US2841924A - Girdling tool - Google Patents

Description

ly 8, 1 5 w. J. FlNK 2,841,924

GIRDLING TOOL Filed Jan. 11, 1957 INVENTOR. WILL/SJ F/NK' BY mMw M ATTORNEY United States Patent 2,841,924 GIRDLING TOOL Willis J. Fink, Corona, Calif. Application Januar 11 1957, Serial No. 633,744

' 1 Claim. c1. ta-1 My invention relates generally to grape vine culture and more particularly to the practice of girdling the branches or canes of thevines during the growing season to obtain various beneficial effects upon the product.

Certain varieties of cultivated grapes such as the Thompson seedless, have, the, undesirable characteristic of loosening from their stems a few days after the bunches of grapes are pickedfrom the vines, thus rendering the grapes unmarketable for table use. i

It is the present practice in the culture of suchv grapes for table use to employ various forms of devices by which the branches or canes of the vines are girdled to the thickness of the bark during the early-part of thegrowingseason when the gra esaie very small, with'the advantageous result that the vines produce larger than usual grapes which hold tightly to their stems when ripe so as to render them acceptable for the higher price market of table grapes.

An object of my invention is to provide a girdling tool which is structurally characterized to enable it to be manipulated with the utmost ease and dispatch by unskilled labor to smoothly and uniformly girdle the vine canes through the thickness of the bark by cleanly shaving or chiseling out a narrow band of bark, all in a manner to obviate tearing or ripping of vine stock or of the bark at the edges of the removed band of bark, with the attending injury to the vine.

Another object of my invention 'is to provide a girdling tool having conventional spaced parallel side cutting edges predetermining the width of the band of bark removed from a cane and operating in conjunction with a novel means which may provide one or more other cutting edges spanning the space between the said side cutting edges and projecting at a chisel-forming angle with respect to the bark of a cane being girdled, so as to facilitate and expedite the smooth shaving away of the bark between the side cutting edges and thereby positively insure the clean, non-injurious girdling of the cane.

With these and other objects in view, my invention resides in the combinations, arrangements and functional relationships of elements as set forth in the following specification and particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings,

Figure l is a view showing in side elevation, one form of girdling tool embodying my invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2--2 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 1 with a portion of the tool in section, showing the tool operating upon a cane to girdle same;

Figure 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Figure 3;

Figure 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Figure 2; and

Figures 6 is a fragmentary view showing in side eleva- 2,841,924 Patented July 8, 1958 sociated with a conventional form of girdling tool comprising a pair of supporting members in the form of arms S and S which are pivotally connected intermediate their ends by means of a flat head screw 10. The arm S is bifurcated to provide a pair of spaced ears 11 and 12 between which is received a single ear 13 provided on the arm S and having a steel bushing 14 through which the screw 10 freely extends. The ear 12 is provided with a threaded opening 15 therethrough into which the screw 10 is threaded until'tight with the head 16 of the screw seating in a countersunk opening 17 through the ear 11. e As the length of the bushing 14 slightly exceeds the thickness of the car 13, the screw 10 when securely tightened,

remains so indefinitely without any tendency to loosen as a result of pivotally moving the arms S and S relatively.

At one side of their pivotal connection the arms S and S form oppositely curved handles 20 and 21 providing comfortable gripping surfaces, whereas at the oppositeside of their pivotal connection the arms are provided with jaws in the form of cutting elements E and B. These cutting elements are preferably constructed of crucible sheet steel and are identically formed into an slightly flared U-cro ss section'to provide attaching por j tions 25 at one end which are rigidly secured to the respective arms S and S by rivets 26.

A coil spring 27 mounted at its ends on pins 28 and 29 projecting from the confronting sides of the handles 20 and 21, respectively, urge the arms in a direction to move the elements E and E towards each other to the closed position shown in Figure 1.

Intermediate their ends the confronting fiat. faces 30 of the elements E and E are cut away to provide elongated rectangular discharge slots 31 the side edges of which are ground to provide spaced parallel side cutting edges 32 of concave contour, the lengths of which extend perpendicular with respect to the axis of the pivotal connection between the arms S and S, with the cutting edges of one element directly opposite the cutting edges of the other element as shown in Figure 4.

For the purpose of my invention, the outer end of the slot 31 of the cuttingelernent E is laterally upset between the side cutting edges 32 to provide a lip 33 having a cutting edge 34 which spans the space transversely between the side cutting edges 32 and projects at a chisel-forming angle with respect to the bark b of a cane 0 when the tool is applied to the latter as shown in Figure 3 during the operation of the invention which is as follows:

By gripping and applying pressure to the handles 20 and 21 the arms S and S are moved from their closed position shown in Figure 1 against the action of the spring 27, so as'to move the cutting elements E and E away from each other to enable them to receive a cane c therebetween, upon which the pressure upon the handles is relieved so as to permit the spring to move and yieldingly maintain the elements E and E in clamping engagement with the cane as clearly shown in Figure 3. The tool is now rotated upon the cane in a path substantially perpendicular to the length of the cane to cause the side cutting edges 32 to cut into the bark b along two spaced parallel lines as the cutting edge 34 of the lip 33 smoothly chisels or shaves away the bark between the cutting edges 32, thus cleanly girdling the cane without tearing or ripping the bark at the edges of the girdling band or otherwise damaging the cane.

Reference will now be had to Figure 6 which shows a conventional form of girdling tool with which is associated a second form of my invention difiering structurally of my invention applied to' a girdling and functionally'from thefirst form above described solely by the provision of a second lip 33a in addition to the lip 33. The lip 33a is provided with a cutting edge 34a so as to be identical in construction to the lip 33, and is disposed at the inner endof the'cutting element E to function in the same manner as, and in conjunction with the lip 33. v

From-the foregoing description-and particularly from Figure 5 of the drawings, it will be entirely clear that my new and novel contribution to the art res-ides in themevision of the lip 33 and/or 34- which. patentably distinguishes my girdling tool both structurally and functionally from girdling tools heretofore proposcdi Such prior art tools depend entirely on the closed end of the slot 31 toscrapeout'the channeled bark;

Although this commonplace or usualtype of girdlingtoolfunctions fairly well when new, it -utterly fails to perfo'rmits-intended function after a very short period of use,as the closed end of the slot rapidly becomes inoperative'and merely slides over the-channeled bark instead of chiseling .or peeling it outsmoothlyas is accomplished indefinitely with maximum-efliciency by my improved lip 33 and/or 34.

It will be manifest that the provision of the lip 33 and/ or 33a vastly increases the efficiency of tools heretofore available to the public, by providing a keen, durable cutting edge as clearly shown in detail in Figure 5, which will remain operable to cleanly and'smoothly chisel or peel out the band of bark between the side cutting edges 32, thus not only producinga first class girdling job indefinitely, but accomplishing it at'minimum cost.

I claimi A cane girdling tool comprising: a pair of supportingmembers; means pivotally connecting said members intermediate their ends to form co-acting handles at one side of the pivotal connection cutting elements secured to said members at the other side of said pivotal connection and having spaced blades defining a discharge slot therebetween; means co-acting with said members to urge same in a direction to move said cutting elements towards each other into clamping engagement with a cane when interposed between the elements; said blades having parallel cutting edges of concave contour extending perpendicularly with respect to the axis' of saidpivotal connection, and with said cutting edges-of one element disposed directly opposite the cutting edges of the other element for co-action therewith in making two spaced circumferential cuts in the bark of the cane under the action of said urging means when the tool is rotated on the cane; at least one of said cutting'ele'ments being laterallyupset between its blades to provide-a lip having a cutting'edge spanning the space between said" blades and disposed'at a chisel forming angle to shaveaway-the bark of the cane between the circumferential cuts as the' tool whereby to cleanly girdle the cane.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES-PATENTS Sweden';... Oct; 12, 1926 is rotated,

Images