Uncapping fork

01 · WHEN TO USE IT

After the knife, not instead of it

The knife uncaps 90 % of the frame in two passes, and the rest always remains: the cells sunk below the frame, the corners, the comb the colony drew crooked. That is where the fork comes in. It is also what you use when the frame holds little honey and heating the knife is not worth it, or when you are working a few frames and do not want to set up the whole bench.

02 · HOW TO USE IT

Low angle and pull upwards, without stabbing

Rest it almost parallel to the comb, sink the tines just enough to catch the capping and pull upwards in one continuous motion. Stab it in perpendicular and lever, and you tear off good wax and bend a tine — that is the only way to ruin it. When you finish, hot water to release the wax, then dry it: honey dried between the tines is far harder to shift the next day.

03 · BEFORE YOU BUY

There are two models, curved tines and straight tines; it is a matter of which suits your hand. And if you uncap frames by the dozen, this is the complement: the first pass belongs to a knife or an uncapping machine.