US Patent 8079149 Electric hair cutting appliance with counter weight

A hand-held hair cutting appliance has a housing, a first cutting blade, and a second cutting blade. The first cutting blade is capable of reciprocating movement relative to the housing. A drive assembly is operatively connected to the first cutting blade for drivingly reciprocating the first cutting blade relative to the housing such that the first cutting blade is moveable in a side to side direction relative to the housing and the second cutting blade. A counter weight is adapted for reciprocating movement relative to the housing in response to reciprocating movement of the first cutting blade. The counter weight has at least one of a mass and a location relative to the first cutting blade to thereby at least partially counter-balance the reciprocating movement of the first cutting blade.