Knife with lighting fixture

Disclosed is a knife with lighting fixture which mainly consists of a pair of cases, a pivotally turnable knife, and a pivotally turnable supporting plate. The supporting plate has a cell, a bulb, and a push button supported thereon. The push button is slightly projected from one of the case so that a depression of it may lighten the bulb to shine toward the knife for convenient use in a dark place. The supporting plate may be easily turned out of the cases for mounting a new cell and/or a new bulb when necessary.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a knife structure, and more particularly 
to a knife with lighting fixture for use in a dark place and easily 
replacement of cell and bulb thereof. 
Knife is a common and widely used tool and has variously designed 
structures, such as a kinfe with its blade foldable or retractable into a 
handle thereof. Some knives are provided with lighting fixture. An example 
of such knofe with lighting fixture is disclosed by Taiwan Utility Patent 
Application No. 77210307 entitled "A spring-loaded toy knife with lighting 
fixture". The knife disclosed by the Taiwan Patent Application No. 
77210307 mainly consists of a rotatable knife body, a knife handle 
including two cases and pivotally connected with the knife body, a sting 
member disposed between the knife body and the knife handle at the pivotal 
connection thereof to enable the rotation of the knife body relative to 
the knife handle, a conductive leaf spring which may be moved along with 
the rotation and springing out of the knife body, and a lighting fixture 
provided at a front portion of the knife handle at an adequate point 
within the travel of the conductive leaf spring. The knife body has a 
small hole and a pivot hole for the knife body to be pivotally connected 
to a rod provided at an inner front of the knife handle. One of the cases 
of the knife handle is provided with an elongated slot to confine a push 
member therein but allows the same to freely move back and forth in the 
slot. The push member connects a driven member provided at an inner side 
of the case and the driven member has a brake rod. The brake rod may be 
driven by the push member to engage with a recess provided at one lateral 
side of the knife body at a lower rear end thereof and thereby causes the 
knife body to spring out of and rotate relative to the knife handle with 
the conductive leaf spring having one end fixed to an inner end surface of 
the knife handle and another free end simultaneously contacting with the 
lighting fixture. 
The knife with lighting fixture disclosed by the Taiwan patent application 
No. 77210307 has very complicate structure and is difficult to assemble. 
The long battery increases the volume and weight of the cases. In 
addition, the bulb thereof is completely locked into the cases and is 
therefore, very difficult to replace it in the event it is burned out. 
This is of course a big shortcoming in the structure of the disclosed 
knife. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a knife with 
lighting fixture of which the lighting fixture is disposed at a position 
easy for the user to control and directly shines the cutting edge of the 
knife to help the user to conveniently operate the knife even in the dark. 
Another object of the present invention is to provide a knife with lighting 
fixture of which the lighting fixture can be conveniently pulled away from 
the knife handle for the user to replace the cell.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2. The present invention mainly includes a 
handle consisting of a first case 11 and a second case 12 having a 
substantially symmetrical profile to receive between them a lighting 
fixture 2 and a knife control mechanism 3. 
The knife control mechanism 3 mainly consists of a knife 31, a control 
plate 32, and a spring member 33. The knife 31 has a cutting edge 311 and 
a retaining dent 312 formed at an end of the knife 31 opposite to the 
cutting edge 311 to fitly and detachably receive a retaining head 321 
formed at a front portion of the control plate 32. The knife 31 also has a 
smoothly curved end 313 opposite to a pointed end of the cutting edge 311. 
By means of a first pivot 131 passing through holes separately formed at 
front portions of the first and the second cases 11, 12 and near the 
curved end 313 of the knife 31, the knife 31 may conveniently and 
pivotally turned about the first pivot 131 relative to the first and the 
second cases 11, 12. The control plate 32 has a front retaining head 321 
which may fitly and detachably engage into the retaining dent 312 of the 
knife 31, a rear end having a recess 322 formed at a side facing the knife 
31 to press against a front part of the spring member 33. The control 
plate 32 is movably attached to the second case 12 by means of a second 
pivot 132 which passes through holes separately formed at middle portions 
of the second case 12 and the control plate 32. The spring member 33 is 
generally L-shaped with its upward projected front part pressing against 
the recess 322 of the control plate 32 and its rear part extending into 
and lying on a locating groove 121 formed on an inner surface of the 
second case 12, such that the spring member 33 has enough resiliency to 
provide the control plate 32 with sufficient recovery force. 
The lighting fixture 2 includes a supporting plate 21 pivotally disposed 
between the first and the second cases 11, 12 by means of a third pivot 
133 passing through holes separately formed at rear portions of the first 
and the second cases 11, 12 and the supporting plate 21, a push botton 22, 
a sponge pad 23, a round cell 24, and a bulb 25. The supporting plate 21 
is formed at a middle portion with a through opening to serve as a cell 
seat 211 for receiving the sponge pad 23 and the round cell 24 therein. An 
elongated groove 212 extends from the cell seat 211 toward-a front end of 
the supporting plate 21 opposite to the hole formed at the rear portion of 
the supporting plate 21 through which the third pivot 133 passing to 
connect the first and the second cases 11, 12 and the supporting plate 21 
together. A bulb seat 213 is formed at the most front of the long groove 
212 to receive the bulb 25 therein. The bulb 25 has a positive and a 
negative pole pieces extending from a rear end of the bulb 25 into and 
along the long groove 212 to respectively connect with a positive and a 
negative poles of the cell 24. The push botton 22 is disposed above the 
cell 24 with its top portion slightly projecting from a through opening 
111 formed on the first case 11 corresponding to the cell seat 211. The 
sponge pad 23 is disposed directly above a bottom of the cell seat 211 and 
is formed at one side facing the long groove 212 with a long cutout to 
receive one of the pole pieces of the bulb 25 therein. The sponge pad 23 
also serves as a cushion for the push button 24 to keep the bulb 25 and 
the two poles of the cell 24 in a normally disconnected relationship, as 
shown in FIG. 4. The pole pieces of the bulb 25 contact with the two poles 
of the cell 24 and form a closed circuit to lighten the bulb 25 only when 
the push button 22 is depressed in a direction as shown by the arrow G in 
FIG. 5. 
FIG. 3 illustrates the present invention with the lighting fixture 2 being 
turned about the third pivot 133 to move out of the first and the second 
cases 11, 12. The supporting plate 21 of the lighting fixture 2 in this 
outward position facilitates the replacement of the old cell and/or bulb 
with the new ones. After the new cell is placed into the cell seat 211, 
first turn the whole knife upside down so that the push button 22 projects 
its top surface out of the through opening 111. Then the supporting plate 
21 is turned back into and between the first and the second cases 11, 12. 
The supporting plate 21 has a hook-like front portion which facilitates 
the stable fixing of the whole lighting fixture 2 to the cases 11, 12 
without easily moving out of the cases 11, 12. 
The bulb 25 is so positioned that, when the push button 22 is depressed to 
electrically connect the bulb 25 and the cell 24, it shall directly shine 
toward the cutting edge 311 of the knife 31 when the latter is pivotally 
turned out of the cases 11, 12 for use by a user in a dark place. 
Moreover, the push button 22 projects from the first case 12 at a position 
which just permits the user to conveniently press the push button 22 
without influencing the operation of the knife 31 by the user at the same 
time. 
FIG. 6 illustrates the turning back of the knife 31 into the two cases 11, 
12. The front part of the sting member 33 presses against the control 
plate 32 at its recess 322 so that the control plate 32 is normally 
exposed to outside from recesses 115 and 125 respectively formed on one 
side of the first and the second cases 11, 12 opposite to the side to 
where the knife 31 is adjacent. When the knife 31 is pulled out from the 
two cases 11, 12, the curved end 313 of the knife 31 permits the knife 31 
to be smoothly turned about the first pivot 131 and moved to an extended 
position in the direction as shown by the solid line in FIG. 6. The 
extended knife 31 is fixedly retained to a final position without being 
turnable anymore when the front retaining head 321 of the control plate 32 
engages with the retaining dent 312 of the knife 31. To close the knife 31 
into the cases 11, 12 again, just apply force on the control plate 32 in a 
direction shown by Arrow F in FIG. 6, causing the control plate 32 to turn 
about the second pivot 132 as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 6. At this 
point, the front retaining head 321 is disengaged from the retaining dent 
312, allowing the knife 31 to be turned back into the two cases 11, 12. 
The control means 3 of the knife may be replaced by other suitable 
mechanisms, such as a spring-loaded knife mechanism or any other folding 
mechanism. However, the lighting fixture 2 shall always be maintained in 
the same structure so as to provide light to the knife, especially to the 
cutting edge thereof.