RATCHETING HAND TOOL WITH EASILY REPLACEABLE CUTTING BLADE

摘要

A hand-held and hand-operated cutting tool (10) particularly well suited for cleanly and quickly cutting plastic pipe or tubing, rubber hose, or the like is provided. The tool has a blade (20) which is easily manually removed from and replaced into the cutting tool without the use of additional tools. The blade is slid into the tool and then rotated slightly into an initial operating or loaded position whereat a blade pivot pin (46) may be inserted into the tool and through a hole (66) provided in the blade. A ratchet drive (140) interconnects a movable handle (16) and the blade so as to incrementally drive the blade towards its cut off position upon manipulation of the handle. Upon severing of the article, the blade is readily returned to its retracted position by, for example, spreading apart the tool handles (12,16).