A capping scratcher is very handy to have in your set of extracting tools. They are inexpensive and we suggest that you always have one or two around when you go to extract your honey or when you are checking your hive.
Before you place your honey-filled frames in the extractor, you need to make sure that the capped honey comb is either pierced or cut so that the honey can be spun out. Honey won’t come out of the capped comb if not. The easiest way to uncap is to use a warm uncapping knife, however, hot knives can be fairly expensive. An alternative to a hot knife is to use a cold knife in combination with a capping scratcher or an uncapping roller in combination with a capping scratcher. The capping scratcher will come into use with either of these when you need to pierce the hard-to-reach corner comb in the frames. A capping scratcher also work great to either uncap a small section of a frame to sample honey or to check drone brood for Varroa mites.
The prongs of our capping scratcher are made from heavy-duty stainless steel. The comfortable, molded-grip handle is made from a durable and hard red plastic. The bright color is convenient in that it is easy to see if the tool is dropped or misplaced in the honey house. Each tool measures 7.375” long by 2.75” wide