FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to fish sealers and more particularly to manually operated fish sealers.

BACKGROUND

Conventional fish sealers are normally operated by pushing or pulling a sealer across the skin of a fish opposite to the direction in which the scales align. The conventional devices can damage the skin of the fish and cause the scales to fly off the fish in all directions, making clean up extremely difficult.

The present invention relates to certain improvements in fish sealers that deal with the above and other difficulties with known fish sealers. SUMMARY

According to one aspect of the present inven¬ tion there is provided a fish sealer comprising: a handle; a head on one end of the handle; and a scaling blade secured to the head and having a bottom face and a scaling face arranged at an acute angle to the bottom face.

The wedge shaped blade engages between the skin

of the fish and the scales, lifting and shearing the scales with a minimum of damage to the skin.

In preferred embodiments, the head of the sealer includes a scale trapping housing. The blade is fitted into an opening in the bottom of the housing, leaving an entry slot above the scaling face of the blade so that the scales when removed are directed into the housing for collection and convenient disposal. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate an exemplary embodiment of the present invention:

Figure 1 is an isometric representation of a fish sealer according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a bottom plan view of the sealer of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a section along line 3-3 of Figure i;

Figure 4 is a sectional view along line 4-4 of Figure 1;

Figure 5 is a plan view of a scaling blade to be used in the sealers; and

Figure 6 is an isometric representation of an inner scraper housed within the handle of the scraper of Figure 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to the accompanying drawings, Figures 1 through 4 illustrate a fish sealer 10 that includes a head 12 in the form of a box-like housing secured trans¬ versely to the end of a handle 14. The handle has an offset section 16 that slopes upwardly and away from the head 12 and a grip portion 18 that extends horizontally away from the offset portion. The head 12 includes a base section 20 and a cover 22 that fits onto the top of the base 20 to provide a scale trap housing.

As illustrated most particularly in Figures 2, 3 and 4, the base 20 of the head 12 has a bottom opening 24 that is of generally rectangular shape. A scaling blade 26 fits into and substantially closes the bottom opening 24 with the exception of a slot 28 that is provided by a recessed section 28 along the bottom of the handle base 20 adjacent the handle 14. On opposite sides of the bottom opening 24 are two bottom support flanges 32 and two top support flanges 34. The bottom flanges 32 and the top flanges 34 are vertically spaced to provide a track between them, and longitudinally spaced to opposite ends of the bottom opening 24. Along the edge of the bottom opening furthest from the handle 14, the bottom of the head 20 base is bevelled, as at 36.

Bosses 38 project from the sides of the opening 24 below the flange 34.

The configuration of the blade is most clearly illustrated in Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5. The blade is a rectangular component molded from a nylon material so as to be wear resistant. It includes two flanges 40 along its opposite side edges. These are dimensioned to fit into the track between the flanges 32 and 34. At each end of each flange 40 are two spaced cam lobes 42 and 44 with a notch 46 between them. The notches are positioned to receive the bosses 38 when the blade is installed in the scraper head 12 as illustrated in Figures 2, 3 and 4. The symmetrical arrangement of the flanges 40 allows the blade to be installed either way around. The blade has a planar bottom face 48 and scaling faces 50 and 52 along its opposite faces. The scaling faces meet the bottom face at an acute angle.

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention, the scaling face 50 has a series of v-shaped teeth 54 formed along it. These meet the bottom face of the blade along the sharp bottom edge 56. Similarly, the scaling face 52 is formed with v-shaped teeth 58 that meet the bottom face along a sharp edge 60. The teeth 58 are smaller than the teeth 54 and are used for scaling fish

with smaller scales.

In other embodiments of the invention, the edges of the teeth may be rounded to provide additional protection to the skin of the fish. In some embodiments, the scaling teeth may be omitted.

As illustrated most particularly in Figure 3, there is a deflecting surface 62 along the back edge of the housing, defining the edge of the slot 30 above the scaling face of the blade. The deflecting surface is directed towards the interior of the head 12 and is oriented at an angle to the scaling face so that as scales are scraped from a fish by the scaling face, they are retained in the head by the deflecting surface.

As illustrated most particularly in Figures 2 and 6, the scraper carries an auxiliary scraper 66, normally seated within a cavity 68 in the underside of the handle 14. The auxiliary scraper includes a handle 70 with a spoon-type scraper 72 on one end and a blade type scraper 74 projecting at an obtuse angle from the opposite end. This auxiliary scraper is used for scraping the body cavity of a fish.

To use the illustrated sealer, the blade is installed with the desired large or small teeth oriented towards the handle, the fish is grasped by the tail and

the sealer is drawn by the other hand across the surface of the fish to be scaled. The scaling blade scrapes or shears off the scales which are then collected in the head 12. Once scaling has been completed, the cover 22 of the head 12 may be removed and the scales dumped out into an appropriate receptacle.

While one particular embodiment of the present invention has been described in the foregoing, it is to be understood that other embodiments are possible within the scope of the invention. Thus, embodiments of the invention may be constructed with or without the scale trap housing. It is also possible to provide the apparatus with various blade shapes and sizes. The blade may be held in place by means other than the flange and cam arrangement illustrated in the preferred embodiment. It may, for example, be held in place by one or more screws or other fasteners. It may be desirable in some embodiments to secure the blade permanently in place with an adhesive.

While not illustrated in the exemplary embodi¬ ment, it is also possible to construct the head of the apparatus so that the deflecting surface 62 may be adjusted as to both orientation and spacing with respect to the scaling face of the blade.

It is also to be understood that while the exemplary embodiment is intended to be pulled across the skin of the fish, it is also possible to construct embodiments that are pushed or translated sideways across the fish in operation.

It is therefore to be understood that the present invention is to be considered limited solely by the scope of the appended claims.