CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAWE, CLEAVERS, STRAW KNIVES, AND ALL KINDS OF IMPLEMENTS THAT REQUIRE OR ADMIT OF METALLIC BACKS
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENNINGTON
GILL, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom, bearing
date at Westminster, the the Fifteenth day of July, 1828, in the fourth year
of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Bennington Gill, my exors;
admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Benington Gill, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
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, an Invention, communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing
abroad, of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAWE, CLEAVERS,
STRAW KNIVES, AND ALL KINDS OF IMPLEMENTS THAT REQUIRE OR ADMIT OF METALLIC
BACKS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if
I, the said Bennington Gill, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and 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 Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Bennington Gill, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
These Improvements in the Construction of Saws, Cleavers, Straw Knives,
and all kinds of Cutting Instruments that require or admit of Metallic Backs,
consists in a peculiar mode of constructing such metallic backs, and of
attaching them to the blades, and also of connecting these and the handles
together.
I shall first describe the improvements as apertaining to saws which have
thick metal backs. The blades of these saws are formed out of rolled steel
to the size required, and are cut into teeth in the way that saw blades are
usually made, but the back parts of the blades are pierced or cut into certain
indentations and perforations, as shewn at Figure 1 in the Drawing, which
represents a saw blade detached from its thick back and handle. These per-
forations may be made by means of a cutting press or otherwise, and are for
the purpose of fastening the blade into the back and handle. The backs of
the saws are to be made cylindrical or nearly so, and are formed out of rolled
metal, either brass or iron or other metal, of a suitable thickness. The rolled
metal is to be cut into strips of about one inch and three eighths wide, the
edges being made parallel. The strip is then bent up round a cylindrical rod,
and passed through a drawplate, in the manner of drawing telescope tubes.
The tube thus formed is a hollow cylinder, smoothed on the outside, with a
straight cut or narrow opening from end to end, where the edges of the
metal meet. This cut is for the purpose of introducing the thin back edge
of the saw blade. The length of tube cut off for one saw is shewn at
Fig. 2, and an end view of it at Fig. 3. These tubes are sometimes made of
iron coated with thin brass, my manner of doing which is as follows:-The
iron is rolled to the thickness of about the 17th or 18th of an inch, and then
cut in proper breadths for drawing. The brass also is rolled to about No. 28
wire guage, and cut in breadths about an inch wider than the strips of iron,
that the edges of the brass may turn over the edges of the iron. The strips
.are then made about half circular by means of a die and press, when they are be
together passed through the drawplate in the ordinary way of performing the
operation of drawing tubes. The length of tube is then cut into suitable
pieces for separate saw backs. Though I have here described cylindrical
backs and the dimensions which I prefer, yet I do not intend to confine
myself to that figure or to those proportions, but shall vary the shapes and

page_text: sizes of my saw backs as circumstances may require. The handles of these.
saws are made much in the usual shape, as shewn at Fig. 4, but with a cylin-
drical. end 6 turned in a lathe about of an inch diameter, and with a strong
brass or iron ferrule. The mode of connecting these to the blade and back is
shewn by the section of the back and handle at Figure 5. That part of the
handle which is to receive the cylindrical back is bored completely through
and countersunk at the end, in order to fasten the blade to the back and the
back to the handle. The parts being all neatly fitted, the saw is put into
sand, and a hole made leading to the aperture of the handle, melted lead,
regalus, and tin, or other suitable metal, is poured into the aperture, and run
into the hollow cylinder so as to fill it and also the hole in the handle. When
this melted metal has become cold it will be found to have fastened the blade
to the back by having flowed through the perforated parts of the blade a, a, in
Fig. 1, and by that means acting as cross pins; the metal which flowed into
the handle will have settled in a conical shape, and being thereby prevented
from drawing out of the handle, fixes the blade back and handle immoveably
together. A small slit is made in the ferule & to admit the cut-out part of
the back edge of the saw blade merely for the purpose of steadying it, and a
screw of the usual kind is introduced at c to render the end of the blade
steady in the handle. This mode of attaching the back of the blade to the
handle is particularly calculated for warm climates, where the shrinking of the
wood frequently loosens the handles, and by this mode of attachment the heat
of the climate can in no degree effects its stability. Another mode of attach-
ment is by boring the hole in the handle not entirely through, but, by means
of a spring passer, to make the hole wider at bottom than at the entrance.
The melted metal must then be poured in at the front end of the hollow
back, and by running through into the cavity of the handle fixes the whole
firmly together. If it should be thought desirable occasionally to withdraw
the blade and back from the handle for the greater convenience of sharpening
it, then the blade may be secured to the back by melted metal as above, but
attached to the handle by screws much in the old way; or if it should be
wished to render the blades capable of being removed from the back for the
purpose of staightening them, then I should make the blade as above, and
merely introduce its back edge into a strong cylindrical back made of iron
and brass, united as above (or composition of metals), without fastening it, by
means of the melted metal, which with double metal backs I do not find
necessary, , but simply hold the back edge of the blade between the edges of
the tube, and fasten it to the handle by screws.
My improved mode of making cleavers is by forming the blades of rolled

page_text: sheet steel cut into a proper shape, with holes pierced through at the back
edge as in screw blades. A cleaver, with the back and handle in section, is
shewn in Fig. 6. The back is formed of rolled iron or other metal drawn
into a cylindrical form, as before described. The blade is then introduced
between the edges of the tube, and the back driven into the handle. The
perforation is then made through the handle, and a wire with an eye at the
end introduced. Fluid metal, as above, is then poured into the hollow tube,
which, by filling it and the handle, fixes the whole firmly together. The same
mode I apply to the manufacture of scythes, straw knives, hay knives, and
other cutting instruments of that description. Rasors may with considerable
advantage be made upon this principle, as the strong metallic back attached
to a thin blade. of steel by melted metal in the manner above described will
afford an opportunity of using thin rolled steel for the blade of the rasor,
which, by its equality of substance, will admit of an uniform temper
throughout.
The improvements which I claim under this Patent are, the adaptation of
the hollow backs to cutting instruments in the manner and for the purpose
above stated, and the new mode of fixing them to the blades and handles by
means of melted metal when such attachment should be desirable; which
contrivances being entirely new in this kingdom, I claim the exclusive right
and privilege of employing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bennington Gill, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four
PALMER, Extra.
BENNINGTON (LS:) GILL.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid Bennington Gill came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Iprolled the Fourteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.