electric hot knife?

[dickndoris]

Hi all.
Anyone had experience with hot knifes as opposed to cold un capping knifes? Looking at getting one of Thornies own brand that seem reasonably priced now. Just about to take 19 supers off for extraction so will be busy. Some are pretty lumpy too I have some that is all the bees doing as there has been no foundation or wires in so will be stored for cut comb. Cuts the work down a little but not for the bees of course;-)

 

[Black Comb]

My Thorne's hot knife kept tripping the circuit breaker this year so I reverted to a bread knife. I came to the conclusion that for my 20 or so supers annually I would not buy one now as the benefit is not that great.
I use Manley frames in the supers so they are easy to slice with the bread knife.
Hope this helps.

 

[For want of a better word]

Use a hot air gun.... easier and less messy than a knife if used carefully... a scratch comb can be used in any difficult bits

 

[dickndoris]

That's not good. Hope you sent it back? The bit that you did use it, did it work well? Just trying to cut the work load down a little as the now electric 8 frame radial extractor. Never manual again

 

[dickndoris]

Use a hot air gun.... easier and less messy than a knife if used carefully... a scratch comb can be used in any difficult bits

I do use the hot air gun but only on the freshest of cappings. The older darker stuff doesn't pop it just melts. I was hoping the knife is just warm rather than hot?

 

[For want of a better word]

I do use the hot air gun but only on the freshest of cappings. The older darker stuff doesn't pop it just melts. I was hoping the knife is just warm rather than hot?

The older darker stuff gets put back on the hive... I only want ... and my customers expect...quality honey.
Possibly because most of the honey we produce is from Black Cornish Bees
(Apis mellifera mellifera) we get nice white cappings... or possibly because we do not allow drawn comb to stay in the colony so long as to get stained by thousands of tiny footfalls?

Knifes, like matchsticks, leather gauntlets and OA Winter Trickle are in the "what used to be used" cupboard!

 

[dickndoris]

you have a similar cupboard to myself but the bees are different. No trickle, no gloves, soon to be no foundation.....I hope. In one hive they did make a full frame of just drone! Maybe no excluder's as it was a bit interesting to say the least on experimenting this year.

 

[sandysman]

Use a hot air gun.... easier and less messy than a knife if used carefully... a scratch comb can be used in any difficult bits

Easier and no mess.

 

[Black Comb]

That's not good. Hope you sent it back? The bit that you did use it, did it work well? Just trying to cut the work load down a little as the now electric 8 frame radial extractor. Never manual again

No,I've had it a few years and it has been OK. My circuit breaker system is very sensitive. One thing I would say is that if one exists with an integrated thermostat it will be better as this one seems to get very hot.
Hot air gun I have trid but don't like. Too easy to burn the honey. Also, does it taste the same? ( tin hat on)

 

[itma]

I tried a T's electric knife at an association session.
Wasn't as good as I'd expected.

I'll be trying hot air.
But ONLY on white (airgap beneath) cappings.
And expecting a bit of wax mess as the hot air from the airgap 'pops' off the capping.
But thereby ensuring it won't heat the honey.

Using hot air on 'wet' (no airgap) cappings is indeed a recipe for spoilt honey.


Talked on Saturday to a Honey Judge.
She is very fussy about not spoiling the honey aroma and flavour.
Yes, actually. It turns out that she uses a hot air gun ...

 

[REDWOOD]

I quite like my old bread knife, there is something therapeutic uncapping with a knife but if my operation one day got big then I suppose something a bit quicker would be a better option, anyone tried a cheese plane?

 

[For want of a better word]

I quite like my old bread knife, there is something therapeutic uncapping with a knife but if my operation one day got big then I suppose something a bit quicker would be a better option, anyone tried a cheese plane?

I did see a cheese wire device.. heated USA import... looked a bit like a bow saw.
On heating and spoiling the honey... heated knives must do that.???
I just find the two knife system and boiling water a bit slow!

 

[itma]

... I suppose something a bit quicker would be a better option, anyone tried a cheese plane?

There was a really neat video of uncapping Russian Alpine hive frames by sliding them over a blade ...
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=22665

 

[peterbees]

I used an electric knife for a short while, but I found it that the melted beeswax resealed the cells with a thin film of beeswax. I soon gave up with it.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Despite what I said in another recent thread, I gave up on the hot air gun.

Must have been doing it incorrectly as I either melted too much, or the didn't remove enough capping.

So today I went back to the old bread knives.
But I used a tip which someone else on the Forum posted recently:

use two bread knives alternately - keeping them in 2 (metal) flasks with hot water.

Works a treat - though there are all those tedious cappings to deal with (however some of my honey fans want cappings in their honey).



Dusty

 

[Black Comb]

Despite what I said in another recent thread, I gave up on the hot air gun.

Must have been doing it incorrectly as I either melted too much, or the didn't remove enough capping.

So today I went back to the old bread knives.
But I used a tip which someone else on the Forum posted recently:

use two bread knives alternately - keeping them in 2 (metal) flasks with hot water.

Works a treat - though there are all those tedious cappings to deal with (however some of my honey fans want cappings in their honey).

Dusty

So you got the supers down off the roof? (Sorry if I've missed it in another thread)

 

[REDWOOD]

There was a really neat video of uncapping Russian Alpine hive frames by sliding them over a blade ...
http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=22665

How easy was that to de-cap a simple device that reminds me of a potato slicer