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Kelley vibrating knife

32K views 53 replies 18 participants last post by  Ted n Ms 
#1 ·
I've only seen photos of these contraptions. We're not up to the stage of needing a Silver Queen or something like that size. But we'd sure like something faster than the knife or plane. Are these vibrators worth it as an intermediate-sized uncapping tool? Thanks
 
#3 ·
I think that my Kelley electric heated vibrating knife was well worth its' cost when I bought it 19 years ago. I had used a hand knife for 15 years prior. Operate about 90 hives now.
I am glad that I went to a vibrating knife. It is at least twice as fast as a hand knife and your wrists don't ache after long uncaping sessions.
Walt
 
#5 ·
I have been thinking about buying the kelly vibrating knife. A larger beek from our club mentioned he had one years ago, tried it once and sold it. He suspected he may cut off his finger tips very quickly.

I've never run one before does this seem like a concern, I have several people come over and extract at my honey house and would be worried about them ( or me ) cutting themselves.:no:
 
#6 ·
I bought one this year and love it. As far as cutting off fingers, :no:, just have to uncap half the frame on both sides then flip it over and uncap the other half. Sooooo much better than a hand knife:thumbsup:. Cut my extracting time in half.:)
 
#18 ·
I tried looking on utube for a vknife being used, nope. Everything else. Even a radial extractor that spins the whole box, frames and all.. Very kewl

Its under hawaii honey production, Looks like it does about 8 to 10 boxes at a time.

Anywho if one of you lucky souls would post a vid of your uncapper in action we would eat it up :D
 
#19 ·
It vibrates side to side. You put the frame on top of the knife and pull it towards you, flip and repeat. I only do half of a side at a time, and then flip it end for end and do the other end. It works great.:)
 
#22 ·
I got one because I couldn't afford a auto uncapper, and there was tooooo much honey to do with a hand knife. It works well for those who have more honey to do than is feasible with a hand knife. Someday though I will have to upgrade to an auto uncapper...:).
 
#23 ·
James, thanks for your input. My thoughts were confirmed that the Vibrating Knife may be a good intermediate tool for our uncapping needs. I have no desire to operate 1,000's of hives, but no desire to work harder than necessary.
 
#41 ·
Re: Kelley Vibrating Knife

Here is a 60 sec. video of me using my Kelley vibrating knife and scratching low points on the comb. Notice that you can hardly see the knife vibrating.
Knife blade has one speed. Tempature is controlable.
Also video has audio track.
Walt


http://s440.photobucket.com/albums/...=view&current=Honeyextractionwithhotblade.flv
Is your honey cold? It sure looks to me like you are working hard to uncap a half capped frame of honey. I have seen jiggle knives in use a long time ago and the user pushed the frame across the blade in one easy motion w/out sawing it back and forth like you do. That's what I was expecting to see when I clicked on the video.

I just spent a week of 10 hours days extracting w/ a steam heated hot knife. Comparing what I saw in the video w/ what I experienced firast hand I'd go w/ the steam operated hot knife. Does anyone have a video of a steam heated jiggle knife?

Walt, thanks for the video. Looks like it works for you. I just need to move along a little faster. Good video.
 
#27 ·
I am also considering the purchase of one of these knives. I noticed this year that in using my electric knife on the one piece plastic frames that I would pull off a small curl of plastic on some passes. Is this just me (operator error) or is this common? Will this happen with the vibrating knife as or more frequently?
 
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