Mark Holub,
    Why not let the electric uncapping knife stay on continuously?
 
    Unless the knife is continuously in use, it seems to get pretty hot.
If someone is uncapping into a two-frame extractor, the knife is idle a
fair per cent of the time. If I step onto the switch as I pick a frame out
of the super, the knife is warming up when I begin to uncap.
     A second reason for putting a switch on the knife is that my
extracting set-up is used by others to extract their honey, and we invite
students to help us extract our own crop.  Many hands use the knife.
Again, I don't want a knife left on and idle.
     (A third reason is that I enjoy the challenge of tinkering a switch
together.)
      Newer electric uncapping knives do not, I think, have an adjustable
thermostat built into them.
  Tim Sterrett
  Westtown, Pennsylvania, USA
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