11:34 AM
For some reason, the question came up at Saturday's party: what do you call the part of a mechanical ice cream scoop that pushes the ice cream out of the scoop? Provided the initiative that if no other name came up it would thereforth be called "The Johnson", I embarked on some research this morning. A Google search turned up a few possibilities used by those selling scoops:

1)"Release blade"
"All principle parts are made of stainless steel. The Hamilton Beach scoops have a textured plastic handle and the cog-regulated release blade works by thumb pressure."

2)"Bowl knife blade"
"Exceptional portion control is made easy with color-coded handles. Sizes are also stamped on the bowl knife blade. Meets US government standards."


But I dug a bit deeper and finally came up with U.S. Patent #576,395, issued on February 2, 1897 to Alfred L. Culler for his "Ice Cream Mold and Disher". It seems that even Culler was unable to give the part a precise name, calling them "cutters or blades" throughout his patent description.

Thus, I say we stick with calling it "The Johnson."


BONUS:
Best ice cream scoop I found in this search (Look about halfway down the page)
Best page that came up on Google while searching for this answer