Improvements in Claw-hammers or the like, Applicable for Drawing or Extracting Nails.or Tacks.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 25th Nov., 1890-Accepted, 27th Dec., 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Claw-hammers or the like, Applicable for Drawing
or Extracting Nails.or Tacks.
A communication from abroad by SAMUEL MONTGOMERY, of No. 115, West
12th Street, in the City, County, and State of New York, United States of
America, Inventor.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E:, of the Agency for Foreign
Patent Solicitors, 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street, Manchester, both in
the County of Lancaster, and 523, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
The invention has relation particularly to claws employed for drawing or extracting
nails and the improvements are especially applicable to claw hammers, nail claws, box
openers, and all such implements which include a claw or claws.
The chief object of the invention is to provide these implements with a claw or
claws which are so shaped and sharpened as to cut easily into wood below the location
of the nail head, which will firmly grasp the nail in the region of the head and which
will effect the extraction of the nail with a minimum of damage to the surface of the
wood.
To accomplish all of this and to secure other and further advantages in the matter
of construction, operation and use the improvements involve certain new and useful
peculiarities of construction and arrangements or combinations of parts as will be
herein first fully described and then pointed out in the claims.
In the drawings are shown at Figure 1 a side view, at Figure 2 a front view and
at Figure 3 a section and elevation on a plane through line of Figure 1 of a claw
hammer embodying these improvements.
Figure 4 is a side view showing the improved claw applied upon a nail extractor or
hox opener, as such implements are commonly called.
In all these figures, like letters of reference wherever they occur indicate corre-
sponding parts.
A is the hammer head, B the handle socket and the handle of a claw
hammer.
These parts may be of any preferred form and size, whether like a carpenter's
hammer, a tack hammer, or any other class. D D are the two jaws which together
form the nail claw. In ordinary constructions these jaws are flat or comparatively
flat on their outer faces and of such form that the head of a nail must first be raised
above the surface of the material in which it is driven before it can be grasped and
extracted. According to the improvements these outer faces, represented at a a are
inclined downwardly and outwardly from the margin of the angular opening between
the jaws, as best shown in Figure 3, and this formation leaves the two jaws in the
shape of the edges of cutting tools. The edges, represented at bb, are sharpened as
nuch as may be desired.
The inner transverse face of the jaw is also inclined, and, meeting the incline
of the outer transverse face of the jaw, forms a cutting edge along the angular
opening.
The incline of the outer face extends for the greater part of the length of the
jaws and the cutting edge does not extend above the general outline of said jaws.
The hammer with its nail claw, being constructed as thus far explained, is used for
extracting nails by locating the opening in the claw over the nail head, then driving
the claw down by a blow of the hand or with a suitable implement on the haminer
head. The cutting edges enter the wood, cutting below the nail head, which head is

page_text: then grasped by the claw, and the nail may be drawn in the ordinary manner or with
other implements.
The cutting, effected in the wood is very slight and does not damage the wood more
than a trifle more than does the nail head. The improved claw is peculiarly advan
tageous in drawing the wire nails now commonly used, because the heads are thin and
it is desirable to grasp the shank of the nail, which the cutting edges are well designed
to do. The same form of claw may be applied on box openers which are bars having
a nail claw at one or both ends. One form of these is shown in Figure 4, wherein
E represents the sbank or bar having the improved nail claw applied at one end. Fis
a projection at one side of the shank and. near the claw to receive blows from any
implement. This is an advantageous feature of box openers whether having the
cutting edges or not.
In the hammer as well as in the box opener, the portion which forms the fulcrum
or the portion about which the implement is turned when drawing the nail is made
flat as best indicated at c, in Figures 2 and 3, so that when the implement is being
used it will not unnecessarily cut into or indent the wood.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1st. A claw hammer, claw, or the like, having the outer face of the jaws trans-
versely inclined downward and outward from the edge of the angular opening between
the jaws, and having the inner transverse face of the jaws inclined, and meeting the
incline of the outer transverse face, forming a sharp cutting edge at the meeting of
the inclines, which cutting edge does not extend above the general outline of
the jaws.
2nd. A claw hammer, claw, or the like, having the outer transverse face downward
and outward inclined from the angular opening between the jaws, forming along the
said angular opening a cutting edge which does not extend above the general outline
of the jaws, and near the angle of said angular opening made curved or convex,
forming a fulcrum for the device.
3rd. The projection F located on one side of the shank and near the claws of a box
opener, for the purpose explained.
Dated this 24th day of November 1890.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.