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The Guarded Orange Knife: A Guard That Sets the Cut to the Peel, a Nut-Pick at the Other End
TheChef

Created by

TheChef

30. September 2026DK
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The Guarded Orange Knife: A Guard That Sets the Cut to the Peel, a Nut-Pick at the Other End

Peeling an orange with a knife cuts into the fruit and lets the juice run, and prising the peel off takes the fingernails. Harry M. Hamrick of Philadelphia received US 461,914, dated 27 October 1891, for "a simple implement especially designed for cutting the peel of oranges, and adapted, also, for use as a nut-pick, and also to the removal of the peel from oranges after the same has been cut": a handle with a blade at one end, preferably with two cutting edges, beside a convex shield that regulates the depth of the cut to the thickness of the peel, and at the other end a pick curved at its outer end to go between the cut peel and the fruit, or to pick nuts. This rung works out the peel's share and the depth to set, then files the blade and guard, fits a pick at the other end, and peels oranges and picks walnuts.
Intermediate
About 3 hours

Instructions

1

The peel's depth

Loading Jupyter Notebook...
2

The nut-pick before it

The embedded blueprint makes a one-piece nut pick. Hamrick puts a curved pick on the end of an orange knife, for the peel or for nuts.
3

Read US 461,914

"The object of my invention is the production of a simple implement especially designed for cutting the peel of oranges, and adapted, also, for use as a nut-pick, and also to the removal of the peel from oranges after the same has been cut; and the invention consists, essentially, in providing a blade which preferably should have two cutting-edges with a shield or guard, so as to regulate the depth of the cut" "The nut-pick or peel-remover, as will be seen from the drawings, is preferably curved at its outer end, as it can thus be more easily inserted between the cut sections of the peel of the orange when used for that purpose, while at the same time it is thus better adapted for use as a nut-pick."
4

Make the knife and peel an orange

**Handle.** Turn or rasp a 12 cm hardwood handle and drill both ends. **Guard.** File a small disc of stainless steel sheet with a convex outer face, drill it in the middle, and fit it on one end of the handle as B. **Blade.** Cut a short blade from stainless steel sheet, sharpen both edges and the point, and set it through the guard into the handle so its tip stands about 5 mm past the guard's face. **Pick.** File a 5 mm stainless rod to a point, curve its last centimetre, and set it in the other end. **Test.** Score an orange's peel in six segments, the guard riding on the peel, and lift the sections off with the pick. Check whether any cut reached the fruit. Crack walnuts and pick out their meat.

Materials for this step:

Hardwood Handle StockHardwood Handle Stock1 piece
Stainless Steel SheetStainless Steel Sheet1 piece
Mild Steel RodMild Steel Rod0.1 meter
Two-Part EpoxyTwo-Part Epoxy1 piece
OrangeOrange2 pieces
WalnutWalnut4 pieces

Tools needed:

RaspRasp
Cordless DrillCordless Drill
Drill Bit SetDrill Bit Set
Tin SnipsTin Snips
Files (Hand File)Files (Hand File)
Sharpening StoneSharpening Stone
Bench ViseBench Vise
Round-nose PliersRound-nose Pliers
Digital Caliper 6-InchDigital Caliper 6-Inch
Leather Work GlovesLeather Work Gloves
5

A knife that cuts too deep, too shallow or slips

Guarded orange knife troubleshooting.

Flow

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6

History and honest limits

**Harry M. Hamrick** of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, filed US 461,914 on 9 March 1891; it is dated 27 October 1891. His drawing shows the handle A, the guard B convex on its outer face, the knife C and the nut-pick and peel-remover D. His claims cover the handle, guard, knife and pick combined, and the handle, knife and guard. **Honest limits.** A hand-filed stainless blade and pick in a hardwood handle stand in for his made implement. The notebook treats the orange as a sphere with even peel; its values are examples. Your peeled oranges are the result.

Materials

6

Tools Required

10

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