Patent Publication Number: US-6220133-B1

Title: Graduated food-cutting knife and method of use thereof

Description:
This application claims benefit of Provisional 06/097,532, filed Aug. 21, 1998. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a food-cutting knife, and more particularly to a graduated food-cutting knife and to the method of use thereof. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     When wanting to obtain a precise quantity of soft but solid food products such as butter, it is known to measure the butter in a graduated measure cup. To measure the butter is a rather long and messy operation. It is possible to weigh the butter, but then one must own kitchen scales, which is not a common occurence in domestic kitchens. To melt the butter is a rather long operation, considering that the only purpose thereof is to obtain the desired quantity of butter. 
     Canadian patent No 344,986 dated May 1933 with inventor William Duncan, discloses both a graduated scale stick and a separate knife, for cutting measured portion of butter. The graduated scale stick is applied along one side of the butter block with its graduated scale portion extending away from the butter block, so that this graduated scale be exposed for visual inspection by the user. The knife is used orthogonally of the graduate scale stick, so that the knife blade register with and remain within the plane extending through a selected graduated scale indicia corresponding to the butter body portion to be sliced. Obviously, this system is relatively complex, in that it requires two separate elements: the knife, and the stick, which must both be positioned at exactly right angle to one another and maintained motionless relative to one another. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,560 issued Apr. 28, 1992 to Michael Hulsey, discloses a conventional “scout” knife having an elongated handle and a blade pivotally elongated feeler gauge blade with a tapered gauging section on the feeler gauge blade having measuring indicia thereon. The feeler gauge blade has a near end and a projecting end with its near end being pivoted on a pivot pin with the cutting blade. One of the bearing plates is between the near end and the side piece while another bearing plate is between the near end of the feeler gauge blade and the near end of the cutting blade. The near end of the feeler gauge blade has a keeper receiving cutout, to maintain the blade in its open position, and abutment, to arrest the position of the blade in its closed position. Obviously, there is no means provided to prevent movement of the blade from its open to its closed position, since it is destined to retract into the handle. This is not as efficient as a handle fixedly secured in coaxial arrangement with its handle. 
     OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
     It is the gist of the present invention to provide a cutting tool, and a method of use thereof, for allowing rather precise quantities of soft or hard, solid foodstuff to be cut singlehandedly in a simple manner. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In accordance with the teachings of the invention, there is disclosed a knife for cutting a selected quantity of solid soft-bodied foodstuff, said knife of the type comprising a handle, a blade integrally attached to and aligned with said handle, the blade defining an outer free tip, and graduated marks along said blade, and a method of use thereof, said method comprising the steps of: a) flatly applying the knife blade against a flat surface of the soft foodstuff; b) sliding the knife along the soft-bodies foodstuff so as to align the blade graduated marks on the soft foodstuff according to the selected quantity of foodstuff to be cut; c) pivoting the knife around the blade tip so that the blade becomes transversely positioned relative to the soft foodstuff; d) transversely driving the knife blade into the soft foodstuff until the blade extends completely through the soft foodstuff; e) pivoting the knife around the knife blade tip so as to cut the soft foodstuff along a cutting line; and f) cutting the selected quantity out of the soft foodstuff according to the cutting line made in step (e). 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     In the annexed drawings: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cutting knife according to the invention; and 
     FIGS. 2 a - 2   d  are perspective views, at a slightly smaller scale, sequentially suggesting the use of the cutting knife according to the invention for cutting a rather precise quantity of butter out of a block of butter. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     FIG. 1 shows a knife  10  according to the invention. Knife  10  comprises a handle  12  integrally linked to a blade  14 , which is aligned therewith in a conventional manner. Blade  14  comprises graduated marks  16  at regular intervals therealong. Marks  16  can be of any suitable unit, e.g. distance units (e.g. centimeters) or volume units (e.g. milliliters or ounces) according to predetermined references, e.g. corresponding to uniform butter block dimensions so as to yield the volume of butter which will be obtained by widthwisely cutting the butter block. Indeed, butter blocks are often sold for domestic use in one pound blocks of uniform rectangular shape, and therefore a distance graduation on the blade  14  can yield rather precise volume quantities of butter, by using the knife  10  according to the method described hereinafter. 
     FIG. 2 a  shows that the knife  10  is first positioned with its blade  14  lying flatly on the flat top surface of the rectangular butter block  18  and in a subtantially longitudinally aligned fashion relative thereto. The graduated marks  16  are then used to select the quantity of butter that will be used, by aligning the desired mark  16   a  with the end edge portion  18   a  of the butter block  18 . 
     Once this is accomplished, the knife is pivoted around its blade tip  14   a  as shown in FIG. 2 b,  with the knife tip slightly digging into the butter block so as to provide a rather stable anchoring means to the pivotal movement of the knife  10 . 
     Once the knife  10  has reached a substantially vertical position, its blade  14  is vertically downwardly driven into the butter block  18  as shown in FIG. 2 c.    
     Afterwards, knife  10  can be laterally pivoted around its tip so as to cut the butter block  18  along a cutting line  20 , as shown in FIG. 2 d.  To finish the cutting operation, the knife  10  can then be used to cut the remaining portion of the block  18  by aligning its blade  14  with the cutting line  20  which has been formed in block  18 . Preferably, the knife blade will be applied against the side edge portion of the block of butter, instead of the center, to cut the entire butter block in a single pivoting movement. 
     Thus, a selected quantity of butter can be obtained due to the uniform quantity provided in the butter blocks and due to the graduation and method of use of the knife  10 . 
     Although the present method has been described for use on a butter block, it is understood that any suitable soft-bodied foodstuff could be sliced with this graduated scale bladed knife, which does not exclude soft-bodies non-edible goods, and even solid good could also be cut in this manner. 
     An alternate embodiment would include a self-adhesive label with volume indicia thereon, to be applied against an unmarked knife blade.