US244252A - Eobeet t - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

B. T. JOYCE.

TOBAGOO KNIFE. No. 244,252, y Patented July 12,1881.

wmmssns: C/ INVEN 0 W Y BY ATTORNEYS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ROBERT T. JOYCE, OF DANBURY, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND SYDNEY E. ALLEN, OF WINSTON, NORTH CAROLINA.

TOBACCO-KNIFE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 244,252, dated July 12, 1881.

Application filed May 18, 1881.

To all whom Lt may concern Beit known that LRoBERT THOMAS J own, a citizen of the United States, and residing at Danbury, in the county of Stokes, in the State of North Carolina, have invented new and useful Improvementsin Tobacco-Knives, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in tobacco splitting and cutting knives in which the blade and handle of the knife are set at an angle to, instead of in line with, each other.

Heretofore such knives have been constructed with plain round handles, and, as a consequence, workmen using them have been often cramped in the hands and strained in the wrists from the rigidity of grasp necessary to hold the instrument in position and the force required upon the front of the handlewhen splitting the tobacco-stalk.

The object of my invention is to provide a knife which shall subject the operator to neither of these inconveniences, and shall at the same time be cheap, simple, and easily manipulated.

My invention consists in constructinga knife having a blade whose edges are parallel and curved toward the extremity, and a handle set at a slightly obtuse angle to the straight part of the blade, said handle being provided upon its forward upper end with a projection or rest to support the hand when splitting the tobacco-stalk.

In the drawings,Figure l is a side elevation of my invention, and Fig. 2 is a front-end elevation of the same.

The blade A has parallel sharpened edges, which are curved sufliciently at B to allow the hand of the operator, when splitting the stalk, to come almost in a line with said stalk, and in that way labor under the least possible disadvantage in making the stroke.

The rivets 0 fasten the blade into the bandle D, said handle being formed in much the same shape as the handle of an ordinary carpentel s saw, this form having been found by experience to afford the easiest and firmest grasp.

Upon the upper forward corner of D is formed the projection or rest E, shaped to fit (No model.)

the hand, so that when the operator presses downwardly in splitting the stalk a portion of the force is applied through the medium of the rest E, bearing against the back of the hand, between the thumb and forefinger extended, and the strain upon the fingers thus lessened.

In using myirnproved tobacco-knife the op erator holds the knife in such position as will bring the blade in contact with the end of the stalk, about midway of the former. Then by a downward stroke, brin gin gthe handle nearer and nearer the stalk as the knife descends, a sliding out is-made and the stalk easily split to the required joint. The hooked side of the blade is then brought in contact with the farther side of the stalk, and. the latter is severed by an upward stroke toward the operator.

Where the ordinary handle and blade are used, the strain upon the fingers and wrist is very severe, while the direction of the stroke an important consideration is apt to be changed and the blade driven through the side of the stalk; but with my improved knife the guard or rest bears the greater part of the strain, so that the stroke is little more than a simple push and can be made without grasping the handle with any great force. Moreover, in consequence of this, any deflection from the middle line of the stalk is quickly discovered and may be easily righted, the whole form of the handle being such as to make it almost impossible for it to turn or twist in the hand.

The blade is made with parallel edges, because of the additional. strength of such a form. The points of knives have generally to bear the greatest amount of strain and torsion, and therefore the ordinary sharp points are most often broken and the blade made useless.

I am aware that a tobacco-knife consisting of a double-edged curved blade provided with a guarded handle, the two parts of which are at right angles to each other, has heretofore been employed; and I am also aware that a tobacco-knife consisting of a double-edged curved blade provided with a handle, which, with the blade, forms a letter S, as shown in Letters Patent granted to E. T. Shelton for a tobacco-knife, dated June 22, 1875, No.164,880,

has heretofore been employed; and I therefore lay no claim to such constructions, my invention being confined to the precise construction 5 and arrangement of parts as pointed out in the claim.

Having thus described myinvention, what I claim is-- A tobacco -knife consisting of the double- 1o edged curved blade A, of the same width throughout, handle D, secured to the blade and at right angles thereto, and provided with a central opening and projection, E, on its upper edge, substantially as described, and for the purpose set forth.

ROBERT THOMAS JOYCE.

Witnesses:

WALTER W. KING, W. T. V. MoOAULEss.

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