BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > EQUIPMENT USAGE, EXPERIMENTATION, HIVE PLANS, CONSTRUCTION TIPS AND TOOLS
Uncapping Knife question
Lesgold:
Hi Folks,
I noticed that Pierce now have a 12? uncapping knife for sale. I have been using the 10? knife for about 10 years now and have found it to work quite well. I have always thought it was a little short for full depth frames and often wondered if they would produce a longer one. Has anyone used this new knife? How well does it perform in relation to balance and ease of use compared to the shorter version? Would love to hear your thoughts.
Cheers
Les
Michael Bush:
I find when uncapping people tend to think something bigger will work better because you can get something in one swipe. In reality I find smaller is usually better because it takes less effort to get it through the cappings. My favorite at this time is the uncapping plane:
https://thehoneyandbeeconnection.com/product/maxant-uncapping-plane
I plug it into a foot switch so I can turn it off easily. If I my arm gets tired, I switch to a knife for a little while. The knife hurts my wrist if I use it all day.
Lesgold:
Thanks Michael. That was my thinking as well. The extra length would be nice but it would come at a cost in relation to the pressure put on your wrist. As it is, the 10? blade works quite well on young comb but the uncapping task becomes quite difficult if the frame has had a lot of brood in it. Increasing the blade length would rapidly make this process more painful.
Acebird:
--- Quote from: Michael Bush on March 13, 2023, 07:17:49 am --- My favorite at this time is the uncapping plane:
https://thehoneyandbeeconnection.com/product/maxant-uncapping-plane
--- End quote ---
I am surprised that someone hasn't made a table top version where you could just lay the frame down and uncap one side at a time. It could be heated directly by electric or recirculating hot water from a tank. Push the frame through with both hands instead of trying to push a knife through
Michael Bush:
There are such things. Unfortunately they are usually very expensive and most of the best designs don't seem to be available anymore. One of my favorite (that I saw, but never used) was two steam heated knives and you push the frame down and pull it up and it's done. I don't remember for sure who the manufacturer was. I think it was Cook & Beals.
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