1874 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



937 



used in a ten frame body. In our extract- 

 ing upper stories this wide spacing. If in., 

 makes great plump fat combs. Now, to 

 uncap, set the comb to be uncapped on end, 

 on the usual sticks, over the uncapping- tank, 

 with the edges of the comb toward you, held 

 in position with the left hand. We start the 

 knife at the lower end of the comb to be im- 

 capped. At this stage the comb, for conven- 

 ience, will stand on a slant to the left. Now 

 begin the upward movement of the knife, 

 back and forth, endwise, with a seesaw mo- 

 tion. This makes the knife cut more keenly. 

 Now, about the time you see the cappings 

 are going to fall off the knife, with the left 

 hand push the comb to the right until it 

 stands perpendicular. If you are now hold- 

 ing the knife at the correct angle, the bevel- 

 ed edge on the knife being on a level with 

 the comb after it is uncapped, the lower edge 

 of the knife will be an inch or so off from 

 the uncapped surface, so the cappings will 

 clear the comb and fall direct into the uncap- 

 ping-tank below. Uncap deep, clear down 

 to the frame. 



I am convinced that the best honey could 

 be produced by using nothing but foundation 

 in the upper stories to extract from; but as 

 this is impractical the next best thing to do 

 is to uncap deep so the comb, when given to 

 the bees to be refilled, will be. say, one inch 

 thick. This leaves the cells only | inch deep, 

 and is the next best to foundation. Then by 

 l|-inch spacing the combs uncap very nicely, 

 and I never could see but the honey was just 

 as good as if more combs were used in the 

 upper story— i. e. , closer spacing. 



Keep moving your knife up, with the 

 drawing motion mentioned above, until you 

 go the whole length of the comb; and if you 

 have done a good job. and there were no in- 

 dentations or unusually rough surface, your 

 comb will be finished with one stroke of the 

 knife. 



And here let me say, no one will ever go 

 back to narrow spacing after once trying 

 wide spacing; but don't forget to uncap 

 deep. This leaves your combs the regular 

 thickness when extracted, and I think the 

 honey will be of a little better quality in 

 these thin combs. 



I think that, after reading thus far, it will 

 be easy to convince the reader how handi- 

 capped we have been with the regular short 

 Bingham knife as it has been manufactured 

 heretofore. Of course, those who still prac- 

 tice close spacing will need the regular 

 knife. That brings me to a point. We shall 

 need two knives- the new long broadside 

 knife and the "regular" knife. I inclose a 



photograph showing the proper way of tak- 

 ing hold of the kmfe. The hand is turned 

 up in order to show more cle irly the arrange- 

 ment of the fingers. The thumb and first 

 finger grip clear down on the shank of the 

 knife; in fact, the first finger projects down 

 by the blade | inch or so, while the thumb goes 

 clear down and rests firmly against the blade, 

 near the shank. This way of taking hold of 

 the knife gives one very much better lever- 

 age than he can get by taking hold of the 

 handle only. 



You will notice that, with this grip, the 

 handle can be made shorter when I prefer. 

 Instead of cutting out that part of the ma- 

 terial between the blade and where the shank 

 turns into the handle, leaving, say, | inch 

 there, and turning it back toward the handle 

 as shown at d, in the drawing, so as to make 

 a wider and better grip for the thumb and 

 first finger, as the narrow edge of the shank 

 is a little sharp, and hard on the first finger. 

 You will notice that, with the first finger 

 clear down to the bottom of the shank, one 

 has a very great leverage over taking hold 

 of the handle only; and as one adds to the 

 length of the blade, as the new knife will be, 

 he needs all the leverage possible. 



This matter of uncapping- knives and how 

 to uncap is getting to be very important, 

 since the tendencies of the time are in favor 

 of leaving the honey in the hive until it is all 

 capped and cured, before extracting. 



Remus, Michigan. 



[We are making arrangements to put on 

 the market another year, if the trial test in 

 the hands of practical honey -producers jus- 

 tifies it, a honey- knife like that shown in 

 the illustration above, having on the shank 

 a semicircular finger-piece flange on each 

 side. When the knife is held as in the 

 lower illustration the thumb and fore finger 

 get a good solid comfortable bearing on the 

 broadened edges much better than with the 

 thin knife-edge shank of the regular style 

 of knife. This thumb- and- finger shank will 

 in nowise interfere with handling the knife 

 in the old way; but it is obvious that, the 

 closer one can get with his hand and fingers 

 to the blade, the greater leverage he will 

 necessarily have, and less strain on the 

 wrist. If the blade be longer it is much 

 more important to get closer to the work. 



The Coggshall flattened handle will also 

 probably be used in connection with this 

 turned-over edge of the shank, or that poi- 

 tion between the handle and the blade. The 

 user then can grasp the tool in any fashion 

 that he desires. 



It is hardly necessary to state that Mr. 

 Townsend is one of the most extensive 

 honey- producers in the United States, and 



