GB2612367A

GB2612367A - Methods for applying environmental forces to the total force acting upon the kitchen knife when it is moving forward

Info

Publication number: GB2612367A
Application number: GB2115680.7A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Alam Masood
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2021-11-01
Filing date: 2021-11-01
Publication date: 2023-05-03
Also published as: GB202115680D0

Abstract

The present invention relates to the field of knife and particularly to a kitchen knife that is aerodynamically designed to use natural laws to assist user in cutting vegetables. The knife comprises a handle 112 and a blade; the blade comprises a tip region 104, a point 102, a cutting edge 106, a heel 108 and a spine 106. Preferably, the point comprises a clipped portion which may be straight or curved and have an angle between 36 to 40 degrees which enables the air to curl up near the curvature area of the knife creating a downwards drag. When the knife is used to cut vegetables, meat, steak etc. the downward force applied by the user take benefit from the external forces generated by the aerodynamic design of the knife to assist while cutting. When such aerodynamics is applied to the design of knife the total force applied to the knife becomes the sum of force applied by the user and drag created by environmental forces.

Description

AERODYNAMIC KNIFE

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of knife and particularly to a kitchen knife that is aerodynamically designed to use natural laws to assist user in cutting vegetables.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0002] In cooking, a chefs knife, also known as a cook's knife, is a cutting tool used in food preparation. The chef's knife was originally designed primarily to slice and disjoint large cuts of beef. Today it is the primary general-utility knife for most western cooks. A chefs knife generally has a blade eight inches in length and one and a half inches in width, although individual models range from 6 to 14 inches in length. There are two common types of blade shape in western chef's knives, French and German. German-style knives are more deeply and continuously curved along the whole cutting edge; the French style has an edge that is straighter until the end and then curves up to the tip. A Japanese "gyuto" literally meaning 'beef knife', is the Japanese version of a French (or Western) chefs knife. They were originally, and sometimes still called "yo-boucho" meaning "Western Chefs Knife". The Santoku knife is basically a Japanese style chefs knife. It is smaller, lighter and sharper with a different blade shape. The Chinese chef's knife is completely different and resembles a cleaver. A modern chef's knife is a multipurpose knife designed to perform well at many differing kitchen tasks, rather than excelling at any one in particular. It can be used for mincing, slicing, and chopping vegetables, slicing meat, and disjointing large cuts.

[0003] The edge of knife is grounded in different ways including but not limited to -double grind, V-shape, single or double bevel, convex edge, hollow ground, single grind or chisel edge. In order to improve the chefs knife's multi-purpose abilities, some owners employ differential sharpening along the length of the blade. The fine tip, used for precision work such as mincing, might be ground with a very sharp, acute cutting bevel; the midsection or belly of the blade receives a moderately sharp edge for general cutting, chopping and slicing, while the heavy heel or back of the cutting edge is given a strong, thick edge for such heavy-duty tasks as disjointing beef.

[0004] The technique used for the chefs knife is an individual preference. For more precise control, most cooks prefer to grip the blade itself, with the thumb and the index finger grasping the blade just to the front of the finger guard and the middle finger placed just opposite, on the handle side of the finger guard below the bolster. This is commonly referred to as a "pinch grip". Those without culinary training often grip the handle, with all four fingers and the thumb gathered underneath. For fine slicing, the handle is raised up and down while the tip remains in contact with the cutting board and the cut object is pushed under the blade.

[0005] Several prior attempts to deal with such problems have been utilized as set forth below: [0006] Chinese Patent Publication No. CN202656202U discloses a kitchen knife with a curved knife comprising a kitchen knife body and is characterized in that the upper portion of a knife surface on one side of the kitchen knife body is provided with the curved knife.

[0007] United States Patent Publication No. US11090821B2 discloses a knife that includes a blade attached to a handle. Two longitudinal edges of the rectangular blade include a sharpened edge and a non-sharpened spine on the opposite side. The blade has a rectangular fence extending substantially perpendicularly from one or both sides of the spine, and extending to the distal end. In one form the fence curves around onto the distal end of the blade. A hole or aperture may be provided in the blade to allow transfer of prepared foods.

[0008] Japanese Patent Publication No. JP3171162U discloses a knife with rounded blade, rounded chin, and sharpened cutting edge as before, with good sharpness to prevent stab injury and make the tip hard to break.

[0009] United States Patent Publication No. US20120124844A1 discloses a chef's knife comprises handle and a blade. The blade has a point, sides, and an edge ground on both of the sides to form a cutting edge. The cutting edge has a section near the handle and a section near the point of the blade. The cutting edge has an acute cutting angle a that becomes continuously smaller from the section near the handle towards the section near the point of the blade.

[0010] Currently, the kitchen knives available in the market are straight and doesn't have an aerodynamic design to take advantage of the natural forces like thrust, drag, and lift which the plane wings use. A keen chef or cooking enthusiast spend a lot of time with the knife therefore a knife with better aerodynamic design is needed that takes advantage of the natural and environmental forces to assist the user in cutting vegetables, meat, beef etc. faster and precisely without requiring much force from user.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0011] The present invention discloses an aerodynamic knife whose edge is curved to between 36 to 40 degrees which enables the air to curl up near the curvature area of the knife creating a downwards drag. When the knife is used to cut vegetables, meat, steak etc. the downward force applied by the user take benefit from the external forces generated by the aerodynamic design of the knife to assist while cutting.

[0012] It is an object of the present invention to utilize aerodynamics of the plane wings which uses mainly three kinds of natural forces lift, gravity, thrust, and drag. Lift is the upward acting force, gravity is the downward acting force, thrust the is the forward acting force and drag is the backward acting force that is also called wind resistance. Lift opposes gravity and thrust opposes drag. Drag and gravity, are forces that act on anything lifted from the earth and moved through the air. Thrust and lift are artificially created forces used to overcome the forces of nature and enable an airplane to fly.

[0013] When such aerodynamics is applied to the design of knife the total force applied to the knife becomes the sum of force applied by the user and drag created by environmental forces.

[0014] As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception, upon which this disclosure is based, may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

[0015] The aforesaid as well as other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which: [0016] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of aerodynamic knives having the tip curved at forty degrees in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; [0017] FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of aerodynamic knives having the tip curved at thirty-six degrees in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; and [0018] FIG. 3 illustrates a perspective view of the knife blade with curved tip in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0019] Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention. These and other features of the present invention will become more fully apparent from the following description, or may be learned by the practice of the invention as set forth hereinafter.

[0020] With reference now to the drawings, and in particular from FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 hereof, an aerodynamic knife embodying the principles and concepts of the present invention is described.

[0021] Reference is made now to FIG. 1, illustrating an embodiment 100 of the knives comprising a handle 112 that can be molded or riveted and made from a variation of materials, a blade comprising a tip region 104, a point 102, cutting edge 106, heel 108 and spine 110. The cutting edge 106 is the center part of the blade that is most frequently used part of the knife. The knife blade becomes narrower from the heel 108 and to the pointed tip 104. The heel 108 of the knife is the part of the blade that is located in the rear of the blade, the heel 108 is the widest part of the knife's edge. It's the strongest part of the blade, and ideal for cutting hard ingredients, like carrots and winter squash. The point 102 of the knife is where the sharp edge 106 and the spine 110 meet. The tip 104 of the knife usually runs along the first third of the cutting edge/blade, including the point 102 of the knife.

[0022] In an embodiment of the present invention, the knife has a clip shaped point 102. The back unsharpened edge of the knife runs straight from the handle and stops about halfway up the knife. Then, it turns and continues to the point of the knife. This "cut-out" area can be straight or curved, and is referred to as the "clip". Clip point knives look as if the part of the knife from the spine to the point has been literally clipped off. The point that is created by this clip is lowered, which provides more control when using the knife. Because the tip is controllable, sharp and thinner at the spine, a clip point knife lends itself to quicker stabbing with less drag during insertion and faster withdrawal. In some cases, the back edge of the clip point is sharpened to make a second edge, which improves the function of the tip even more.

[0023] In an embodiment of the present invention, the clip shaped point is curved at forty degrees which enables the air to curl up near the clip point area 102 of the knife creating a downward drag. When the knife is used to cut vegetables, meat, steak etc. the downward force applied by the user take benefit from the external forces generated by the aerodynamic design of the knife to assist while cutting.

[0024] Reference is made now to FIG. 2, illustrating an embodiment 200 of the knives wherein the clip point 202 is curved at thirty-six degrees which enables the air to curl up near the clip point area of the knife creating a downward drag.

[0025] The present invention utilizes aerodynamics of the plane wings which uses mainly three kinds of natural forces lift, gravity, thrust, and drag. Lift is the upward acting force, gravity is the downward acting force, thrust the is the forward acting force and drag is the backward acting force that is also called wind resistance. Lift opposes gravity and thrust opposes drag. Drag and gravity, are forces that act on anything lifted from the earth and moved through the air. Thrust and lift are artificially created forces used to overcome the forces of nature and enable an airplane to fly. VVhen such aerodynamics is applied to the design of knife the total force applied to the knife becomes the sum of force applied by the user and drag created by environmental forces.

[0026] Reference is made now to FIG. 3, illustrating an embodiment 300 of the perspective view of the knife wherein the clip point 302 is curved to between thirty-six to forty degree which enable the air to curled up near the curvature area of the knife which causes a downward drag due to environmental forces while user cuts an object.

[0027] The problem with existing kitchen knives is that they are plain and doesn't have curves that take the advantage of nature's laws and environmental forces to assist user while cutting. The present invention proposes a solution by disclosing a knife design whose edge is curved to between 36 to 40 degrees which enables the air to curl up near the curvature area of the knife creating a downwards drag. When the knife is used to cut vegetables, meat, steak etc. the downward force applied by the user take benefit from the external forces generated by the aerodynamic design of the knife to assist while cutting.

[0028] While the exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described and illustrated herein, it will be appreciated that they are merely illustrative. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications in form and detail may be made therein without departing from or offending the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Additionally, the invention illustratively disclosed herein suitably may be practiced in the absence of any element which is not specifically disclosed herein -and in particular embodiment specifically contemplated, is intended to be practiced in the absence of any element which is not specifically disclosed herein.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A knife comprising a blade and handle wherein the blade further comprise a tip region, a point, cutting edge, heel and spine.
2. A knife according to claim 1, wherein the cutting edge is center part of the blade that is most frequently used part of the knife and the knife blade becomes narrower from the heel and to the pointed tip.
3. A knife according to claim 1, wherein the heel of the knife is rear part of the blade and the heel and is the widest part of the knife edge.
4. The knife comprising a clip shaped point which is a back unshaped edge of the knife running straight from the handle and stops about halfway up the knife and then it turns and continues to the point of the knife, wherein the cut-out area from the point of the knife to half way up the knife can be straight or curved clipped at an angle from thirty-six to forty degrees which enables the air to curl up near the clip point area of the knife creating a downward drag.
5. A knife according to claim 4, wherein the aerodynamic design of the knife creates a downward drag using environmental forces such that the total force applied to knife becomes the sum of force applied by the user and drag created by environmental forces.