Multipurpose firefighting tool

• US 5,095,623 A
• Filed: 03/21/1991
• Issued: 03/17/1992
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: William Tennyson
• Original Assignee: William Tennyson
• Inventors: Williams, Charles A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Yost, Frank T.
• Assistant Examiner(s): PAYER, HWEI SIU CHOU
• Application Number:
  US07/672,728
• Time in Patent Office: 362 Days
• Field of Search: 30/123, 30/142, 30/144, 30/299, 7/100, 7/145, 7/158, 7/159, 7/148, 7/170
• US Class Current: 30/144
• CPC Class Codes: A62C 8/00 Hand tools or accessories specially adapted for fire-fighting, e.g. tool boxes
• CPC Class Codes: B23D 61/121 Types of set; Variable teeth, e.g. variable in height or gullet depth; Varying pitch; Details of gullet
• CPC Class Codes: B23D 61/123 Details of saw blade body

Abstract

A firefighting tool having a flat blade with a pointed leading end for piercing through structural panels, a plurality of stop teeth members for engaging a structural panel that has been pierced to defeat facile withdrawal of the tool, and a plurality of rip teeth members for sawing through the panels when the tool is reciprocated along its longitudinal axis. The stop teeth members are positioned at an angle relative to the rip teeth members and allow the firefighter to easily maintain the tool in an overhead configuration when it is used to remove ceiling panels because the angle of the stop teeth members results in a hooking action so that the ceiling supports the weight of the tool to some extent. Since the stop teeth members defeat inadvertent withdrawal of the blade, the firefighter need not make multiple penetrations of the ceiling panels or other structural member being removed by the tool.

Claims

1. A tool for piercing through and sawing structural panels, comprising:

a flat blade member;

an elongate handle member having a distal end to which a proximal end of said blade member is fixedly secured, said handle member having a length sufficient to enable an individual standing on a floor to employ the tool against an overhead ceiling;

said blade member including a slicing edge, a sawing edge, and a piercing edge, said slicing and sawing edges being positioned on opposite sides of a longitudinal axis of said handle and said piercing edge being positioned between said slicing and sawing edges at a distal end of said blade member;

said piercing edge including a piercing point;

said slicing edge being disposed parallel to said longitudinal axis of said handle member on a first side thereof;

said sawing edge having a plurality of teeth members formed therein;

said plurality of teeth members including a plurality of weight-supporting teeth members and a plurality of saw teeth members;

said weight-supporting teeth members being disposed at a predetermined acute angel relative to said longitudinal axis;

said saw teeth members being disposed substantially parallel to said longitudinal axis on a second side thereof;

said piercing edge including a first part disposed at a predetermined acute angle relative to said longitudinal axis, said first part extending from said slicing edge to said piercing point; and

said piercing edge including a second part disposed at a predetermined obtuse angle with resect to said first part of said piercing edge, said second part extending from said sawing edge to said piercing point, said first and second parts of said piercing edge defining said piercing point where said first and second parts converge.

2. The tool of claim 1, wherein said weight-supporting teeth, said saw teeth, and said blade member are coplanar with one another.

3. The tool of claim 2, wherein said weight-supporting teeth members and said saw teeth members are skewed at a predetermined angle with respect to said blade member

4. The tool of claim 3, wherein alternate members of said weight-supporting and saw teeth members are skewed in a common, first direction with respect to said blade member and wherein alternate members of said weight-supporting and saw teeth members are skewed in a common, second direction differs from said first direction with respect to said blade member.

5. The tool of claim 1, wherein the predetermined acute angle of said weight-supporting teeth members is about forty two degrees.

6. The tool of claim 5, further comprising a milled cutting edge formed in said blade member between said saw teeth members and said proximal end of said blade member.