AN ENTIRELY NEW METHOD OF MAKING SILVER AND OTHER METALLIC HAFTS FOR KNIVES AND FORKS, AND OTHER WORK OF THAT KIND, BY THE MEANS OF TWO STEEL OR OTHER HARD METALLIC DYES
Year: 1770

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DRU DRURY,
of the Parish of Saint Alban,. Wood Street, in the City of London, Goldsmith..
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Sixteenth day of November, in the eleventh year of His reign, give and grant
unto me, the said Dru Drury, His especial licence that I, the said Dru Drury;
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
and also within all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Inven-
tion of "AN ENTIRELY NEW METHOD OF MAKING SILVER AND OTHER METALLIC HAFTS
FOR KNIVES AND FORKS, AND OTHER WORK OF THAT KIND, BY THE MEANS OF TWO
STEEL OR OTHER HARD METALLIC DYES;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a provisoe, obliging me, the said Dru Drury, under my hand &
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
how the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within four calendar months 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 the said provisoe, I, the said
Dru Drury, do hereby declare that my said Invention of an entirely new
method of making silver and other metallic hafts for knives and forks, and other

page_text: work of that kind, by the means of two steel or other hard metallic dyes, is
described in the manner following (that is to say):-
Each haft is composed of two sides or parts, that answer and exactly fit
each other, and when joyned or united together form the haft, being stamped
with the form and impression they are intended to be of by means of
these steel and other hard metallic dyes. Those dyes are of different
dimensions, adapted to the size of the haft intended to be made, being from
eight to three inches in length, and from four inches to one in depth; like-
wise from four to two inches wide, and composed of steel and iron; those
of the smaller dimensions being used for making desert and other small
hafts, and those of the larger dimensions being for the table and other large
kinds of hafts. In each dye is sunk or impressed a hollow cavity of the exact
shape of one side or the half part of the haft intended to be made, and is like-
wise of the exact depth of it, having the same imbellishments or ornaments
outt and sunk in it that are intended to adorn the haft when it is compleated,
which ornaments or imbellishments will then appear on the haft in a convex
shape, as if raised or carved thereon. This dye I call, for distinction sake, the
female dye, and when it has the proper design & composition or ornament cut
or sunk in it, whether it be leaves, flowers, threads, shells, or any other device,
is ready for use. Another instrument used in the process of making these
hafts is a convex or male dye. This dye is considerably less than the other,
and formed to go within side the hollow cavity of the female dye, in order to
give the shape and impression to the silver or other metallic sides that are
to compose the haft; the male dye is required to be made of different sorts
of metal, either according to the size of the haft, or the thickness of the silver
or other metal of which the haft is to be made. Sometimes it is necessary to
have the male dye made entirely of lead or pewter, sometimes of brass or
copper, and sometimes of iron or steel. In the latter cases, that is, when the
male dye is made of brass, copper, iron, or steel, the part that goes into the
female dye is to be notched or jagged all over, and covered with a piece of lead
or pewter, which being impressed in the female dye by means of a strong
mechanical power, that will be explained! presently, gives the lead or pewter
the exact shape of the side of the haft. The notchings and jaggins on the
male dye is done to make the covering of lead or pewter stick thereon, that it
may not fall off every time it is struck or impressed in the female dye, and
when covered in the above manner is ready to be applied to its proper use;
then the silver or other metal of which the hafts for knives and forks are to
be made, being flattened and reduced to its proper thickness, is cutt into pieces
suitable to the sizes of the hafts intended to be made, and are hollowed or sunk

page_text: by other tools in such manner as to render them fit to be impressed between
the male and female dyes, without being doubled or puckered in those places,
that would occasion them to be unfit for use. Each piece of silver or other
metal being thus prepared, is placed on the male dye and forcibly pressed in
the female by repeated strokes or efforts, where it receives the compleat
impression and shape, and appears to the same advantage and perfection by the
above operation as if it had undergone the tedious and expensive performances
of filing, chasing, carving, &c.. The mechanical power or instruments men-
tioned before, and used for giving the impression to the sides of the hafts, arc
of two sorts; one is a great hammer, from an hundred to a tun weight, and
proportioned to the size of the haft intended to be made, which is drawn up
with a rope by means of a pully placed at the top of a gibbet that is erected
over a large anville whereon the dyes are placed, the hammer being guided in
its descent by two or more iron or wooden bars, that keep it in its proper and
regular place; this hammer being thus drawn up and suddenly let fallen on the
dyes, gives the silver or other metal the impression and form mentioned before.
This instrument is known aniong mechanical workinen by the name of a gin.
The other instrument, used for giving the impression to the sides of hafts, is a
large iron screw press, that is worked by means of a leaver or fly with two
handles, on each of which is fixed a considerable weight, proportioned to the
diameter of the screw, being from one to five hundred. The silver or other
metallic sides to the hafts being by one of the above-described instruments
sufficiently impressed, the superfluous parts are cutt off, and the edges being
filed very flatt and even, the two opposite sides are brought in contact to
cach other, and bound together with iron wire and soldered. The haft being
thus composed, is made clean by boiling it in a lye of allum and water or other
salt, and being filled with rosin or other cement, requires a very little labour
to be compleatly finished, which is only to be made smooth and even with a
file along the part where the sides are brought in contact together, and then
polished by the means of a wheel brush, that is turned swiftly round. By
this means a dozen of hafts, which required a week for a workman to compleat
them in, may be finished in a quarter of the time, and the price so far reduced
by the great labour saved as to be afforded in some cases for a quarter of the
price they used to be sold for.
In witness whereof, I, the said Dru Drury, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Seventh day of March, One thousand seven hundred and
DRU DRURY. (LS.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBRED, that on the afores Seventh day of March,.
in the year last mentioned, the aforesaid Dru Drury came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the above-written. Specification,
and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also
the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute
made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen William and
Mary of England, and so forth.
Imrolled the Eighth day of March,
above written.