Abstract: A hand knife 20, 120, of the type having a ring-like rotary driven blade useful for cutting meat and other suitable products; a blade housing 24, 124, 224 for a hand knife; and a circular blade 26, 126. The blade housing has a generally circular groove 38, 138, 238 to receive a ring gear portion 56, 256 of the blade while a cutting portion 60 extends from the housing. One arcuate wall portion 38b, 138b, 238b of the housing is frusto-conical and faces a similarly contoured peripheral portion of the blade ring-gear. In the preferred construction the housing recess is formed by a cylindrical wall that surrounds the ring-gear portion of the blade and by a frusto-conical wall that is encircled by the ring-gear portion of the blade. A blade retainer 28, 128 secured to the handle acts against a radial flange 62, 162 of the blade when tightened, to retain the blade within the groove, and when loosened allows removal of the blade from the housing.

Abstract: A hand knife 20, 120, 220 of the type having a ring-like rotary driven blade 26, useful for cutting meat and the like; a blade housing 24, 124, 224 for a hand knife; and an improved circular blade 26. The blade housing has a generally circular groove 38, 138, 238 in one axial end 40, 140, 240 of the housing. The groove is as wide at the open end as inwardly to allow the blade to be inserted and removed in an axial direction. The housing receives and fully encloses a ring gear portion 56 of the blade while a cutting portion 60 extends from the groove. A blade retainer 28, 228 secured to the handle acts against a radial flange 62 of the blade when tightened, to retain the blade within the groove, and when loosened allows removal of the blade from the housing without removing or loosening the housing from the handle.

Abstract: A rotary hand knife 20 of the type used for trimming meat, fat, and the like, and an improved pinion cap 58 and depth-of-cut gauge 47 for use with the knife. The cap provides a stepped mounting surface 149 for the gauge that forms a passage R for product scrap or slices to pass behind the gauge. The cap also has a lip 154 that blocks entry of product particles into the blade-driving pinion. The gauge has an arcuate portion 47a offset toward the blade from a base portion 47b that abuts the cap and slides axially on the cap surface to adjust the depth of cut.

Abstract: A hand knife 20, 120, 220 of the type having a ring-like rotary driven blade 26, useful for cutting meat and the like; a blade housing 24, 124, 224 for a hand knife; and an improved circular blade 26. The blade housing has a generally circular groove 38, 138, 238 in one axial end 40, 140, 240 of the housing. The groove is as wide at the open end as inwardly to allow the blade to be inserted and removed in an axial direction. The housing receives and fully encloses a ring gear portion 56 of the blade while a cutting portion 60 extends from the groove. A blade retainer 28, 228 secured to the handle acts against a radial flange 62 of the blade when tightened, to retain the blade within the groove, and when loosened allows removal of the blade from the housing without removing or loosening the housing from the handle.

Abstract: An improved hand knife 20 of the type used for trimming meat with a rotary gear-driven ring-like blade 34 guided by a ring-like housing 30. The blade is retained by a partial peripheral flange 90 of the housing and a pivoted retaining shoe 36 secured to the knife hand piece 22. A securing screw 40 and an adjustable abutment 80 retain and position the shoe against the blade. The arrangement allows convenient blade changing. A handpiece 22 has asymmetrically flared recesses 56, 130, 132 adjacent the blade for promoting discharge of product particles that tend to accumulate. The shoe and housing substantially cover gear teeth 42 of the blade.

Abstract: An improved product pusher for a cutting apparatus. The pusher slides downward along an upright receptacle to urge a comestible product, such as meat through a magazine movable past a cutter of the apparatus. The pusher has a catch for automatically retaining it at an upper end of the receptacle to facilitate loading the magazine. It also has two bottom surface portions with product engaging projections. In one arrangement the two surface portions are in a fixed angular relationship and a spring-biased stripper plate is beneath one of the surface portions, extending in a common plane with the other surface portion. In another arrangement the two surface portions are relatively pivoted and securable in either an angular relationship or co-planar.

Abstract: An improved hand knife 20 of the type used for trimming meat with a rotary driven ring-like blade 34 guided by a ring-like housing 30. The blade is retained by a partial peripheral flange 90 of the housing and a pivoted retaining shoe 36 secured to the knife hand piece 22. A securing screw 40 and an adjustable abutment 80 retain and position the shoe against the blade. The arrangement allows convenient blade changing.

Abstract: Cutting apparatus 20 for severing slices from a comestible product, especially meat bodies, having a rotary knife blade 28 and a rotary magazine 26 for moving comestible products in an endless path across the blade. The magazine has product receptacles 76, 77 constructed for convenient removal from a one-piece molded plastic supporting base 40, all of which facilitates cleaning the machine. The base 40 is received on the end of a drive shaft 30 and is adjustable in height relative to the shaft. A plate 71 secured to the shaft and clamped against the base secures the receptacles and eliminates wobble from clearance between the base and shaft. Projections 122, 123 from the plate 71 transmit rotary force between the drive shaft and base. Pusher plate assemblies 94, 96 slide along the receptacles to urge products through the magazine 26.

Abstract: An apparatus for tenderizing a comestible product, such as meat, comprising an intermittently advanced horizontal conveyor for conveying a product to be processed underneath a set of knives in a knife carriage supported for vertical reciprocation toward and away from the conveyor. The knife carriage has a plurality horizontal plate-like members fixed in vertical spaced relative to one another and discrete knife assemblies each comprising a rod-like member slidable in closely spaced vertically aligned apertures of upper plate-like members and extending to opposite sides thereof. The rod-like members each have a flange at the upper side of an intermediate plate-like member normally engaging the same. A discrete compression spring surrounding each of the rod-like members is interposed between the flange thereon and the under side of an upper plate-like member which is adjustable towards and from the intermediate plate-like member.

Abstract: A hand knife for use in processing meat. The knife has a handle, a circular housing secured to one end of the handle, and a rotatably power driven ring-like blade in part circumferentially contained by the housing. An arcuate wear pad or plate overlies a portion of the inside surface of the blade adjacent the handle limiting movement of the blade away from the blade housing near the handle and against the surrounding housing opposite the handle during use, distributing wear that otherwise occurs between the interior of the surrounding housing and the outside of the blade, and transferring some of the wear to the exterior of the wear plate and the inside of the blade. The ends of the wear plate are tapered outwardly and toward the blade and each has a surface transverse to and overlying the inside surface of the blade.

Abstract: An apparatus for tenderizing a comestible product, such as meat, comprising an intermittently advanced conveyor for conveying a product to be processed underneath a set of thin knives supported for vertical reciprocation toward and away from the conveyor by a knife carrier or carriage having three horizontal plate-like members fixed in vertical spaced relation to one another having a multiplicity of closely spaced vertically aligned apertures and discrete blade or knife assemblies each comprising a rod member slidable in each of the aligned apertures of the upper plate-like members and extending to opposite sides thereof. The rod members each having a flange at the upper side of the intermediate plate-like member normally engaging the same. A discrete compression spring surrounding each of the rod members and interposed between the flange thereon and the under side of the upper plate-like member which is adjustable towards and from the intermediate plate-like member.

Abstract: A hand knife having a ring-like rotary blade the diameter of which is considerably greater than its axial length rotated by a motor in a handle extending normal to the axis of rotation of the blade. The blade of the knife is rotatably supported in a blade housing that surrounds it and which can be removed together with the blade for sharpening of the blade by merely loosening a pair of threaded fasteners. The knife also has a member in the interior of the blade which guides a part being removed from a product being processed through the central opening of the blade and interferes or restricts the movement of the part with the circular rotation of the blade thereby increasing the efficiency of the cutting operation. The material guiding and restricting member is connected to the knife by the same fasteners which connect the knife housing to the knife handle, may be angularly adjusted within the blade and/or may also be disassembled from the knife without removing the fasteners.

Abstract: A manually held and manipulated knife for trimming a comestible product such as meat having a frame or frame assembly including a hand grasp or handle part extending radially outwardly from a ring-like part of short axial length and of considerable greater diameter than its axial length, a power driven ring-like blade also of short axial length rotatably supported in the ring-like part of the handle and having a radially inwardly facing circular cutting edge at one axial end, and a ring-like depth of cut control or gauge member within the blade and connected to the frame assembly for adjustment lengthwise of the axis of the blade by screws located radially outwardly of the gauge member. Clearance is provided between the blade and the depth of cut control or gauge member which clearance increases in the direction away from the cutting edge of the blade. The part of the depth of cut control or gauge member spaced from its connection to the frame assembly is flexible.

Abstract: A hand knife having a ring-like rotary blade the diameter of which is considerably greater than its axial length rotated by a motor in a handle extending normal to the axis of rotation of the blade. The blade of the knife is rotatably supported in a housing that surrounds a part of it and which can be removed for sharpening or placement of the blade by merely loosening a pair of threaded fasteners.

Abstract: A manually held and manipulated knife for trimming a comestible product such as meat having a frame or frame assembly including a hand grasp or handle part extending radially outwardly from a ring-like part of short axial length and of considerable greater diameter than its axial length, a power driven ring-like blade also of short axial length rotatably supported in the ring-like part of the handle and having a radially inwardly facing circular cutting edge at one axial end, and a ring-like depth of cut control or gauge member within the blade and connected to the frame assembly for adjustment lengthwise of the axis of the blade by screws located radially outwardly of the gauge member. Clearance is provided between the blade and the depth of cut control or gauge member which clearance increases in the direction away from the cutting edge of the blade.

Abstract: A manually held and manipulated knife for trimming a comestible product such as meat having a frame or frame assembly including a hand grasp or handle part extending radially outwardly from a ring-like part of short axial length and of considerable greater diameter than its axial length, a power driven ring-like blade also of short axial length rotatably supported in the ring-like part of the handle and having a radially inwardly facing circular cutting edge at one axial end, and a ring-like depth of cut control or gauge member within the blade and connected to the frame assembly for adjustment lengthwise of the axis of the blade by screws located radially outwardly of the gauge member. Clearance is provided between the blade and the depth of cut control or gauge member which clearance increases in the direction away from the cutting edge of the blade. The part of the depth of cut control or gauge member spaced from its connection to the frame assembly is flexible.

Abstract: Slicing apparatus having a magazine with upright inwardly inclined product receptacles on a rotatable member for carrying comestible workbodies in a circular path past a rotating knife in a table recess to sever slices from the bottom of workbodies, table height adjustment for controlling the thickness of slices being severed, a unitary plastic or like guard for the knife, knife sharpening apparatus carried by the guard, and a guard surrounding the rotatable workbody carrier.

Abstract: A food press for shaping comestible products, such as meat and the like, in a tubular die aperture of uniform cross-section by a ram reciprocable in the die aperture by a cylinder and piston-type fluid actuator constructed so that no portion of the piston rod that might extend into the die aperture is retracted into the cylinder of the fluid actuator. The die aperture is formed by a channel-shaped stationary die means and a channel-shaped movable die means closed at the end opposite the ram. The movable die means has a part at the closed end which when the die means are closed extends into the channel of the stationary die means and which with the closed end of the movable die means provides an end wall or surface in the die aperture facing the ram inclined to the length of the die aperture. The face of the ram is similarly inclined so as to be parallel with the opposed wall of the die aperture.

Abstract: An improved product pusher for a cutting apparatus. The pusher slides downward along an upright receptacle to urge a comestible product, such as meat through a magazine movable past a cutter of the apparatus. The pusher has a catch for automatically retaining it at an upper end of the receptacle to facilitate loading the magazine. It also has two bottom surface portions with product engaging projections. In one arrangement the two surface portions are in a fixed angular relationship and a spring-biased stripper plate is beneath one of the surface portions, extending in a common plane with the other surface portion. In another arrangement the two surface portions are relatively pivoted and securable in either an angular relationship or co-planar.