GB2247830A - Peeler - Google Patents

Abstract

A peeler has a handle (1) with a hollow buoyancy chamber (12) therein for providing positive and permanent buoyancy in water. The chamber (12) preferably has a cellular structure with a plurality of cavities within a surface skin of the handle (1). <IMAGE>

Description

PEELER This invention relates to peelers of the hand-held type.

These have a blade which includes a cutting edge adjacent a restricted aperture which when drawn across a vegetable or fruit causes a shaving of peel or skin to be taken off. Such peelers are primarily used for potatoes but can also be used on other similarly structured vegetables and fruits such as swedes, turnips, apples and pears.

The blade may be fixed into a handle by which the user manipulates it, or may swivel slightly in that handle.

It is an irritating problem encountered in the use of such a peeler, at least when peeling vegetables which is conventionally done in or above a bowl of water, that if it is dropped and falls into the water, which is normally muddy and/or full of peelings, it cannot readily be found and has to be dredged for by the user.

Some conventional peelers have had wooden handles which in some cases would at least when new have had positive bouyancy; but the handles were not designed to be buoyant and in any case the wood frequently became waterlogged.

The object of the present invention is a peeler of which the handle has positive and permanent buoyancy so that if the utensil falls into a bowl of water it is readily visible and retrievable by the user.

To this end, the handle of a peeler includes a hollow whereby it forms a buoyancy chamber. The buoyancy should be sufficient for at least the end of the handle remote from the blade at least to break the surface of water in which the peeler finds itself. The handle is preferably a one-piece moulded entity of plastics material, and the hollow buoyancy chamber may extend for substantially the whole length of the handle which is held by the hand of the user. The handle may be of blown plastics, having a cellular internal structure with a plurality of cavities within a surface skin.

Particular embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein Figure 1 is a diametrical section through a first embodiment with swivellable blade; and Figure 2 is a diametrical section through a second embodiment which has a fixed blade.

In the first embodiment, a potato peeler has a handle 1 made up of a solid part 2 and a hollow part 3.

To one side of the solid part 2 project pair of lugs 4, 5, the lug 4 having a blind socket for the reception of the end of a shaft 6 which passes through a continuous bore in the lug 5 and is fast with a blade 7 having a sharp cutting edge 8 adjacent a restricted slit-like aperture 9, in a manner which is per se conventional for peelers. The shaft is retained in position in the lugs by circlips or the like 10, 11. The mounting allows a slight swivelling of the blade about the axis defined by the shaft.

The hollow portion 3 of the handle extends for substantially the whole of the length of the handle which is to be held by the user and, having a substantial gasfilled or air-filled volume 12 within it acts as a buoyancy chamber for the utensil as a whole and it causes at least the end 13 to break the surface of water into which the utensil falls. This enables visibility and ready retrieval of the utensil.

In the embodiment of Figure 2, a blade 7' with cutting edge 8' and slit 9' is fixedly moulded into a solid portion 2' of a handle 1' which has, exactly as for the first embodiment a hollow portion 3 with a gas-filled buoyancy chamber 12 within it so that, once again, at least the end portion 13 of the handle remote from the blade will break the surface of water into which the utensil falls.

In an alternative embodiment, the handle is blot: moulded and has internally a substantially uniform-density cellular structure making up the bouyancy chamber, within an integral plastics surface skin. The cellular structure provides positive and permanent buoyancy in water.

Claims (8)

CLAIMS:

1. A peeler having a handle with a hollow buoyancy chamber therein for providing positive and permanent buoyancy in water.

2. A peeler according to claim 1 wherein the chamber has a cellular structure with a plurality of cavities within a surface skin of the handle.

3. A peeler according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the buoyancy is sufficient for the handle of the peeler when in a state of equilibrium in water with respect to the displacement of the water, to break the surface of the water.

4. A peeler according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the buoyancy chamber is gas filled.

5. A peeler according to any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the buoyancy chamber extends for substantially the whole length of the portion of the handle which is to be held by the user.

6. A peeler according to any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein the handle has a solid part in addition to the hollow part and said solid part is moulded around a shaft which is fast with a blade.

7. A peeler according to any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein a pair of lugs project from one side of the handle, a first one of said lugs having a blind socket for the reception of the end of a shaft, wherein said socket is aligned with a bore in the second one of said lugs.

8. A peeler according to claim 7 wherein a shaft which is fast with a blade extends through said bore and is received in said socket and is held in position within the shaft and in the socket by lateral projections on the shaft, such that at least slight rotation of the blade about the axis of the shaft is permitted.