Puncture spike handle

Claim 1

A handle in combination with and for axial and rotational manipulation of a puncture spike that extends forwardly from the handle, said handle comprises: a body having a longitudinal axis and having a pair of passages extending longitudinally through the body and through the spike; a pair of opposed gripping surfaces; each of said gripping surfaces having a forward end and a rearward end and at least a portion that is substantially flatter in a transverse direction than a circular path generated by rotating the handle about said longitudinal axis; the gripping surfaces diverge outwardly in a forward direction to provide a greater angle between the gripping surfaces adjacent the forward ends than adjacent the rearward ends; wherein the gripping surfaces are generally concave in the longitudinal direction but are generally flat in a lateral direction, the gripping surfaces are approximately parallel adjacent their rearward ends and diverge outwardly by an angle greater than 90 degrees adjacent their forward ends, each of said gripping surfaces extends around less than one half of the handle's transverse perimeter and has a roughened texture; the handle has a penetration stop that extends beyond and is connected to forward end portions of the gripping surfaces, wherein the penetration stop is a skirt, said skirt having a top end portion and a bottom end portion; the bottom end portion of the spike engages an item being punctured, the skirt surrounds the puncture spike, the spike having a downstream end which extends outwardly from the skirt, the gripping surfaces have the forward end portions on laterally protruding members, the laterally protruding members having outer edges that are transversely concave for gripping to gain additional leverage for rotating the handle and the spike, the protruding members extend laterally outward from the skirt and are connected to the top end portion of the skirt and are spaced rearwardly from the bottom end portion so that the protruding members are always spaced from the item being punctured, the gripping surfaces are on opposite sides of the pair of passages extending through the body.