An Improved Knife Cleaner.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Nov., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 26th Sept., 1891-Accepted, 31st Oct., 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Knife Cleaner.
I, THOMAS MURPHY of 2 Adelaide Villas Upper Deal Road Deal Kent
Officer of Inland Revenue do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
:-
An improved machine in which knives are cleaned between surfaces which press
together and in which neither the knives nor the cleaning surfaces have a rotary
motion.
The machine may consist of two suitable pieces of board (or their equivalents),
fitted on one or more sides with pads or cushions, the pads or cushions being also
covered with one or more layers of flexible material, a side of each board so treated
being opposed, and pressed together by elastic pressure.
Instead of two pieces of board (or equivalents) the machine may consist of four
or more pieces, that is each board may be made in two or more pieces covered and
pressed together as described above, and arranged in equal or unequal numbers
parallel to each other, or in any other suitable way. And the machine may vary
in size so as to clean from one knife to any required number, and may be worked
by hand, lever, or other means.
My improvements consist principally in supplying suitable elastic pressure, and
in adjusting the wearing surfaces so as to be easily renewable.
To supply the pressure I use pads or cushions sufficiently elastic to keep the
wearing surfaces in uniformly close contact; and use either rubber, linoleum,
prepared or powdered cork, cushions or tubes of sand powdered glass or other
powder, cushions or tubes containing air, water or other liquids.
The wearing surfaces are fixed by strips of wood or metal, which strips are
affixed or loosened by turning screws or buttons, or other suitable means; or in
some cases they may be made so as to slide over the pads, and require no other
adjustment; or other means of fixing may be used. The wearing surfaces consist
of felt, linoleum, leather, or pile-surfaced material.
As an additional or alternative system of preserving the wearing surfaces the
boards or equivalent pieces may have four equal faces cushioned and covered, so
that when one face is worn another may be adjusted in its place without removing
the covering.
I
may further improve the boards or opposing sides of the machine by constructing
them with separately detachable strips or jaws fitted on to the side or sides where
the knives enter, so as that their surfaces may be separately renewable, and that
they may, if desirable, have separate springs to enable the knife hilt to be pushed
well in between them. I may
also supply a tool for inserting cleaning powder
between the faces, and a pair of suitable tongs or other instrument for holding the
knives together when more than one is cleaned at a time.
When the knives have been moved in the direction of their length a few times
between the cleaning surfaces, or the said surfaces moved over the knives the hilts
of the knives can be specially cleaned by moving them in the contrary direction, the
hilts being well between or against the jaws of the machine.
Dated this 27th day of November 1890.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Knife Cleaner.
I THOMAS MURPHY of 2 Adelaide Villas, Deal, in the County of Kent, Officer
in the Inland Revenue, 'do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to apparatus for polishing knives and other similar articles
and has for its object to produce a cheap, durable and effective apparatus, easily
repaired and adjusted, and not liable to get out of order, and which may be
manipulated with great facility, and consists principally in enclosing in suitable
receptacles fluid, semifluid, or shifting substances so as to form yielding pads or
cushions, and encasing these cushions in suitable and easily renewable and adjustable
sheaths of felt, leather or other flexible material to form the wearing surface, and
pressing two or more of such cushions against one another, the knife or other article
to be cleaned being passed between their adjacent surfaces which are supplied with
emery or other suitable powder.
The fluid or shifting substances I prefer to use are dry loose sand such as
ordinary silver sand, powdered glass, air, water, minute glass globules, fine shot and
the like.
Referring to the accompanying sheet of illustrative drawings:-
Fig. 1 represents one arrangement of my invention partly in side elevation and
partly in longitudinal section, with vertical springs for pressing the pads or cushions
together.
Fig. 2 is an end elevation and
Fig. 3 is a vertical cross section of the same.
The frame enclosing the yielding polishing pads comprises a base a with
corrugations and secured to similar end pieces c. The cover plate d is similar to
the base a and is guided in position by the guide pieces e working in corresponding
notches or recesses in the cover d and secured to the end pieces c. Two springs f
attached to each end piece e and connected to the rod g which clips the end of the
cover d serve to press the pads together with the force required. By removing
the rods from the cover d may be removed and the pads and their sheaths
changed or re-adjusted. To the base a and cover d are secured four laths or
strips which press against the edges of the pads and so reduce the curvature of
their adjacent corners thus enabling the shoulders of the knives to be readily
cleaned. The outsides of the pads i which are formed of suitable material are filled
with any suitable substances such as hereinbefore enumerated-being of nonporous
material when a fluid is used-and are then sheathed in a flexible band or sleeve of
suitable material which can readily be adjusted to present a fresh surface for wear,
or slidden off in order to be replaced by a new sheath or cover. Strips of rubbing
material are secured to the end pieces c for the purpose of cleaning the backs of
the knives.
Fig. 4 represents a plan of the lower part of Fig. 1 in which a series of laths or
rods m employed for supporting the yielding pads or cushions rest upon elastic
strips n of rubber or other elastic material to form an elastic base for the yielding
polishing pads.
Fig. 5 represents a side elevation of a modified arrangement of apparatus in
which the springs for pressing the pads or cushions together are dispensed with, the
necessary pressure to ensure their close contact being provided for by two side
frames elastically connected together by means of springs and Fig. 6 is a transverse
section of the same.
The base and cover plates are rigidly connected together by the end pieces o the
pads being squeezed at their edges by frames p which are elastically connected

page_text: together by springs 9 as clearly shown. Instead of the rigidly connected parts I
may use the elastic frames p in conjunction with the frame shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 7 represents an inverted plan of the upper part of an apparatus provided
with two separate pads or cushions and with a perforated channel through which
the emery or other polishing powder is introduced to the said pads, and
Fig. 8 represents a transverse section of the same. Two pads q' are employed
constructed in the same manner as those hereinbefore described; they are each
placed or secured upon a lath and the sleeve of rubbing material drawn over them,
the said lath being detachably secured to the covers by the clips t and was
shown. Between the two pads is placed a long channelled receptacle with a
perforated bottom into which the emery or other polishing powder is placed and
through the perforations of which it falls on to the bottom pad as it is caused to
vibrate by the motion of the knife.
It will be obvious that my apparatus may be used in any convenient position that
is to say; it may be inverted or so placed that the planes of the rubbing surfaces
will be vertical or inclined at any angle.
It will also be obvious that I may combine any of the several modifications
hereinbefore described.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In polishing apparatus the employment of fluid or shifting material enclosed
in suitable receptacles.
2. In knife cleaning apparatus the employment of two or more yielding pads
containing fluid or other shifting substance sheathed with rubbing material and
pressed together by means of springs substantially as described.
3. The combination of a pad containing a fluid or shifting substance with a
covering of suitable rubbing material capable of being readily removed and adjusted
substantially as described.
4. The employment of corrugated seatings for the polishing pads substantially
as described.
5. Supporting the polishing pads against strips or plates pressing against strips
of rubber metal springs or other elastic material substantially as described and for
the purpose set forth.
6. In knife cleaning apparatus the use of side frames rigidly fixed or elastically
connected together for pressing the edges of the yielding polishing pads substantially
as described and for the purpose set forth.
7. The arrangement and construction of knife cleaning apparatus substantially as
described with reference to the drawings.
Dated this 26th day of September 1891.
WHEATLEY & MACKENZIE,
40, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents.