Marc:
 
You said:
 
 >I have an electric knife/scraper that looks more like some type of cheese
 >knife.  It works fine for the first 3 frames, then becomes completely sticky
 >and the wax/honey begin to burn, creating a carbon crust all over it.  The
 >crust is a great insulator, and the knife can never get quite hot enough to
 >to a good job afterwards.  What do BWE (beekeepers with experience) suggest
 >I do? I have 5 hives, a small operation.  I'm not willing to spend millions
 >on new fancy equipment.  Is there a better way to use the same knife, or are
 >there better tools?  Is a steam knife better?
 
Well, I know that other's experiences may vary, but I can say that I
have had absolutely *terrible* experiences with electric knives.  We
tried one again last week at our extraction and it was, IMHO,
worthless.
 
What I prefer is to keep a pan of water hot and keep 2 decapping
knives in the water.  I use one for a while, and when it gets too
cool, I put it back in the pan and use the other.  While #2 cools, #1
warms back up again.
 
It works *great* and I don't have to deal with the funky
thermoregulation on the electric knife.  I also don't have to worry
about putting the knife down somewhere that I don't want hot knives to
be (our honey house is also a real house, and we use the kitchen for
the extraction... :-)
 
We were extracting from 3 hives, so our "operation" is a bit smaller
than yours, but it worked great.
 
--glen
 
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