Patent ID: 9586329
Date: 2017-03-07
CPC Classifications: A22B,B26B

Claim:
1. A skinning knife, comprising: a handle; a blade carrier coupled to the handle, the blade carrier including a mount having a mounting surface, a boss extending outward from the mounting surface, and a spring including a front portion, a middle portion, and a rear portion, the front portion secured to the mount proximate a front end of the spring, the middle portion bent outward from the front portion and the rear portion, and the rear portion including a free end of the spring movable relative to the mount; a button coupled to the rear portion of the spring and configured for actuation by a user to move the rear end of the spring; and a blade including a sharpened edge, a body, and a slot formed through the body, the slot extends in a longitudinal direction from a front end to a rear end and includes a narrow portion of a first width and a wide portion of a second width greater than the first width, the narrow portion includes the front end of the slot and the wide portion includes the rear end of the slot; wherein, in a first mode of operation, the blade is secured to the blade carrier with the boss positioned in the narrow portion of the slot and the engaging the front end of the slot and the middle portion of the spring positioned in the wide portion of the slot and engaging the rear end of the slot; and wherein, in a second mode of operation, the blade is removed from the blade carrier by depressing the button so that the middle portion of the spring is moved out of engagement with the rear end of the slot and allowing the boss to be moved out of engagement with the front end of the slot.