block, if there is also a certain continuity of shape and material between what is considered to be capable

  be the blade and what can take the place of handle.

-4-

Claims (3)

  1) Hand-held device for opening oysters or all bivalve shells, called serrated oyster knife, characterized in that it comprises on the blade or the handle, either one or more teeth, or one or more systems of abrasive roughness or a combination of the two. the intended use of the toothing (s), or system (s) of abrasive roughness being to file, saw, or wear the valves of the bivalve shells in order to assist in their opening. 2) Device according to claim 1 characterized in that one or more teeth, one or more abrasive aperity systems is reduced to a single tooth or a single abrasive roughness.   3) Device according to the preceding claims characterized in that the or the teeth or   the system of abrasive roughness can be cut or shaped in the mass of all or part of the blade or the handle, or be made of one or more inserts and fixed   dismountable or not on the blade or the handle.