AN IMPROVED MODE OF MAKING CUTLERY (VIZ3), THAT CLASS OF CUTLERY CALLED OR STYLED TABLE KNIVES, DESERT KNIVES, FRUIT KNIVES, POCKET KNIVES, SCISSARS, RAZORS, AND SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BOTFIELD THOMASON, son of Edward Thomason, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, myself residing with my father, the aforesaid Edward Thomason,
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, this Twentieth day of July, in
the first year of His reigu, did give and grant unto me, the said Henry
Botfield Thomason, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial
licence that I, the said Henry Botfield Thomason, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MODE OF MAKING CUTLERY (VIZ³), THAT CLASS OF CUTLERY CALLED OR STYLED
TABLE KNIVES, DESERT KNIVES, FRUIT KNIVES, POCKET KNIVES, SCISSARS, RAZORS,
AND SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS;" in which Letters Patent is contained a proviso
obliging me, the said Henry Botfield Thomason, under my hand and seal,
to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with and agreeable to the true
intent and meaning of the said proviso in the said Letters Patent contained,
I, the said Henry Botfield Thomason, do hereby declare that the following
is a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and methods
and improvements in the making of cutlery (vizt), table knives, desert knives,
fruit knives, pocket knives, scissars, razors, and surgical instruments, both in
respect to principle and the way and means the same may be performed
(that is to say):
With respect to principle, I insert into or attach to the blades made of
gold, silver, copper, or brass, or to a composition of either of these or other
metal or metals, a piece of steel to form the edge or cutting part or parts
of the said blades for knives, scissors, razors, or surgical instruments (that is
to say), table knives, desert knives, fruit knifes, pocket knives, scissors, razors,
and surgical instruments. The metallic part, with the exception of the steel
or cutting part or parts, I gild or plate over, or polish or ornament at pleasure;
which articles, when finished, I call patent gold or silver cutlery.
Now I do declare the above-mentioned principle comprehends the real
object of my Invention; and in order for the better comprehension and
understanding how the aforesaid may be reduced to practical use, I describe
the same in eleven Drawings and two sections, represented in the margin of
these Presents, and the alphabetical letters in the two sections refer to their
respective parts in the eleven Drawings. Drawing No. 1 represents a table
knife in a finished state, with a silver blade, into which blade is inserted or
attached to it a steel edge, as at A, A. Drawing No. 2 represents a desert
knife with a gold or gilt blade, and with a steel edge, as at A, A. .Drawing
No. 3 represents a pocket fruit knife with a gilt blade, and with a steel
edge, as at A, A. Drawing No. 4 represents a pocket knife with four.. gilt
blades, each blade with a steel edge, as at A, A. Drawing No. 5 represents
a razor with a gilt blade and steel edge, as at A, A. Drawing No. 6
represents a scissor, or commonly called a pair of scissors, the blades or
cutting parts of which, having steel
gilt, the steel edges at A, A, A, A:
silver pocket scissors, the blades or
A, A, A, A. Drawing No. 8 represents a surgeon's fleam, with gold blade
and steel edge, as at A, A. Drawing No. 9 represents a surgeon's scalpel, with
gold blade and steel edge, as at A, A. Drawing No. 10 represents a pair of
surgeon's nippers, with gilt handles and steel cutting edges, as at A, A. Drawing
edges, and the handles and other parts
Drawing No. 7 represents a pair of
cutting parts with steel edges, as at

page_text: No. 11 represents a gilt fish knife, with a steel edge, as at A, A. The
letters B, B, in all the above-mentioned eleven Drawings, refer to the metal
blades or metallic blades into which is inserted the steel or cutting parts
A, A; and the letters C, C, refer to the handle or handles belonging to the
aforesaid eleven articles or eleven Drawings.
Section No. 1 represents a blade for a knife, which may be made of gold,
silver, or metal, as B, B, on the extreme edge, on one side of which a groove
is cut, as at D, D, into which groove D, D, is inserted a piece of steel, or
Section No. 2, A, A, of the required strength and length. This piece of
steel A, A, Section No. 2, forms the cutting part of the blade B, B, Section
No. 1, and is soldered into the groove D, D, with silver solder, or any other
metallic solder that may be found to fuse sooner than the metallic blade
itself, and which solder will fasten to or attach the piece of steel, Section
No. 2, to the metallic part of the blade, Section No. 1. The whole blade
is then fashioned into a perfect form, by grinding, filing, or cutting. As
the steel edge A, A, may soften during the process of soldering, the hardening
is effected by the usual means of hardening, or by plunging the blade whilst
hot into water, oil, or tallow. The gold, silver, or metallic part of the blade
may be gilt over or silvered over in parts or in the whole, or ornamented
only as fancy may direct, the steel part, or edge cutting part, is then ground
or glazed and polished by the usual method of polishing cutlery, as with a
stone lapp, glazing lapp, and polishing lapp; and I hereby declare that I
employ and use the same process, methods, or means in inserting the steel
edge or edges, cutting part or cutting parts, as above recited, into the metallic
blades, that is to say, in manufacturing and making the patent gold and
silver cutlery (viz), table knives, desert knives, fruit knives, pocket knives,
scissors, razors, and surgical instruments, as is exemplified by or in the eleven
Drawings in the margin of these Presents.
And I further declare that I make the handles or handle or haft of any
metal or composition of metals, or of wood, bone, ivory, or any other material
or materials adapted for the purpose; and I also declare that I attach or
solder the steel to form the cutting edge or cutting edges of any length,
width, depth, or thickness, as may be found convenient, but I principally
adhere to the plan and mode explained in the margin of these Presents by
the eleven Drawings and two sections.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Botfield Thomason, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty.
HENRY BOTFIELD THOMASON. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-fifth day of July,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Henry Botfield Thomason caine
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Speci-
fication aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of August, in the year above written.
'