A method and apparatus for pitting olives (or other fruit) and slicing the pitted
fruit. In preferred embodiments, a pitting knife and a coring knife horizontally
translate each olive to be pitted while the pitting knife, coring knife, and olive
revolve together about a horizontal axis, the pitting knife pushes out the pit
horizontally as the olive and cup translate along a segment of a circular first
path around the axis, the apparatus includes slicing pockets (in positions horizontally
separated from the first path) which translate along a circular second path parallel
to the first path, after pitting, a pitting knife pulls the pitted olive horizontally
away from the first path and into one of the pockets, and the pitted olive in the
pocket is sliced by slicing knives as the pitted olive and pocket translate around
the axis along a segment of the second path into engagement with the slicing knives.
Preferably, the slicing knives are pivotably mounted to a fixedly mounted knife
holder, the knife holder allows convenient adjustment of the slicing knives' orientation
such as by advancing and/or retracting an easily-accessible adjustment screw, and
the slicing knives are spring-biased by the knife holder in a first orientation
relative to each object to be sliced so that the slicing knives can temporarily
pivot away from debris that translates into engagement therewith and spring back
into the first orientation.