Patent ID: 6948250
Filing Date: 2005-09-27
Classification: B26B

Abstract:
1. A disposable craft knife comprising, in combination: a housing having an elongated body and forming a guideway therewithin, said guideway disposed about the longitudinal axis of said housing, said housing, in turn, comprising; a blade and flexible beam assembly disposed in said housing and adapted for reciprocal movement along said guideway, said blade and flexible beam assembly tapered toward said aperture and, adapted with the blade fully extended, to nest securely within a tapered portion of said housing, said blade and flexible beam assembly, during cutting operations, being nonrotatably held within said housing and precluding transmission of forces from the cutting blade to the interior of the knife, said blade and flexible beam assembly, in turn, comprising: said housing further comprising; said tapered portion of said housing transversely tapered toward said aperture in relation to the longitudinal axis of said blade and flexible beam assembly; a blade portion with a blade integrally molded into said thermoplastic material at the end opposite said slide control portion; a beam portion extending between and integral with said blade portion and said slide control portion, said beam portion following said guideway during said reciprocal movement between an extended position and a retracted position; and, said blade portion, upon reciprocal movement, extending beyond said housing through said aperture thereof to an extended position and retracting into and fully within said housing to a retracted position.