The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 25, 1997
Filed:
Apr. 08, 1996
Andrew L Walston, Seattle, WA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A folding knife having a blade that is easily opened and locked in an open position. Three embodiments of a folding knife (10, 10', 10') include a lever (20, 20') that is pivotally attached to a blade (14, 14') at a point spaced apart from that at which the blade is pivotally mounted to a handle (12, 12'). When fully closed, a sharpened edge (26) of the blade is protected inside the handle. To open the blade, the lever is gripped between the thumb and forefinger and rotated about the pivot point of the lever, forcing the sharpened edge of the blade from inside the handle. The lever may then be pulled to draw the blade to a fully open position. A contoured latching surface on the lever is then engaged with a hook in a back strip (32, 32', 32') in the handle, locking the blade fully open. Since a top surface (38, 38') of the lever is relatively wider than the thickness of a spine (top edge) of the blade, the user can comfortably and safely exert greater force against the top surface of the lever when cutting with the knife than is possible with a conventional knife.