Patent ID: 9682487
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: B26B

Claim:
1. A folding knife with a handle and a blade with a cutting edge secured by a pivot connection to the handle so as to be extended by swinging out of a blade-storing slot in the handle, comprising: a spine or back edge of the knife blade having a cutout or indentation, and including a thumb bridge comprising a separate structure secured to the spine of the blade and extending across the indentation, leaving the cutout or indentation open between the spine and the thumb bridge, the thumb bridge being secured fixedly and immovably to the spine at positions forward and aft of the cutout or indentation, the thumb bridge having a width greater than the thickness of the spine to which it is secured and having a thumb-engaging surface at a position where a user's thumb will engage when the user grips the knife when opened with the blade extended, with fingers of the user on a grip of the handle, and the thumb bridge, when the blade is folded into the slot of the handle, being positioned such that the user with the handle in hand can push the blade to pivotally extend the blade out of the slot of the handle by engaging one or more fingers against the thumb bridge at the cutout and the thumb bridge further including a forward portion that tapers in width to a narrower forward end adjacent to said position forward of the cutout or indentation where the thumb bridge is secured to the spin.