The Hoof-Cleaner Pocket Knife: Blade, Box Opener, Hoof Pick, Hammer and Corkscrew in One Handle

"In the drawings, H represents the inclosing case or handle of the implement; A B, a knife-blade and cigar-box opener, respectively, arranged at one end of the handle on a common pivot; and C, a hoof-cleaner, located at the opposite end of the handle. Each of these devices is held in position by springs in the back of the handle similar to those employed in any ordinary clasp-knife." "D is a small hammer-head, secured to the end of the handle carrying the hoof-cleaner; and E is a corkscrew pivoted between two extensions or flanges, e, of the handle. The corkscrew can be folded down between said flanges and the knife-blade, box-opener, and hoof-cleaner concealed within the handle when not in use."

**Liners and scales.** Cut two 10 cm liners from 20 × 3 mm flat bar, shaped as a knife handle, and two hardwood scales to match. Leave two short tabs on the liners' middle as the flanges e for the corkscrew. **Tools.** From stainless steel sheet, cut a knife blade and a cigar-box opener with a thin bent lip, both with tangs to pivot at one end, and a curved hoof pick with a tang for the other end. File each tang's end with a flat and a corner, as a clasp knife's. **Back springs.** Cut two strips about 2 mm thick from spring steel to lie along the handle's back between the liners, one for each end, each pressing on the tangs' flats. **Assemble.** Pin the tools and springs between the liners with rivets through the scales. Rivet a short block of steel square bar at the hoof-pick end as the hammer D. Wind a small steel-wire helix, set its straight end on a pin between the flanges so it folds down. **Test.** Open and shut each tool and feel it snap. Clean a hoof or a muddy boot sole with the pick, open a wooden box, tap in a tack, and draw a cork.

**Thomas Davis** of Scranton, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, filed US 177,696 on 28 April 1876; it is dated 23 May 1876. He held that the whole implement, when shut up, occupied no more space than an ordinary pocket-knife, and that its uses were too obvious to list. His claim is the knife-blade, cigar-box opener, hoof-cleaner, hammer and corkscrew combined with the inclosing case or handle. **Honest limits.** Flat-bar liners, hardwood scales and hand-cut stainless tools stand in for his factory knife. The notebook uses the straight cantilever formula; its spring's dimensions and offsets are examples. Your use of each tool is the result.