IMPROVEMENTS IN STEELS AND FORKS, AND IN SHARPENERS FOR KNIVES, SCISSORS, AND EDGED TOOLS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ebenezer Stevens at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th April
1867.
I, EBENEZER STEVENS, of Pentonville Road, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
STEELS AND FORKS, AND IN SHARPENERS FOR KNIVES, SCISSORS, AND EDGED TOOLS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object "improvements in sharpeners, steels,
and forks, for knives, scissors, and edged tools with and without handles and
stands, and combined with various domestic, useful, and ornamental articles."
For this purpose I employ small pieces of thin flat iron or steel stamped
out of sheets so shaped as to form a suitable bottom upon which to place
small conical steels placed to touch and to be partly between the other, so
that when the knife or tools are drawn through them or worked to and fro
the shape and position of the cones prevents the edge of the knife or tool
reaching to the bottom of the cones; I have screw holes made in these plates,
and the small steels are hollow, through which passes small screws to screw
the steels down tight upon the plates, the object of which arrangement is
that the small coned steels should remain a fixture in use, but by unscrewing
the screw the small pyramid sharpeners will turn round on the plate and can
be easily refixed by working the screw home again, and thus the cones will
present fresh surfaces to sharpen the knife upon. The conical steels may be
made smooth, fluted, grooved, or rough, the same as ordinary long steels. In

page_text: the centre of the bottom plate I either have a screw attached or rivet fixed
for the purpose of screwing or rivetting the sharpener upon the spring guard
of the fork, or upon forks, knife rests, cruets, salts, and other articles of
domestic use, or upon handles or stands, and in cases with a top to fit
reversible, so that when the sharpener is not required it may be turned
downwards and closed in the case suitable to carry in the pocket. For sharpening
knives I prefer to work the knife to and fro between these sharpeners, but for
heavy tools the sharpener itself is best worked to and fro over the edge of the
article to be sharpened; there are other means also of fixing and turning as
required these small coned sharpeners which I have adopted, and the effect is
the same; also the sharpeners may be cylindar, cube, or pyramid, in which
case for the two former shapes the bottom plate is not flat, but the plate itself
is coned. In some cases also I use other hard substances or materials to
steel; hard stone I have used to advantage. For sharpening scissors and
shears I use the cone or cones sideways instead of in an upright position and in a
little frame with a slot in it to admit the sharpener between, which is also
made to revolve or remain à fixture as desired, and one side of the frame
forms a guide to keep the scissors in a proper position while sharpening the
same. This sharpener also may be complete in itself or attached to many
articles already in use for ladies. I also employ other means for sharpening
knives, scissors, and tools. I stamp out or otherwise flat pieces of steel round,
but in a star shape or V slotches all round, the edges or V or star parts to be
finished smooth or roughed; I place two of these star pieces together,
so that
the point of one piece may be between the V slot or opening of the other, by
which arrangement in two pieces of steel the sharpener is greatly multiplied;
these two plates I either fix together or adjust them to work round or partly
round as desired for the purpose of producing various surfaces upon which
the edge of the knife comes in contact with one or both parts, the object
being to have the V shape the full size of the plates, or to narrow and close
up the V shape at pleasure. Instead of stamping out or otherwise these plates
round they may be long with even one or many star points or V slotches,
either fixed or capable of being drawn one over the other for the purpose of
reducing or enlarging the V shape in which the knife or tool is to be worked.
This form of sharpener may be complete in itself, or attached to handles and
stands or to other articles already in use, so as to convert, as with the coned
sbarpeners, the article to which it is attached equally useful as before, and
adapted for other purposes also than for which the article was designed, and
in this form of sharpener I convert the spring guard of the carving fork into
a sharpener. For scissors and shears in this form of sharpener the V or slots

page_text: in the two pieces are larger and in a sideway direction. In these star forms of
sharpeners I have also used other suitable hard materials or substances. In
some cases I bave also employed short and small round pieces of steel or
stone, smooth or rough, and other hard substances sometimes made of an
octagon shape, but not coned, and placed sideways close together, level, or one
of the sharpeners a little above the other, simply placing them into a handle
hollowed out only deep enough to keep them fixed close together, to be
turned when required or fixed by a screw or on a centre axis to turn round
as required in a simple small frame; with this form the knife or tool is also
sharpened by working the knife to and fro between the sharpeners, or the
sharpeners to and fro upon the tool. In combining these various sharpeners
to forks and other articles I in some cases fix them or make them to be very
readily detached from the same; where I make them to be readily detached I
bave used the handle of the knife as a case or otherwise for a sharpener. I
make all my sharpeners of various sizes to suit articles, from small pocket
knives to large tools. As well as these sharpeners I also combine the ordinary
steel wheels to forks and other articles named, thus making one article useful
for more purposes than the articles were before my combination was added.
I also combine the long ordinary butchers or table steels to the bosom of the
prongs of forks, thus producing a long steel and fork in one article.