question on hot knife for cap removal

[john moran]

Ok, so I took a few frames off the hives to try our first honey. I had bought out some used equipment and it came with a knife (supposedly) made for removing caps. I went to use it and it got so hot the dang honey was smoking like someone burnt sugar in a frying pan. The stuff coming off the honey was black and nasty.

question: Do any of you use one of these? I'm guessing the thermostat on the knife is shot and it just goes to the scrap heap. I ended up just destroying the comb and it's out in the sun now, hopefully processing down to wax & honey. It was just 2 frames.

Thanks..John.

p.s. very excellent tasting honey. has a real tangy flavor.

[blu...@madtown.net]

John,

   I too do not like electric knives because of the overheating of the honey and wax.  

 A serrated bread knife works quite well with no heat  and I run over 50 hives. 

Dale

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[john moran]

Huh, plan b for me was a serrated bread knife but it was not nice to the comb. It was pulling much of the comb with it. That's when I decided to just take the comb and all with a spatula.

Thanks for the advice.

So since I had so little to process, I scraped the wax & honey into a fine large sieve I use for making beer. I put it over a black ceramic lined pot, put the cover on and tented that in a black garbage back. Within 20 minutes I was up to 136 degrees. I think I need 144 or something like that...don't I?

[lindhl tds.net]

For small quantities a Capping Scratcher is easy to use and does open up the cells.

See dadant catalog for http://www.dadant.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1346 they also make a new model 1752 which is a few dollars more.

Kelley has a roller with points for around $30.00 which opens the cells.  The advantage of these tools is that almost no cappings material is created.  

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[Walt]

I have used the Pierce Speed King. It has a bump on the top and underneath the bump is a small allex nut (hex nut) for adjusting the thermostat. Quoting from instruction sheet:

 

"..a 1/3 turn, in or out, gives a wide temperature change. A little honey on the blade serves as a helpful indicator for this adjustment. If the honey bubbles slightly the thermostat is set hot enough. CLOCKWISE is hotter. For adjusting, use a 1/16th inch allex (hex) or (allen wrench?)"   I have not used a serrated bread knife and am not an expert about cutlery, but it may help to invest in a good one ( like Chicago maybe?) for this purpose.

 

 

 

On Wednesday, July 4, 2012 11:59:33 AM UTC-5, john moran wrote:

 

 

Huh, plan b for me was a serrated bread knife but it was not nice to the comb. It was pulling much of the comb with it. That's when I decided to just take the comb and all with a spatula.

Thanks for the advice.

So since I had so little to process, I scraped the wax & honey into a fine large sieve I use for making beer. I put it over a black ceramic lined pot, put the cover on and tented that in a black garbage back. Within 20 minutes I was up to 136 degrees. I think I need 144 or something like that...don't I?

On Wed, Jul 4, 2012 at 11:33 AM, <blu...@madtown.net> wrote:

John,

   I too do not like electric knives because of the overheating of the honey and wax.  

 A serrated bread knife works quite well with no heat  and I run over 50 hives. 

Dale

On Wed, 4 Jul 2012 11:26:40 -0500, john moran <barabo...@gmail.com> wrote:

Ok, so I took a few frames off the hives to try our first honey. I had bought out some used equipment and it came with a knife (supposedly) made for removing caps. I went to use it and it got so hot the dang honey was smoking like someone burnt sugar in a frying pan. The stuff coming off the honey was black and nasty.

question: Do any of you use one of these? I'm guessing the thermostat on the knife is shot and it just goes to the scrap heap. I ended up just destroying the comb and it's out in the sun now, hopefully processing down to wax & honey. It was just 2 frames.

Thanks..John.

p.s. very excellent tasting honey. has a real tangy flavor.

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[agarden tds.net]

I use a serrated bread knife that I let sit in a deep cooking pot ov
water over low flame while I am extracting. It's just hot enough to
remove the caps without tearing out the whole frame.

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[Karl Haro von Mogel]

When I first harvested honey from my grandfather's hives, he had an
electric knife like that - and burnt honey on the knife quickly became a
familiar smell. However, since then I found a stem-powered uncapping
knife, and bought it. It is just like the electric ones, but has a
copper tube running through the inside of the blade for steam. When I
bought it in Sacramento, CA, the beekeeping store that sold it did not
have any options for producing steam - I had to figure that out myself.
My dad and I took a pressure cooker, and welded a copper pipe and valve
to the lid, and I have a rubber hose that leads to the knife, and then
to a pot to collect the condensed water. It takes a few minutes to get
the steam going, however it cuts through the comb like a charm and never
burns the honey.

One thing I used to do that worked fairly well was to take a decent
sized knife (flat or serrated as Dale recommends) and heat it up in a
jar of hot water. As you uncap each frame, you can put the knife in the
hot water jar to heat it back up again. Or if you want to sacrifice a
pot to wax residue, you can use one and keep it hot on the stove.
Boiling water is at a very convenient temperature for processing combs.
Thrift stores are your friends for sacrificial cookware.

Karl

[Kurt Runzheimer]

To hot knife users,

     I use a hot knife just fine.  However, I "blackened"  two of them before I actually decided maybe I should read the directions.  I grew up using them with my uncle, but never knew this important point:  the knife has to heat up and adjust its own internal heat for about 3-5 minutes.  It will go through a period of getting very, very hot-- scalding any honey that is on the knife--and finally settle down to a desired temperature.  If you never let it go through this period,  it will constantly be burning honey.  Once it does, the knife my always look charcoal black, but it should still work.  This adjustment period must be done every time you plug in the knife, so have lots of frames ready to go once it is plugged in.  Also, wipe off ALL honey on the knife before plugging it in, or it will become as black knife.  I'm not an expert on all honey knives, but those were the instructions with my knife and they work great.  By the way, blackened knives void warranties.

I hope that helps,  Kurt

[jeanne hansen]

When using a serrated knife, you can't expect to simply push it down across the cappings.  You have to saw back and forth, and the more sawing, the better.

 

Thanks!

Jeanne Hansen

824 Jacobson Ave

Madison, WI 53714

608-244-5094

---

From: john moran <barabo...@gmail.com>
To: mad...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 4, 2012 11:59 AM
Subject: Re: [madbees] question on hot knife for cap removal

[john moran]

Thanks again for all the good suggestions. Especially the ones about how the electric knife has an adjustment and must go through a settling in period every time you plug it in. I don't have directions for mine but I will give that a try but maybe have a couple of serrated knives handy next time to see if one works better than the others.

Cheers...John.