CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OR UPON INSTRUMENTS FOR SHARPENING KNIVES AND OTHER EDGE TOOLS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME
Year: 1829

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CHURCH, of Heywood House, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fifteenth day of October, One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-nine, and the tenth year of His reign, did, for Himself, and His heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Church, His especial
licence, that I, the said William Church, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Church, my executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time, and at all times during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN OR UPON INSTRUMENTS FOR SHARPENING KNIVES AND
OTHER EDGE TOOLS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING
THE SAME;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me,
the said William Church, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited

page_text: Letters Patent, as in and by the same reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear..
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Church, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say) :-
My improvements in or upon instruments for sharpening knives and other
edge tools, and in the machinery or apparatus for manufacturing the same,
consists in the adaptation of two or more peculiarly formed file-cut pieces of
steel, which pieces of steelę may be conveniently mounted on the handle of a
fork or other handle, or in any other way that circumstances may require.
Fig. 1 in the accompanying Drawings is a face view of one of the said
pieces of steel, showing several indentations, and also the file-cut surface, and the
aperture through which the shank of the handle passes; Fig. 2 is an edge view
of the same. Two of these steel pieces, formed as shewn in the Drawing, having
indentations made exactly to fit each other, are placed nearly in connection in
Fig. 3; and joined together in Fig. 4, both of these Figures. representing the
pieces in section. The two pieces of steel when thus. united may be held
together by passing the shank of an ordinary fork through them, when, by
resting against the boss; the pieces are secured firmly, between it..and the
handle, as shewn at a, a, in Figures 5 and 6; by the ordinary means of attach-
ing 'handles 'to table forks; I form these sharpeners. by cutting discs, of what
ever dimensions 'may be necessary, out of. thin sheet, steel, and give them.the
file surface by means of dies in a stamping' press, and afterwards harden-them
in the ordinary way of hardening. steel tools. When I employ. the instrument
as' above described for sharpening scythes and such like tools; I set them
in guards, where they are secured and held together by a.screw,.as shewn at
Fig. 7. It is to be observed, that in the Drawing, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4
represent the sharpeners as circular-pieces, on a scalé sufficiently large for
sharpening scythes; but when the instrument is to be applied to a table fork,
it should correspond, or nearly so, with the size and shape of the ornamental
part of the shank of the fork, whatever that may be.
--The-apparatus for manufacturing these said improved sharpeners consists of
peculiarly formed conical dies. These are cut with-indentation's corresponding
to and fitting into each other in order to cut and mould the pieces of plate-steel
into the required forms for producing the sharpening tolls above described. The
conical part of the lower or female die, Fig-8, is file cut, by means of which

page_text: the face of the steel disc is similarly impressed. The upper or male die,
Fig. 9, is formed as its counterpart, excepting the file surface.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Church, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of April, in the
eleventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth, the said
William Church came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and
acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein con-
tained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid
was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year
of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of April, One thousand eight hundred and