Abstract:
A knife is disclosed. The knife comprises a handle having carabiner loop integrally formed with an arm extending from one end of the handle and a gate extending from a second end, the gate pivotally attached to the handle whereby the carabiner loop can be opened or closed.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/480,940 (Atty. Dkt. No. OTI/0050USL), filed Apr. 29, 2011, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0003]    Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to hand tools, and more specifically to a knife having an integral carabiner. 
         [0004]    2. Description of the Related Art 
         [0005]    A carabiner knife is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,223,372 and that patent is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. The &#39;372 patent includes a loop portion having a first arm member extending from a first end of the handle, a second arm member extending from a second end of the handle, and a gate connecting the arm members. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0006]    A knife is disclosed. The knife comprises a handle having carabiner loop integrally formed with an arm extending from one end of the handle and a gate extending from a second end, the gate pivotally attached to the handle whereby the carabiner loop can be opened or closed. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0007]    So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. 
           [0008]      FIG. 1  is a side view of a carabiner knife with a blade in an operative position. 
           [0009]      FIG. 2  is a side view of the carabiner knife with the blade in a closed position. 
           [0010]      FIG. 3  is a side view of the carabiner knife with the blade in the closed position. 
           [0011]      FIG. 4  is a side view of the carabiner knife with a gate in an open position. 
           [0012]      FIG. 5  is a perspective view of the carabiner knife with the blade in the open position. 
           [0013]      FIG. 6  is a perspective view of the carabiner knife with the blade in the closed position. 
           [0014]      FIG. 7  is an end view of the carabiner knife with the blade in the operative position. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0015]    Referring specifically to  FIG. 1 , a carabiner knife in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention is generally designated by reference numeral  100 . 
         [0016]      FIG. 1  is a side view of the carabiner knife  100 . The carabiner knife  100  includes a handle  105  and a blade  110 . The handle  105  is comprised of a right handle side  105   a  and a left handle side  105   b.  In a preferred embodiment, the handle may have curved edges, which, together with a carabiner loop  145  disposed on one side of the handle and the retractable blade  110  on the other side, form an overall oval shape, as can be seen in  FIG. 2 . The handle sides  105   a,    105   b  may include textured surfaces to improve a user&#39;s grip. The handle sides  105   a,    105   b  may be made of anodized aluminum. 
         [0017]    The sides  105   a,    105   b  are attached together by attachment members  125 ,  125   a  and  125   b,  which are secured in place with threaded arrangements. As can be seen in  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 3  (showing opposite sides of the knife  100 ), the attachment member  125   a  may actually be comprised of two inter-threaded attachment members. Attachment member  125   a  also provides for pivoting movement of the blade  110  with respect to the handle  105 . Attachment member  125   b  also provides for pivoting movement of gate  155  about hinge  160  with respect to the handle  105 , as discussed further below. 
         [0018]    The blade  110  is manually moveable from a retracted position, as shown in  FIGS. 2-6 , to an open, operative position, as shown in  FIG. 1 . A blade lock  120  ( FIG. 1 ) releasably locks the blade  110  in the operative position. In one embodiment, the blade lock  120  includes a liner-lock mechanism, which is known in the art. As can be seen in  FIGS. 5 and 6 , a blade lock base  122  is disposed between handle sides  105   a,    105   b  and provides the necessary space within the handle  105  for the blade lock  120 . The blade lock  120  may be comprised of a leaf spring integrally formed with blade lock base  122 . When the blade  110  is in the open position, the blade lock  120  engages a canted surface  170  (shown in  FIG. 7 ) on the end of the blade  110  opposite a point  114 . When the blade lock  120  is engaged with the blade  110 , the blade  110  is locked in the open position and prevented from pivoting to the closed position. To unlock the blade, a user overcomes the biasing force of the blade lock  120  by applying a lateral force F to the blade lock  120  (shown in  FIG. 7 ), causing the blade lock  120  to disengage from blade  110 . The force F may be applied with the user&#39;s thumb on the hand that is holding the carabiner knife  100 . The blade  110  can then be pivotally moved to the closed position. Other locking mechanisms for releasably locking the blade in the operative position and/or in the retracted position may be used. 
         [0019]    The blade  110  may be a hook-style blade with a concave cutting edge  115 , as illustrated in  FIG. 1 . The blade  110  also includes point  114 . Point  114  is suitable for scoring applications, due to the concave curvature of cutting edge  115 . Other blade styles may be used, including, for example, a sporting blade, a saw blade, a tanto blade, or a utility blade mounted to a blade holder. Each of these blade types is known in the art. The edge of the blade  110  opposite of the cutting edge  115  may include an opener  112 . The opener  112  is arranged so that torque applied by a user to open, for example, a bottle, is opposite to torque applied by the user to pivot the blade from the retracted position. Preferably, the blade  110  may be made of stainless steel. 
         [0020]    The carabiner loop  145 , disposed on one side of the handle  105 , includes loop arm  150 , gate  155  and loop base  165 . The loop arm  150  may be integrally formed with the loop base  165 . With this arrangement, the carabiner loop  145  may be formed of only two pieces—the integrally formed loop base  165  with loop arm  150 , and the gate  155 —thereby increasing the overall strength of carabiner loop  145 . A supporting portion of the loop base  165  is disposed between handle sides  105   a,    105   b,  which are secured in place by attachment members  125 . 
         [0021]    The gate  155  pivots about hinge  160  and is secured between the handle sides  105   a,    105   b  by attachment member  125   b.  In this manner, the gate  155  is directly attached to the handle  105  at hinge  160 . Thus, a second loop arm connecting the gate  155  to the handle  105  is not needed. Moreover, the handle sides  105   a,    105   b  cover the hinge  160 , which helps protect the hinge  160  from being damaged. The gate  155  may include a gripping surface  156 . 
         [0022]      FIG. 2  shows the gate  155  in a closed position.  FIG. 4  shows the gate  155  in an open position. A biasing member, such as a leaf spring or other suitable mechanism (not shown) provides a biasing force to urge the gate  155  into the closed position. 
         [0023]      FIGS. 5 and 6  show perspective views of the knife  100 . The arrangement between handle side  105   a,  blade  110 , blade lock  120 , blade lock base  122 , and handle side  105   b  can be seen in  FIG. 5 . The arrangement between handle side  105   a,  loop base  165 , gate  155 , and handle side  105   b  can be seen in  FIG. 6 . 
         [0024]    While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.