An Improved Method of Reducing Razor and other Cutlery Blades.
Year: 1897

page_text: DI LUITIVATION
An Improved Method of Reducing Razor and other Cutlery Blades.
I, FERDINAND GRAH of 123 Upper Hanover Street, Sheffield, in the County of
York, Machinist, 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 :-
Razor and other cutlery blades cannot be forged and hardened thin enough for use
and hitherto they have required to be reduced by the expensive and delicate process
of grinding on a stone or emery wheel or by other method requiring the utmost
skill to secure evenness throughout and especially to avoid spoiling the temper of the
steel by overheating.
According to my invention razor and other cutlery blades forged and hardened and
of various shapes and hollowings, are, instead of being reduced by grinding reduced
or made thin enough for the polishing process by means of an electric current passing
through a bath in which the blades are hung as hereinafter described.
The bath may consist of water at a suitable temperature say 60° Fahrenheit,
acidulated in some such way as follows: say by adding about 100 grammes of green
vitriol and about 100 gramines of chlorate of ammonia to every ten pints of water, or
by adding, say, one part of nitric acid and one part of sulphuric acid to every twenty
parts of water.
The bath may however be otherwise prepared as is well understood.
In this bath the blades are hung and connected with the positive pole of a dynamo
machine or of an elementary battery. At a distance of, say, from 15 to 20 centimeters
from the blades, are hung in the baths and facing the blades, plates preferably of
carbon, platinum or steel connected with the negative pole of the battery, the surface
of these plates being preferably equal in area to that of the blades to be reduced.
Other plates than those above mentioned may however be employed.
On the application of the electrical current the steel is detached from the blades in
a practically even manner and without affecting the temper of the blade. The stronger
the current in Ampères the more readily the steel is reduced, but the tension of the
current should not exceed four volts. Usually the work is completed in from fifteen
to twenty minutes.
When the blades are sufficiently reduced, they are taken from the bath, the waste
matter brushed off and they are then ready for polishing in the usual manner.
Razor and other cutlery blades reduced according to my invention retain fully and
completely their original temper, are finished with an exactitude only very experienced
workmen can attain, and at a very much lower cost.
I would here remark that I do not confine myself to the precise details herein set
forth so long as razor and other cutlery blades are reduced by means of electricity,
substantially in the manner described.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
The method of reducing razor and other cutlery blades by electricity substantially
as herein set forth and for the purpose stated.
Dated June 16th 1897.
HARRIS & MILLS,
23 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents.