AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING TABLE KNIFE BLADES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Levesley, of Sheffield, in the County
of York, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING
TABLE KNIFE BLADES."
Sealed the 9th January 1854, and dated the 12th July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Levesley
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 12th July 1858.
I, WILLIAM LEVESLEY, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING TABLE KNIFE BLADES
be as follows:-
A piece of heated iron is placed in a mould, upon which steel in a
state of fusion is poured, which unites itself to the iron. The iron
is intended to be formed into the shoulder and the shank, the steel into
the cutting part or real blade of the knife.
The ingot is then passed thro' a pair of rollers prepared for the
purpose, by which process the metal is formed into the shape of a table
knife blade viewed laterally.
. The sheet is then taken to a fly punch, and the blades are punched
out..

page_text: Each blade is then placed upon a die, and a corresponding die is
made to descend upon it, and thus the shoulder is formed into the
proper shape.
What I claim as my Invention is, the method of uniting the iron
and steel in the blade of table knives, and the arrangement and combi-
nation of the several processes of rolling, punching, &c., as herein
specified in the making of table knife blades.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Levesley in the Great Seal Patent Office,
on the 12th January 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
WILLIAM LEVESLEY, of Sheffield, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of July, in the year
of our Lord. One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Levesley, Her special licence
that I, the said William Levesley, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Levesley, my executors,
administrators, and 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." AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF MAKING TABLE KNIFE BLADES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Levesley, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 I, the said William Levesley, do hereby de-
clare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is

page_text: to be performed, to be particularly described and, ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):
The object of this Invention is to effect an economy in the manufac-
ture of table knives, and to this end I propose to stamp them out of
sheets composed partly of steel and partly of iron, or out of shear steel
rolled into sheets of a suitable shape. In the former case .1 hammer
up a piece of iron to a suitable shape for forming, when rolled out, the
shoulder and tang of a given number of knives, and this iron while
red lot I place in a metal mould, and pour into the mould stecl in a
state of fusion, which unites with the iron and constitutes the part from
which the blade is formed. The bar of metal thus produced I then
roll out into a sheet of varying thickness corresponding to the thickness
of metal required for the different parts of the knife.
In manufacturing, however, on a large scale I prefer to make a bar
of the form shewn at Fig. 1, (the red part of which represents iron
and the blue part steel,) which bar, when rolled out into a sheet, is
calculated to produce two rows of knives, the middle part of the sheet
forming the tangs and shoulders, and the outer parts the blades.
When manufacturing the blade, shoulder, and tang of shear steel I
prepare a bar of similar form, but of steel throughout, and reduce it by
rolling in like manner. To effect this rolling operation I provide a
pair of cast iron rollers having a set of grooves (four pairs will in
general answer best) properly shaped to act upon the heated metal, and
reduce it by successive rolling for the figure shewn at Fig. 1, to
that represented in edge view at Fig. 2, and in plan view at Fig. 3.
The proper sectional figure for these several pairs of grooves will be
readily understood by all persons employed in rolling metals, the sec-
tional figure of the first pair being a slight departure from the sectional
figure of the bar under operation, and approaching the ultimate
sectional figure which the metal is required to receive from the rollers,
and the figure of the second pair of grooves being a greater departure
from the sectional figure of the bar, and a nearer approximation to
the ultimate figure required, and so on. When the metal is thus

page_text: rolled out, if it be a sheet intended for two rows of knife blades, it is
cut up the middle, and formed into two sheets similar to that shewn at
Fig. 8. The sheets are then carried to a stamping press fitted with
dies, which are suitably shaped for cutting up the sheets into pieces
corresponding to the part colored red in Fig. 3, and being submitted to
the action of this press they are thereby cut up into knife blades,
which are then ready for undergoing the operations of the smith and
the cutler.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Method of Making Table Knife Blades," and described the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the
above in part recited Letters Patent I claim the stamping out of the
blades from sheets of metal rolled to the sectional figure required for
the knife blank or unfinished knife.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Levesley, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twelfth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
WILLIAM LEVESLEY. (L.s.)