CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF KNIVES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
BURROWS, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of
January, One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, in the tenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Samuel Burrows, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Samuel
Burrows, my exors, aditiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Samuel
Burrows, my exors, adiñors, 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
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands
of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Eler said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF KNIVES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said Samuel Burrows, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said. Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in .Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
Lad, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Samuel Burrows, hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described in and by
the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereto
annexed, that is to say:-
The nature of my said Invention consists in manufacturing table and
other cutting knives for domestic purposes, with a shank between the handle,
bolster, and the blade, and shortening the blade by all the length of such
shank, whereby a portion of the heel of the blade, which is at present
of little or no use for cutting purposes, and is an obstacle to the cleanly
use of the knife, is done away with, and the article improved both in
fitness and appearance.
And the manner in which the said Invention is
performed varies with the materials of which the said knives are made, as,
for example, whether they are all of steel, or partly of steel and partly of iron
or of any other metallic substance, and is as follows:-
Figure 1 is a top view, and Figure 2 a side view of a knife of my improved
construction, made wholly of steel, but represented without the handle.
attached. A is the blade, shortened as before mentioned. B, the shank
interposed between the blade A and C the bolter. D, the tang of the
handle. The rod or piece of steel from which the knife is forged is first
heated in a hearth fire to a blood red heat, and tho blade then hammered
out, after which it is heated a second time to the saine degree, and the
shank, bolster, and tang are struck out in prints according to the mode
usually followed in the manufacture of table forks. The knife is then har-
dened, tempered, and finished in the usual way. When the knife is made
partly of steel and partly of iron, the blade is made of steel, and the shank,
bolster, and tang of iron, and the two parts are welded together, care being
taken to heat the iron to a considerable higher degree than the steel, which is
much more readily fusible than the other metal. If cast iron be substituted
in the latter case for wrought iron, then the blade is forged in steel, and the
shank, bolster, and tang are cast on by means of moulds. If steel, or steel
and iron, or iron, be used, plated with silver or any other material, the knives
are made in the foregoing manner, and then plated in the usual way. From
the examples which have been thus given, it will be easy to understand how
the mode of manufacture should be varied and modified, in all cases, according
as the article is made of one, two, or more metals, and according also to
the description of the metal or metals employed. The shank may be made
either of the forms shewn in Figures 1 and 2, or of any of the varieties
shewn in. Figures 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, or of any other suitable form.
In some
".

page_text: cases I make the blades with a raised part at the bottom next to the shank, as
shown at a in Figure 8.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I make no claim to any
of the modes of manufacture herein-before described as being of my invention.
But what I claim an exclusive right to, under the said partly herein-before
recited Letters Patent, is the manufacture of table and other cutting kuives
for domestic purposes, with a shank between the handle, bolster, and the blade,
and the blade shortened by all the length of such shank, as before described,
however such shank may be fastened, and of whatever materials the said
knives or any parts thereof may be formed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Burrows, have hereunto set my