Latchless locking mechanism for butterfly knife

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11167435-B2
Application number	US-201916712980-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 12, 2019
Priority date	Dec 13, 2018
Publication date	Nov 9, 2021
Grant date	Nov 9, 2021

Abstract

A knife having a latchless locking mechanism having a handle half with a left handle portion and a right handle portion held apart to form a blade groove. The left handle portion and the right handle portion each include a liner including a pivot slot and a first lock pin disposed between the first left handle portion and the first right handle portion. A blade having a tang that is pivotally and slidably coupled to the handle half with a pivot pin, the tang including a tang slot configured to accept the locking pin and a hook portion extending over the tang slot, the hook portion configured to capture the lock pin when the blade is in a locked position and thereby prevent rotation of the blade from the first locked position to the open position. A latchless locking system is also provided.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A knife, comprising:
a first handle half comprising:
a first left handle portion and a first right handle portion held apart to form a first blade groove between the first left handle portion and the first right handle portion, the first left handle portion including a first liner having a first pivot slot and the first right handle portion including a second liner having a second pivot slot; and
a first lock pin disposed between the first left handle portion and the first right handle portion;

a second handle half comprising:
a second left handle portion and a second right handle portion held apart to form a second blade groove between the second left handle portion and the second right handle portion, the second left handle portion including a third liner having a third pivot slot and the second right handle portion including a fourth liner having a fourth pivot slot; and
a second lock pin disposed between the second left handle portion and the second right handle portion, and
a blade having a tang, the tang being pivotally and slidably coupled to the first handle half with a first pivot pin and pivotally and slidably coupled to the second handle half with a second pivot pin, wherein the tang comprises a first tang slot configured to retain the first lock pin to prevent rotation of the first handle half relative to the blade when the blade is in a first locked position and a second tang slot configured to retain the second lock pin to prevent rotation of the second handle half relative to the blade when the blade is in the first locked position.

2. The knife of claim 1 , further comprising a first hook portion partially defining and extending at least partially over the first tang slot, wherein the first hook portion is configured to capture the first lock pin when the blade is in the first locked position and wherein the second tang slot comprises a second hook portion partially defining and extending at least partially over the second tang slot, wherein the second hook portion is configured to capture the second lock pin when the blade is in the first locked position.

3. The knife of claim 1 , where each pivot slot comprises a biasing member that biases the first and second pivot pins between the first locked position and a second unlocked position.

4. The knife of claim 3 , wherein each biasing member comprises a leaf spring integral to the liner.

5. The knife of claim 3 , wherein each pivot slot comprises a channel separating each biasing member from each nose portion of each liner allowing the biasing members to move independently of the nose portions.

6. The knife of claim 3 , wherein the pivot slots comprises a first indentation corresponding to the first locked position and a second indentation corresponding to the second unlocked position.

7. The knife of claim 1 , wherein each liner further comprises a through bore for positioning the first or second lock pin.

8. The knife of claim 1 , wherein each of the first and second left handle portions and the first and second right handle portions comprises one of a plurality of exterior sidewalls, wherein each exterior sidewall is coupled to one of the first, second, third, or fourth liner.

9. The knife of claim 8 , wherein at least one exterior sidewall or liner comprises a handle spacing extension configured to provide space between the first handle half and the second handle half when in the first locked position.

10. The knife of claim 1 , further comprising at least one washer disposed between each liner and the tang.

11. The knife of claim 1 , wherein each liner further comprises a jimping section configured to prevent the first handle half and the second handle half from independently sliding relative to the tang.

12. The knife of claim 11 , wherein each jimping section is interdigitated.

13. The knife of claim 1 , further comprising ears oppositely disposed on the tang and configured for a user to manipulate to move the blade from the first locked position to a second unlocked position.

14. The knife of claim 1 , wherein the tang comprises an end bumper extending from the tang configured for pushing the blade into the first locked position from a second unlocked position.

15. A locking system, comprising:
a first handle half and a second handle half, the first handle half comprising:
a left handle portion and a right handle portion held apart to form a blade groove between the left handle portion and the right handle portion, wherein the left handle portion and the right handle portion each includes a liner comprising a pivot slot; and
a first lock pin disposed between the left handle portion and the right handle portion;

a blade having a tang, the tang being pivotally and slidably coupled to the handle half with a pivot pin wherein the tang comprises a tang slot and a hook portion extending over the tang slot, wherein the hook portion is configured to capture the first lock pin when the blade is in a first locked position and thereby prevent rotation of the blade from the first locked position,
wherein the pivot slots each comprise a biasing member that biases the pivot pin along the pivot slot.

16. The locking system of claim 15 , wherein the pivot slots comprise a first indentation corresponding to the first locked position and a second indentation corresponding to a second unlocked position.

17. The locking system of claim 15 , wherein each biasing member comprises a leaf spring integral to each liner.

18. The locking system of claim 15 , wherein each liner further comprises a through bore for positioning the first lock pin.

19. The locking system of claim 15 , further comprising at least one washer disposed between each liner and the tang.

20. The locking system of claim 15 , wherein the pivot slots comprise a channel separating each biasing member from each nose portion of each liner, configured to allow the biasing members to move independently of the nose portions.

Assignees

• Benchmade Knife Co Inc

Inventors

• Elling Samuel
• Delplanche Mark
• Albing Hans
• France Jason
• Dickman Ryan

Classifications

• B26B1/04 Primary

  lockable in adjusted position · CPC title

• B26B1/10 Primary

  Handles · CPC title