IMPROVE- MENTS IN ROLLING STEEL TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUTLERY AND PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION OFY AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES REQUIRED WITH BOLSTERS OR SHOULDERS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Gray Hallas and John Stevens, both of
Sheffield, in the County of York, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ROLLING STEEL TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUTLERY AND
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Gray Hallas
and John Stevens at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 9th December 1875.
We, CHARLES GRAY HALLAS and JOHN STEVENS, both of Sheffield, in
the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLING STEEL TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
CUTLERY AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES REQUIRED WITH BOLSTERS OR SHOULDERS,"
to be as follows :-
The object of our Invention is to reduce the cost of production of the
"rough blanks" of table cutlery, and other similar articles with bolsters
or shoulders by forming the said bolsters or shoulders required on such
❝rough blanks” during the process of rolling down the steel to the

page_text: required thickness or size, in lieu of the present method of welding the
iron and steel together.
In carrying out our Invention in order to effect this object flat
grooves are first turned of the required-width of the blank round the
circumference of either one or both of an ordinary pair of cast-iron chilled
rolls, such groove or grooves corresponding to and regulating the
thickness of the blank. At one side or edge of such groove, in the case of
rough blanks for table blades, for example, indentations or counterparts
of the bolster or shoulder required are sunk, or otherwise formed at
given distances from each other, according to the length required
between the bolsters or shoulders, one half of such indentations being
formed on the top roll, and the corresponding half being formed on
bottom roll.
In order to ensure that the said indentations shall always maintain
the desired relative position one with the other, we prefer to drive the
rolls provided with such indentations by means of toothed wheels of
equal diameter secured on the shafts or axles of the rolls, and gearing
into each other, but other methods of driving the rolls may be adopted.
The blanks formed in the manner herein-before described are.after-
wards finished by the ordinary known processes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
:
filed by the said Charles Gray Hallas and John Stevens, in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
GRAY HALLAS and JOHN STEVENS, both of Sheffield, in the County of s
York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the 39th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give:
and grant unto us, the said Charles: Gray Hallas and John Stevens;
Her special license that we, the said Charles Gray Hallas and John
Stevens, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
•

page_text: .
we, the said Charles Gray Hallas and John Stevens, our executors,
administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no.
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
ROLLING STEEL TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CUTLERY AND OTHER SIMILAR
ARTICLES REQUIRED WITH BOLSTERS OR SHOULDERS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Charles Gray Hallas and John
Stevens, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Charles Gray Hallas and John
Stevens, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being
had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon, that is to say :-
The object of our said Invention is to reduce the cost of production of
the "
'rough blanks" of table cutlery and other similar articles with
bolsters or shoulders, by forming the said bolsters or shoulders on such
rough blanks" during the process of rolling down the steel to the
required thickness or size, in lieu of by the present method of welding
'an iron bolster on to a steel blank.
In carrying out our Invention in order to effect this object, flat
grooves of the required width of the blank are formed round the
circumference of either one or both of an ordinary pair of cast iron
chilled rolls, such groove or grooves corresponding to and regulating the
thickness of the blank. At one side or edge or in the bottom of such
groove in the case of rough blanks for table blades (for example)
indentations or counterparts of the bolster or shoulder required are sunk
or otherwise formed at given distances from each other, according to
the length required between the bolsters or shoulders, one half of such

page_text: indentations being formed in the top roll, and the corresponding half
formed in the bottom roll:
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of
Drawings, the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts
in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Sheet of Drawings represents a front
elevation of a pair of rolls employed in carrying out our Invention.
Figure 2 is a transverse section drawn to an enlarged scale of a portion
of a pair of rolls of a slightly modified construction.
Figures 3 and 4 represent respectively a front and end elevation of
one of the said rolls; and Figures 5 and 6 represent strips of steel or
strings of blanks after leaving the rolls.
A, A, are two chilled cast iron rolls rotating at equal speed by being
geared together by the wheels B keyed or otherwise secured on their
axles C, C, and each provided with gates or shallow grooves D, D, in
their peripheries of a width corresponding to the width of a table knife
(for example) and of a depth equal to one half or thereabouts of the
thickness of the blade or tang. These grooves may be of equal depth
throughout as shewn at a for producing blades of a rectangular section,
'or they may be inclined as shewn at b, in order to produce blades of a
tapering form in section, that is to say, thinner at the edge than at the
back; E, E, are recesses or indentations formed in the bottom of the
grooves D of a shape and size corresponding to one-half of the bolster or
shoulder, and that portion of the blade called the neck, the indentations
in the pair of rolls being situate at a distance apart equal to the
combined length of the blade and tang of the knife, and so arranged as
that the indentation of the one roll shall coincide or come immediately
opposite to those of the other roll, in order to form the complete bolsters
on the metal passed between them.
In the process of rolling the blanks a bar of steel of a section suited
to that of the blanks to be produced, and of the length requisite for any
required number of blanks, is inserted between the rolls in one of the
grooves D, and the rolls being in motion such bar is reduced to the
required thickness of the blade, whilst portions of the metal are forced

page_text: into the recesses or indentations E, thereby forming at suitable intervals
the required bolsters or shoulders on the bar, which upon leaving the
rolls will have assumed the form illustrated by Figure 5. The bar thus
formed is then cut up into lengths, each of which forms a blade or knife
blank, portions being cut away as shewn by the dotted lines at c,
in Figure 5, in order to form the tang and point of the blade..
According to another modification of the rolls as illustrated by
Figures 2, 3, and 4, in lieu of forming indentations in the bottom of
the grooves as in the modification herein-before described, we form
longitudinal grooves E in the rolls at a distance apart equal to the
required distance of the bolsters to be formed on the bar to be rolled.
The bar F, Figure 2, from which the blanks are to be formed is first
rolled to an oval or other suitable section and size, according to the
desired pattern of the bolsters to be produced, and is then passed
between the rolls which may be provided with grooves round their
peripheries as in the arrangement herein-before described, for the
purpose of reducing the bar to the desired thickness of the blades, or
the grooves D may be dispensed with and the rolls arranged at a distance
apart equal to the desired thickness of the blade.
The bar F as it passes between the rolls is flattened out by the smooth
portion of the rolls so as to form the blades and tangs, whilst the
longitudinal grooves E being of sufficient depth to clear the thickness of
the bar, portions of the said bar will be left at intervals uncompressed to
form the bolsters, the size and shape of which will be regulated by the
form or pattern of the longitudinal grooves.
The tangs may be either left flat as shewn at d, in Figure 5, or made
square as shewn at e in Figure 6, or they may be made of any other
desired shape.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our
said Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, producing
the rough blanks of table cutlery and other similar articles having
bolsters or shoulders, by rolling the said bolsters or shoulders at intervals
on a bar by the aid of chilled cast-iron rolls having corresponding
grooves formed, cut, or sunk in them, and then cutting the bar into

page_text: lengtus, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated by our
Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Gray Hallas and John
Stevens, have to this our Specification set our hands and seals,
this Sixth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and seventy- 5
six.
CHARLES GRAY HALLAS.
(L.S.)
JOHN STEVENS.
(L.S.)