IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYED FOR SHARPENING. KNIVES, SCISSORS, AND OTHER EDGED TOOLS AND ARTICLES OF CUTLERY
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ebenezer Stevens, of 77, White Lion Street,.
Islington, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYED FOR SHARPENING.
KNIVES, SCISSORS, AND OTHER EDGED TOOLS AND ARTICLES OF CUTLERY."
Sealed the 22nd May 1869, and dated the 27th November 1868..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ebenezer Stevens at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th November 1868.
I, EBENEZER STEVENS, of 77, White Lion Street, Islington, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS AND INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYED FOR SHARPENING
KNIVES, SCISSORS, AND OTHER EDGED TOOLS, AND ARTICLES OF CUTLERY," to be as.
follows:-
The Invention has for its object "Improvements in the Means and
Instruments employed for Sharpening Knives, Scissors, and other Edged

page_text: Tools and Articles of Cutlery;" and consists, in the first place, in the
forming, employment, and mounting of solid cones, and not hollow or
drilled through, to be fixed by screws, rivets, or otherwise, which
arrangemnts I have formerly used and adopted.
My solid cones I now form smooth, fluted, grooved, or rough, and I
form them equal in shape, size, or circumferance, in whatever shape
I require them, round, square, polygon, octagon, or otherwise form the
bottoms straight or even a little way up, but all forming a flat pointed
or rounded cone tops, in all cases coned or smaller at the tops then at the
bottoms, or at least up from or between those parts of the cones where
the knife, &c. is sharpened. I fix my solid cones on suitable thin flat
top and bottom plates stamped out. I make a hole, countersunk in the
centre, into which I insert a flat-headed pin or screw. The plates I make
out of either iron, steel, tin, brass, German silver, or any other suitable
material, of the required size, form, and shape, to correspond or to fit
the bottoms of my cones when placed in the position as herein-after
described; and I solder my solid cones, which I form having plain or
even flat bottoms, to the bottom flat plate. When I do not solder them,
in making my various shaped solid cones, I make small shanks to the
bottoms of my cones to rivet them to the plate, or form the shanks into
a screw, or insert a small screw or rivet pin at the bottom, and in that
mode of fixing the cones I make holes in or through the flat bottom
plates, and I rivet or screw the cones to the bottom plate. I use no
guide or guides to my sharpeners, as I fix my cones in such a position
that guids are not required, but they may have the addition of a guide
or guids made to suit the sharpeners if desired. The cones may be
either turned, cast, or stamped out, according to the material, shapes,
and forms required, and softened and hardened to suit the manufacture
and utility of the articles when finishd; and I now proceed to describe
the position that I mount and fix my cones. If I employ three cones
only I place them so that the bottoms of the cones touch each other,
forming a triangle shape upon a bottom plate made the size and shape to
fit and mount them in that position, the shape of the plate correspond-
ing in size and shape to the bottoms of my cones. If I employ four
cones I fix them, the bottoms touching one another, on a bottom plate,
forming a diamond shape, also with a corresponding shape plate to fit the
cones at the bottoms; and if I employ severn cones I place one cone in
the centre and the six others all round, the bottoms touching the centre

page_text: come and one another sideways, also with a corresponding shaped bottom
plate to fit the bottoms of the cones, as well as fixing the cones upon a
flat surface plate; the plates I stamp out with a slight flat or even recess
in them to place the cones in into the shapes I require. The positions
in which the cones are fixed is important, inasmuch as, the knife or tool
to be sharpened, has to be worked to and fro between them. By placeing
and fixing them thus the necessity of a guide or guides is obviated, while
it leaves the proper openings to sharpen the instruments between the
cones; also by fixing the cones in this form or forms it prevents the
edge of the articles in being sharpened from touching the bottom plate,.
which would destroy all the sharpening power of the cones. Two cones
only may be used, and more then severn to one sharpener; and there
are other positions into which the cones may be fixed by placeing them
partly between each other in a straight direction, or even other forms;.
and if only two cones are used, in that case by the employment of a
small guide to attain the object in view; but I prefer the first arrange-
mets of the cones, by placcing them in a triangle, diamond, and round:
mountings, such as I have descrbed; but it is not, necessary in fixing
them in the positions named to adliere to a plate the exact form, siz
and shape of the bottoms of the cones so placed, as any shape plat
would do, but I prefer to do so in order that in sharping the knife, &c:
it should not strike upon the edges or rim of the plate..
I also form my solid cones in various shapes and forms at the bottoms;.
and mount and fix them in a different manner, with and without thin
claws or projections, also. with necks or recesses in them, or fluted or
grooved bottoms, and fix the cones with a suitable formed hollow fitting
cap, cover, ring, or rim, useing one, two, or more top plates, covers, or
caps, fitting the top plate or plates to a suitable formed bottom plate..
According to the shapes I construct the lower parts or bottoms of my
various shaped solid cones, and so to fix or mount them securely fast to
my bottom plate by riveting or screwing the top and bottom plate or
plates together, or by a worm and thread screwing fast the top and
bottom plate together, without the useing of screws, pins, or rivets; or a
bottom plate in these formed cones may be dispensed with and form a
handle or stand with a flat surface or recess to form the bottonis to rest
the cones in or upon, and fix the plate or plates into the same by screws.
or otherise. A screw may be formed or inserted into the bottoms
of the cones, simply to screw into or upon any handle or stand, or

page_text: the bottoms formed to drive into handles or stands, as in the case of
peg tops.
I also make my various shaped solid cones out of or from hard stone
compounds or any other suitable hard material or substance, and in
these cases I use a bottom plate in accordance, and employ a suitable
cement or other means to fasten the cones; or if I adopt a cover or
hollow cap or caps, which I have descibed, I prepare a suitablo bottom
to receive the same, and fix the top plate or plates to secure the
cones fast.
As a substitute instead of or in place of cones I have also used solid,
short, straight rods, pieces of cube, cylinder, and other shapes, in various
materials, without being coned, fixed to a bottom plate, and in that case
I have coned the plate to give or cause the openings requied at the tops
of the same; or a coned bottom may be formed to any handle or stand
without any plate, which would enable the knife to be inserted and
worked to and fro between the straight cubes, rods, &c.; but I prefer to
form the cones, and after fix them, upon a flat plate or upon a flat
surface, recessed in a plate, or recessed or otherwise to a handle or stand.
When I use a plate or plates to mount and fix my cones upon, in the
centre of which I have previously passed through a pin, rivet, or screw,
I attach this centre pin to another under suitable shaped piece of metal
or other material shaped to drive, screw, or otherwise fix into or upon
any suitable handles or stands, the advantage of this arrangemet beimg
that the plate or plates upon which the cones are fixed will turn round
upon the pin or centre axis, thus presenting various apertures, sides, or
openings of the cones to pass and work the knife to and fro to be
sharpened while holding the instrument in an easy and handy position.
In other cases the screw or pin which has been passed through the centre
of the plate or plates before fixing the cones, having a flat top or head
countersunk like the head of a screw into a countersunk hole in the
centre of the plate, may be fixed into or upon any handle or stand,
blocks, tables, shelves, &c., without the further adoption of a bottom
plate to drive into or fix to handles. Further, this centre screw or pin
may be dispensed with in the plate or plates, and I fasten the plates by
screws or nails, &c., through the plate or plates from the top by the
sides of the cones. Each of the above mountings or fixings of the cones
may be attached to any suitable handle or stand, household or business
convenient articles, or fitted in or upon reversible caps or covers, forming

page_text: tops to cases to use when requied, and reverse the top or cover and close
up in the case for convenience to carry in the pocket; or they may be
combined, useing no case, handle, or stand, with many suitable articles
of domestic use, thus making the articles to which they may be attached
serve two or more purposes, forming combinations of greater utility than
heretofore. I construct the cones of various sizes, small for knives, while
for other edged tools and some articles of cutlery the cones are larger,
where it will be found more handy to work the instrument itself to and
fro upon the edge of the tools or articles you require to sharpen than as
in the case of a knife which is better worked to and fro upon the
sharpeners between the cones.
Having thus far discibed the nature of my Invention with regard
to my improved solid cone sharpeners, also the manner of forming,
mounting, and arranging the important positions and mode of fixing
the cones, I further proceed to descibe another important improement
in other parts of my Invention for attaching my sharpeners to revole
or turn round upon forks in conjunction with removeable slides or clips.
This consists in forming or stamping out another form of bottom thin
plates out of any suitable metal or material, and making a hole or other-
wise in the centre to admit a screw, shank, rivet, or pin, from the plate
or plates upon which the cones are fixed. This plate I prefer to form of
an oval shape, but rather broader at one end and sides than the other,
after which, with another stamp, punch, or die, I stamp or turn down
the two sides, making flanges downwards of the plate, leaving the top
flat in conformity and in shape the whole length of the plate, as wide su
to fit the top and the sides of guards of carving forks. I turn the two
sides down to fit the guard at the handle end of the fork, and fasten or
rivet lose the plate upon which the cones are fixed, so that the plate.
will revolve and turn round upon my clip or catch by the pin in the
centre of the plate or plates in or upon which the cones are placed. I
adjust and fit this under plate or clip, with and without a spring, in any
suitable part of it, so that it forms a fitting and under curved slide, clip,
spring, or catch to slide on and hold fast, but so shaped to remove easely
at pleasure on and off the spring guards of carveing forks, by passing the
said catch, holdfast, or spring, thus described, up from the handle end of
the guard; it will then pass up the guard a small space, clip the guard
at the sides and under the guard, and hold fast while in use, and is easly
detached when drawn backwards again. This is a great improvemet to

page_text: If I
screwing or riveting the sharpeners to a fork for many reasons.
attach my cones to the fork itself and not to the guard of the fork, or on
or to common dinner forks without guards, or to prongs, I adjust my
removeable 'slide, catch, clasp, clip, or spring, according to the shapes
required for various shaped forks and prongs.
I also employ with my clip slides another form of sharpener, namely,
two or more round or other shaped steel plates, or other hard substance
and material, with V, star, or other suitable forms, apertures, or pro-
jections, smooth or roughed, working in or upon one centre pin or axis,
by which means in two or more plates the shapes of the plates form
apertures or projections so to increase the sharpening parts for the
knife, and also can be opened or closed, or partly closed, by crossing the
parts of each other, by the regulation or action of the one centre screw,
pin, or axis for adjustment. By this arrangement also guids are not
necessary to sharpen the instrument. I form my slideing catch to suite
this form of sharpeners, and I also use this form of sharpeners upon
handles or stands by suitable mountings, and combine them also with
other articles of domestic utility.
For sharpening scissors and shears I employ one coned steel or other
suitable material, and fix the same without any frame or guide, such as
I have formerly used, now requiring no further adjustment when com-
pleted to use it all round the sharpening surface. I place a thin plate
stamp'd out of brass, tin, copper, silver, iron, or other material, flanged
down all round, but flat on the top and recessed in the centre, with a
hole in the middle; into this recess I place to fit a romd coned piece of
steel or other material, with a hole in the centre. I place the smallest
end of the cone downwards; upon the top, the widest part of the cone,
I place a small plate or cap, stamp'd, punched, or cut out; the top cap
or plate has also a hole in the centre. I place a screw or pin through
the hole of the top plate, through the come and the hole of the bottom
plate, and by thus forming the two plates and the come with one screw
or pin I fasten the three peices or parts into or upon any suitable
handle or stand. By this arrangemet the cone does not requie any
frame or guide or requie moving from its fixed position in use, as all
the sharpening surface of the come is available. The flat surface round
the bottom plate by this arrangement forms a rest to place the scissors
upon while working them to and fro to be sharpened. This sharpener
may also be combined with many articles of domestic use.
These cones

page_text: also may be made of various shapes, also solid, and soldered or likewise
fixed by a shank, rivet, or screw at the bottom, or fixed by a hollow cap
or caps, cover, or rim, similar to the means I have discibed in fixing
my knife cones, and may also be made smooth, grooved, fluted, or rough;
and if desired to increase the sharpening surface or power of the cones
more than one may be adopted and fitted by similar arrangements.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Ebenezer Stevens in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 25th May 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EBENEZER
STEVENS, of No. 77, White Lion Street, Islington, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Ebenezer Stevens, Her special licence that
I, the said Ebenezer Stevens, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Ebenezer Stevens, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time, and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS
AND INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYED FOR SHARPENING KNIVES, SCISSORS, AND OTHER
EDGED TOOLS AND ARTICLES OF CUTLERY," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Ebenezer Stevens, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Ebenezer Stevens, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same

page_text: is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say) :-
The Invention has for its object "Improvements in the Means and
Instruments employed for Sharpening Knives, Scissors, and other Edged
Tools and Articles of Cutlery;" and consists, in the first place, in the
forming, employment, and mounting of solid cones, and not hollow or
drilled through, to be fixed by screws, rivets, or otherwise, which
arrangements I have formerly used and adopted.
My solid cones I now form smooth, fluted, grooved, or rough, and I
form them equal in shape, size, or circumference, in whatever shape I
require them, round, square, polygon, octagon, or otherwise from the
bottoms straight or even a little way up, but all forming a flat, pointed,
or rounded cone tops, in all cases coned or smaller at the tops than at
the bottoms, or at least up from or between those parts of the cones
where the knife is sharpened. I fix my solid cones on suitable thin flat
top and bottom plates stamped out. I make a hole countersunk in the
centre of my bottom plate, into which I insert a flat-headed pin or screw.
The plates I make out of either iron, steel, tin, brass, German silver, or
any other suitable material of the required size, form, and shape, to
correspond or to fit the bottoms of my cones when placed in the positions
as herein-after described, and I solder my solid cones which I form
having plain or even flat bottoms to the bottom flat plate. When I do
not solder them in making my various shaped solid cones I make small
shanks to the bottoms of my cones to rivet them to the single bottom
plates, or form the shanks into a screw, or insert a small screw or rivet
pin at the bottom of the cones, and in that mode of fixing the cones I
make holes in or through the flat bottom plates, and I rivet or screw the
cones to the bottom plate. I use no guide or guides to my sharpeners,
as I fix my cones in such a position that guides are not required, but
they may have the addition of a guide or guides made to suit the
sharpeners, if desired. The cones may be either turned, cast, or stamped
out according to the material, shapes, and forms required, and softened
and hardened to suit the manufacture and utility of the article when
finished. And I now proceed to describe the positions that I mount and
fix my cones: If I employ three cones only, I place them so that the
bottoms of the cones touch each other, forming a triangle shape, upon a
bottom plate made the size and shape to fit and mount them in that

page_text: position, the shape of the plate corresponding in sise and shape to the
bottom of my cones. If I employ four cones, I fix them, the bottoms
touching one another on a bottom plate forming a diamond shape, also
with a corresponding shape plate to fix the cones at the bottoms. And
if I employ seven cones, I place one in the centre and the six others
all round, the bottoms touching the centre cone and one another
sideways; also with a corresponding shaped bottom plate to fit the
bottoms of the cones upon a flat surface plate; the plates I stamp out
with a slight flat or even recess, as well as fixing in them to place the
cones in, into the shapes I require. The position in which the cones are
fixed is important, inasmuch, as the knife or tool to be sharpened has to
be worked to and fro between them. By placing and fixing them thus,
the necessity of a guide or guides is obviated, while it leaves the proper
openings to sharpen the instruments between the cones; also by fixing
the cones in this form or forms it prevents the edge of the articles in
being sharpened from touching the bottom plate, which would destroy
all the sharpening power of the cones. Two cones only may be used,
and more than seven to one sharpener, and there are other positions into
which the cones may be fixed by placing them partly between each
other in a straight direction, or even other forms; and if only two cones
are used, in that case, by the employment of a small guide to attain the
object in view, but I prefer the first arrangement of the cones, by placing
them in a triangle, diamond, and round mountings, such as I have
described; but it is not necessary in fixing them in the positions named
to adhere to a plate the exact form, size, and shape of the bottoms of the
cones so placed, as any shape plate would do, but I prefer to do so in
order that in sharpening the knife it should not strike upon the elges
or rim of the plate.
I also form my solid cones in various shapes and forms at the bottoms,
and mount and fix them in a different manner with and without thin
claws or projections; also, with necks or recesses in them, or fluted or
grooved bottoms, and fix the cones with a suitable formed hollow fitting
cap, cover, ring, or rim, using one, two, or more top plates, covers, or
caps fitting the top plate or plates to a suitable formed bottom plate
according to the shapes. I construct the lower parts or bottoms of my
various shaped solid cones, and so to fix or mount them securely fast to
my bottom plate by rivetting or screwing the top and bottom plate or
plates together, or by a worm and thread screwing fast the top and

page_text: bottom plate together without the using of screws, pins, or rivets, or a
bottom plate in these formed cones may be dispensed with, and form
a handle or stand with a flat surface or recess to form the bottoms to
rest the cones in or upon, and fix the plate or plates into the same by
screws or otherwise. A screw may be formed or inserted into the
bottoms of the cones simply to screw into or upon any handle or stand,
or the bottom formed to drive into the handles or stands, as in the case
of pcg tops.
I also make my various shaped solid cones out of or from hard stone,
compounds, or any other suitable hard material or substance, and in
these cases I use a bottom plate in accordance, and employ a suitable
cement or other means to fasten the cones, or if I adopt a cover or
hollow cap or caps which I have described I prepare a suitable bottom to
receive the same, and fix the top plate or plates to secure the cones fast.
As a substitute instead of or in the place of cones I have also used
solid short straight short rods, pieces of cube, cylinder, and other shapes
in various materials without being coned, fixed to a bottom plate, and in
that case I have coned the plate to give or cause the openings required
at the tops of the same, or a coned bottom may be formed to any handle
or stand without any plate, which would enable the knife to be inserted
and worked to and fro between the straight cubes, rods, &c.; but I
prefer to form the cones and after fix them upon a flat plate or upon a flat
surface recessed in a plate or recessed or otherwise to a handle or stand.
When I use a plate or plates to mount and fix my cones upon, in the
centre of which I have previously passed through a pin, rivet, or screw,
I attach this centre pin to another under suitable shaped piece of metal
or other material shaped to drive, screw, or otherwise fix into or upon
any suitable handles or stands. The advantage of this arrangement
being that the plate or plates upon which the cones are fixed will turn
round upon the pin or centre axis, thus presenting various apertures,
sides, or openings of the cones to pass and work the knife to and fro to
be sharpened while holding the instrument in an easy and handy
position; in other cases the screw or pin which has been passed
through the centre of the plate or plates before fixing the cones
having a flat top or head countersunk like the head of a screw
into a countersunk hole in the centre of the plate may be fixed into
or upon any handle, stand, blocks, tables, shelves, without the further
adoption of a bottom plate to drive into or fix to handles. Further,

page_text: this centro screw or pin may be dispensed with in the plate or plates and
fasten the plate or plates by screws or nails through the plate or plates
from the top by the side of the cones. Each of the above mountings or
fixings of the cones may be attached to any suitable handle or stand,
household or business convenient articles, or fitted in or upon reversible
caps or covers, forming tops to cases to use when required, and reverse
the top or cover and close up in the case, for convenience to carry in the
pocket; or they may be combined, using no casc, handle, or stand, with
many suitable articles of domestic use, thus making the articles to which
they may be attached serve two or more purposes, forming combinations
of greater utility than heretofore. I construct the cones of various sizes,
small for knives, while for other edged tools and some articles of
cutlery the cones are larger where it will be found more handy to work
the instrument itself to and fro upon the edge of the tools or articles
you require to sharpen, than as in the case of a knife which is better
worked to and fro upon the sharpeners between the cones.
Having thus far described the nature of my Invention, with regard to
my improved solid coned sharpeners, also the manner of forming,
mounting, and arranging the important positions and made of fixing
cones, I further proceed to describe another important improvement in
other parts of my Invention, for attaching my sharpeners to revolve or
turn round upon forks in conjunction with moveable slides or clips.
This consists in forming or stamping out another form of bottom thin
plates out of any suitable metal or material, and making a hole or
otherwise in the centre to admit a screw, shank, rivet, or pin from the
plate or plates upon which the cones are fixed. This plate I prefer to
form of oval shape, but rather broader at one end and sides than the
other, after which, with another stamp, punch, or die, I stamp or turn
down the two sides, making flanges downwards of the plate, leaving the
top flat in conformity and shape the whole length of the plate as wide
SO to fit the top and the sides of guards of carving forks. I turn the
two sides down to fit the guard at the handle end of the fork, and fasten
or rivet loose the plate upon which the cones are fixed, so that the plate
will revolve and turn round upon my clip or catch by the pin in the
centre of the plate or plates in or upon which the cones are placed. I
adjust and fit this under plate or clip with and without a spring in any
suitable part of it so that it forms a fitting and under curved slide, clip,
spring, or catch to slide on and hold fast, but so shaped to remove easily

page_text: at pleasure on and off the spring guards of carving forks by passing the
said catch, holdfast, or spring thus described up from the handle end of
the guard; it will then pass up the guard a small space, clip the guard at
the sides and under the guard, and hold fast while in use, and is easily
detached when drawn backwards again. This is a great improvement
to screwing or rivetting the sharpeners to a fork for many reasons. If I
attach my cones to the fork itself, and not to the guard of the fork, or on or
to common dinner forks without guards or to prongs, I adjust my remove-
able slide, catch, clasp, clip, or spring according to the shapes required
for various shaped forks and prongs. I also employ with my clip slides
another form of sharpener, namely, two or more round or other shaped
steel plates or other hard substance and material with V, star, or other
suitable forms, apertures, or projections, smoothed or roughed, working
in or upon one centre pin or axis, by which means in two or more plates,
the shapes of the plates, forms, apertures, or projections, so to increase
the sharpening parts for the knife, and also can be opened or closed or
partly closed by crossing the parts of each other by the regulation or
action of the one centre screw, pin, or axis for adjustment. By this
arrangement also guides are not necessary to sharpen the instrument.
I form my sliding catch to suit this form of sharpeners, and I also use
this form of sharpeners upon handles or stands by suitable mountings,
and combine them also with other articles of domestic utility.
For sharpening scissors and shears I employ one coned steel or other
suitable material, and fix the same without any frame or guide,
such as I formerly used, now requiring no further adjustment when
completed to use it all round the sharpening surface. I place a
thin plate stamped out of brass, tin, copper, silver, iron, or other
material flanged down all round, but flat on the top, and recessed in
the centre with a hole in the middle; into this recess I place to
fit a round or other shaped coned piece of steel and other material
with a hole in the centre. I place the smallest end of this cone
downwards upon the top, the widest part of the cone; I place a small
plate or cap, stamped, punched, or cut out. The top cap or plate has
also a hole in the centre. I place a screw or pin through the hole of
the top plate through the cone and the hole in the bottom plate, and by
thus forming the two plates and the cone with one screw or pin I fasten
the three pieces or parts into or upon any suitable handle or stand.
By this arrangment the cone does not require any frame or guide, or

page_text: require moving from its fixed position in use, as all the sharpening
surface of the cone is available. The flat surface round the bottom plate
by this arrangement forms a rest to place the scissors upon while
working them to and fro to be sharpened.
use.
The sharpener may also be combined with many articles of domestic
These cones also may be made of various shapes, also solid and
soldered, or likewise fixed by a shank, rivet, or screw, at the bottom, or
fixed by a hollow cap or caps, cover or rim, similar to the means I have
described in fixing my knife cones, and may also be made smooth,
grooved, fluted, or roughed; and if desired to increase the sharpening
surface or power of the cones more than one may be adopted and fitted
by similar arrangements.
Having described the nature of my Invention, I claim the various
improvements in the means or instruments herein shewn and sub-
stantially described for sharpening knives, scissors, and other edged
articles.
And in order that my said Invention may be more fully understood
and readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
A 1 shews a cone for soldering upon plates B1, B2, or B 3, forming a
diamond, triangle, or round shape, with a hole in the centre of the
plate countersunk to admit a flat-headed pin, rivet, or screw to rivet
loose to E 3 or any suitable handle or stand to turn round or remain a
fixture. A 2 shews the cone with shank for rivetting into plates C 1,
C 2, or C 3, with a hole in the centre countersunk as before described,
also with holes in the plates to admit the shanks of the cones for the
purpose of rivetting fast to the bottom plate, and rivet loose by the
centre pin to E3 or to any suitable handle or stand. A 3 shews a
cone with a screw at the bottom or threaded shank to screw into
plates C1, C2, or C 3, having a hole countersunk in the centre to rivet
to E 3, having also threaded holes in the plates and fitted to any suitable
handle or stand. A 4 shews a cone to place on plate D 1 and fixed by
the hollow suitable shaped plate D 2 to clip and hold fast the projecting
edges of the number of cones used when placed in the required positions
when the two plates are rivetted or screwed together. The screws used
in fastening the two plates together may be long enough to screw into

page_text: any suitable handle or stand and fix the cones in that manner, or a
centre pin or screw may be inserted in the bottom plate and fixed as
above described. A 5 shews a cone with a neck or recess all round
or partly round the cone, and D 3 shews two half plates to cap the
cones fitting into the necks or recesses of the cones, with or without a
bottom plate to fix into or upon any suitable handle or stand by screws,
pins, nails, or rivets. A 6 shews a cone with a peg top shank for
driving into any handle or stand to arrange them in any desired
position. A 7 shews a cone with a partly flat side to place on plate E 1
with a thread round the rim capping, or fastening the cones into the
desired positions by plate E 2 which has a flanged edge all round, with a
worm or thread to screw on to E 1 to be fixed to any suitable handle or
stand fast or to revolve on a centre pin. F1 shews three short straight
rods mounted upon a coned bottom plate in a triangle shape to produce
the space required between the same which is attained by the cones
upon a flat plate. These rods may be mounted also by soldering screws,
shanks, or otherwise, and more than three used if desired. F 2 shews
the flat shape of the clip for attaching to the guards of carving forks;
F 3 shews the clip flanged down at the sides; F 4 shews the clip with
the cones mounted upon the same made to revolve by the pin or rivet
through the centre of the bottom plate upon which the cones are
secured. If I form my clips for forks or prongs without guards I shape
my clips accordingly. G 1 shews a flat surface star-shaped; G 2 shews
two star-shaped flat surfaces fastened together by one centre pin, screw,
or axis, forming a sharpener. These plates may be made a fixture or to
work upon an axis, and can be used with or without a suitable handle or
stand. I also form this kind of sharpener in a similar shape to B3. H1
shews a sexagon-shaped cone for sharpening scissors with a hole through
the centre. H 2 shews a bottom plate with a hole in the centre, partly
recessed and flanged down round the edges; H 3 shews a top plate
coned with a hole in the centre; H 4 shews the bottom plate with. the
cone fitted into the recess with the top plate, and a screw passing
through the centre fixing the top plate to secure the three separate parts
to fasten to any suitable handle or stand. I 1 shews the three coned
sharpener complete attached to a handle; I 2 shews the same complete
with four cones for tools; I 3 shews the same with seven cones for
knives. J 1 shews a stand with four cones; J 2 shews a stand with
seven cones. K 1 shews a pocket sharpener with four cones; K 2 shews
the same with four cones, and how the top is to be reversed for the pocket.

page_text: L1 shews a clip attached to the guard of a carving fork. 01 shews a
sharpener with four cones and the mode of using the knife. M 1 shews
a pocket scissors sharpener. N 1 shews a scissors sharpener and the
mode of sharpening scissors.
In witness whereof the said Ebenezer Stevens has hereunto set
his hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
EBENEZER STEVENS. (L.S.)