# Review on USA Made Uncapping Knife



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Fresh hair cut and slicked back nicely with new hair grease, and have you lost a little weight? You look very good, neat and clean. And what a nice job uncapping, you can tell right away you've uncapped many a frame of honey. Nice video, thanks Kamon.


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## Nicksotherhoney (Jun 10, 2017)

Thanks for taking the time to make the videos very informative and no real bs!


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## gator75 (Apr 21, 2021)

What smoker do you recommend? In the market for a replacement of the cheapo I bought when I started.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

The uncapping knife seemed to do a good job of not overheating when put down for a while. I have one with a rheostat box in line to set temp. but to get it hot enough to do one frame after another it overheats badly if you pause for a minute without cranking it down, then lags for a while when you turn it back up. Hard to keep from scorching sometimes.

It appears that this model has a thermocouple sensor in the blade that reacts to load. Can anyone confirm this?


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

Thank you Ray. I thought this would be a fun review of USA bee product. Yes I did clean up for this one! Fun bit of info Laurel has actually uncapped frames by hand more than I have!

Nicks other honey, thank you I am trying to create helpful content. Not all of it is useful to everyone but overtime we hope we can help expose beekeepers to tools and techniques that are good options so that they can avoid wasting time with poor built tools and techniques that cost them bees/money.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

gator75 said:


> What smoker do you recommend? In the market for a replacement of the cheapo I bought when I started.


Hey Gator75, Dadant smokers are excellent. Top of the line. I am still using 1 purchased slightly used 19 years ago. I own 2 others and if a bellows or lid has a problem down the road you can get parts for them.

Here is my 3 Dadant with different fuels. Here lately I have come into free dried cedar shavings. Makes a great fuel.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

crofter said:


> The uncapping knife seemed to do a good job of not overheating when put down for a while. I have one with a rheostat box in line to set temp. but to get it hot enough to do one frame after another it overheats badly if you pause for a minute without cranking it down, then lags for a while when you turn it back up. Hard to keep from scorching sometimes.
> 
> It appears that this model has a thermocouple sensor in the blade that reacts to load. Can anyone confirm this?


Evening Crofter, I have a scheduled call with the owner of Pierce Beekeeping tomorrow on a new product they have just released. I plan to ask him your question and will report back when I have the answer.


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## gator75 (Apr 21, 2021)

Tennessee's Bees LLC said:


> Hey Gator75, Dadant smokers are excellent. Top of the line. I am still using 1 purchased slightly used 19 years ago. I own 2 others and if a bellows or lid has a problem down the road you can get parts for them.
> 
> Here is my 3 Dadant with different fuels. Here lately I have come into free dried cedar shavings. Makes a great fuel.


Great info. Thanks for the quick response! And your videos are very helpful.

On the subject kind of, a beekeeper told me that he found well run over pine straw burns very slow and cool. I have an abundance on my property.. He was right. The more run over the better. Much easier to stuff and pack in the smoker.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

gator75 said:


> Great info. Thanks for the quick response! And your videos are very helpful.
> 
> On the subject kind of, a beekeeper told me that he found well run over pine straw burns very slow and cool. I have an abundance on my property.. He was right. The more run over the better. Much easier to stuff and pack in the smoker.


Love pine Needles, I just need some pine trees!


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Tennessee's Bees LLC said:


> Evening Crofter, I have a scheduled call with the owner of Pierce Beekeeping tomorrow on a new product they have just released. I plan to ask him your question and will report back when I have the answer.


Thanks


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## Alto Beek (Jun 26, 2021)

Tennessee's Bees LLC said:


> Love pine Needles, I just need some pine trees!


We have nothing but pine trees (ponderosa and pinon) here so plenty free needles - and you are correct, they smoke very well


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## Outdoor N8 (Aug 7, 2015)

crofter said:


> I have one with a rheostat box in line to set temp. but to get it hot enough to do one frame after another it overheats badly if you pause for a minute without cranking it down, then lags for a while when you turn it back up. Hard to keep from scorching sometimes.


I know that knife.... you were far more polite than I typically am about their "manual control" unit.
I have videos where the front 1/3 is slightly scorching honey and my finger is being held against the back 1/4...


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Outdoor N8 said:


> I know that knife.... you were far more polite than I typically am about their "manual control" unit.
> I have videos where the front 1/3 is slightly scorching honey and my finger is being held against the back 1/4...


I made up an uncapping plane and put a thermocouple in it. Heat according to load! Like an RPM governor. I assume the knife Kamon demoed had a temp sensing control.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

Hey Crofter,
The knife does have a temp sensing control that varies within 5 degrees in either direction of 295. Kicks off at 300 kick back on at 290. It sits upon the copper plate that is stamped in between the stainless. The thin hot line of copper (see photo) around the blade is what cuts the wax.


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## Kamon A. Reynolds (Apr 15, 2012)

Pic


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

Thanks for the followup Kamon;
Nice photo work! That bulge on the back is probably where the temperature sensor/control is located. Units without the knife based temp control always manage to do some scorching. Ugly lookin to be dipping into the honey!


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## Tom McCaffery (Mar 31, 2021)

I just received mine yesterday and look forward to utilizing it! Thanks for the review Kamon.


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