AN IMPROVED RAZOR STROP OR INSTRUMENT FOR SHARPENING CERTAIN CUTTING EDGES, AND AN IMPROVED MATERIAL FOR COVERING THE SAME, WHICH MATERIAL IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPIT
EDWARDS, of Bloomsbury Square, in the County of Middlesex, Clerk, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Second day of November,
in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, and sole privilege and authority, for me and
them, and such others as I or they should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of
fourteen years therein expressed, to make, use, exercise, and vend, my
Invention of "AN IMPROVED RAZOR STROP OR INSTRUMENT FOR SHARPENING
CERTAIN CUTTING EDGES, AND AN IMPROVED MATERIAL FOR COVERING THE SAME,
WHICH MATERIAL IS ALSO APPLICABLE TO OTHER PURPOSES," within England
and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Joseph Edwards, par-
ticularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and scal, and to cause the same to be enrolled in
Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: a
KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Joseph
Edwards, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist,-
First, in the particular form and construction of an improved instrument
for sharpening razors, knives, blades, scythes, swords, and other such-like
cutting edges, and in the manufacture and particular construction of tablets for
both completing such instruments and renewing them when necessary; and,
Secondly, in the improved material of which I make such tablets, and which
I also apply to a variety of other purposes.
And in further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said Joseph
Edwards, do hereby describe the manner in which my said Invention is to be
performed, by the following statement thereof:-
First, I procced to describe one of my improved razor strops, or instruments
for sharpening the cutting edges of razors which are required to be very fine and
keen, and for effecting which a tablet containing grinding material very fine
in quality is requisite. I provide a stock or handle of wood or other material
to form the basis of the instrument, which stock should be very carefully
turned or wrought so as to produce a smooth, even, but convex surface. This
stock I prefer in the form of a truncated cone, made slightly tapering from the
handle towards the opposite end, but I do not limit the stock to a conical
form, as it may be cylindrical, semi-cylindrical, or of any other shape. I then
provide a cover or "tablet" (as I propose to designate the covering) of such
material as I find best qualified for the purpose, but of which I prefer to use
good, sound, firm, hand-wrought paper, a material which I find to be par-
ticularly well adapted to this object as the vehicle for carrying or sustaining
the grinding, sharpening, or polishing substance which is to act upon the
blade of the cutting instrument to be sharpened; and though I do not confine
myself to the use of paper for this tablet (other materials also serving for the
purpose), yet I particularly claim the use of paper as being a material of an
absorbent quality, readily taking up the oil and grinding material employed,
and presenting at the same time a surface soft enough not to injure the
instrument, and hard enough to oppose the imbedding of the instrument to be
sharpened, and producing therefore a more keen and more angular edge than
a softer and more yielding substance will produce. I then firmly secure the
tablet to the stock provided for it, taking care that every part be brought into
contact or firmly based thereon with as perfect a surface as may be; and in
order to do this in the most effectual and desirable manner, and to afford
facility in renovating the strop with other or renewable tablets from time to
time as herein-after mentioned, I prefer the stock to be in the form of a
truncated conc, as above described, and this cone being made to one uniform

page_text: guage and taper, and the tablet or conical cover being made of a corresponding
taper form and size, each stock, when introduced into the tablet thus made,
may, by the pressure of being well driven home, secure complete contact
throughout, and be thus or otherwise well fixed. 1 then take a mixture of
finely pulverized emery, or any other grinding or cutting material which
readily acts upon steel, with pure oil, to about the consistency of warm treacle;
and in those cases in which I do not use the particular material herein-after
described, I smear this mixture on the tablet till it is evenly and uniformly
saturated therewith, and afterwards, for better securing the material upon the
paper, I press it into the tablet by means of a piece of hard wood when the tablet
is in the lathe for that purpose, by which process the tablet acquires a moro
smooth and regular surface. The razor strop thus formed is then fit for use, and
the razor is readily sharpened, when in condition to have its edge perfected, by
drawing it briskly and ovenly along the surface of the strop from heel to point
in the ordinary manner. For producing greater activity in the sharpening of
the cutting edges of razors, knives, blades, swords, and other such like cutting
edges, or coarser edges, I make the tablets of a more active character. I take
a portion of the cement usually called "Keene's Cement," or of any other
sufficiently strong cement, with which I mix a portion of ground or pulverized
emery or glass, or any other such like cutting or grinding material, in about
equal proportions, and of a fineness or coarseness depending on the character
of the edge which it is desired the tablet or sharpening instrument shall
produce. These I mix well together, and add to them as much water as will
bring them to such consistency as will enable me to run or force it into a mould.
I then provide a cast iron or other mould, carefully bored or open conically,
I then
according to the size of the tablets which I purpose to make.
introduce a metallic core (oiled to prevent its sticking) into the centre of such
mould, the core being carefully turned down to such a size, and so tapered
conically as to correspond with the stock to be afterwards fitted to the tablet,
and I then fill the mould with the composition, from which, when sufficiently
set, I remove the core and take the composition thus formed into a tablet out
of the mould, and introduce a stock into the hollow of the tablet to form a
handle, and to strengthen the tablet; I then drive home and secure the stock
into the tablet with glue or otherwise, or I draw the stock tight into the tablet
or exterior cone by means of a screw at the small end, by which it can be
tightened, as the stock may shrink, or as may be required when the
sharpener is subsequently renewed by another tablet which may happen
slightly to vary in size. By way of increasing the solidity and density of the
tablets thus made, I sometimes submit the composition when in the mould to

page_text: a strong pressure.
The sharpener thus made may be used in the ordinary
way, the blade applied being drawn along its surface in the usual manner.
I now proceed to describe the material, in the particular application of
which, to the purpose of covering instruments for sharpening razors and other
cutting edges, and in the manufacture of which for these and other purposes,
some of which I have herein-after set forth, I claim exclusive privilege. The
fabric of the material referred to is that of ordinary pulp from which paper
is made, and this fabric is in all respects prepared and made in the ordi-
nary way of making paper, and of the same materials so far as concerns
the production of the pulp in the vat or recepticle which contains the
pulp, from which the paper is made. I cause to be well mixed with
the pulp so much of the pulverized emery, glass, or other grinding mate-
rial as will entirely saturate the given quantity of pulp, or in such proportion
as is required in reference to the activity of the material desired, both as to
the quantity and quality of the grinding material; the pulp or material thus
compounded is then to be made into paper in the ordinary manner. This
material, when formed into tablets as herein-before mentioned, is fit for
covering the stock and making the sharpner complete for such purposes as
the fineness or coarseness of the materials adapt them. The paper tablets
thus produced may at pleasure either be saturated with pure oil to increase its
action upon the steel or not; in the latter case it produces a more smooth
and highly polished edge. The paper material thus formed I call my
"polishing fabric," and it is made of various degrees of fineness or coarseness,
according to the use in which it is to be applied, and will be found a desirable
improvement for many purposes on the ordinary glass, sand, and emery paper
now in use, and an advantageous material for cleansing and polishing razors
and other steel instruments after use. Now, whereas I claim as my Invention―
First, the conical or taper form of the instrument producing the fitting
together of the stock and tablet as herein-before described.
f..
Secondly, the application of paper as the tablet or fabric and vehicle for
carrying the cutting, grinding, or polishing material for sharpening razors and
other cutting edges, as herein-before also described.
Thirdly, The construction and application of renewable tablets of the
composition and material herein-before and herein-after mentioned for com-
pleting or for renewing instruments for sharpening razors, knives, blades,
swords, scythes, and other such like cutting edges as herein-before mentioned.
And lastly, the manufacture of a paper material compounded or impregnated
in its fabric with pulverized emery, glass, or other like cutting or polishing
material as herein-before described.
4

page_text: And such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her said
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this
my Specification doth comply, in all respects, fully and without reserve or
disguise, with the provision in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained; whereupon I hereby claim to maintain such exclusive
right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Second
day of May, One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Second day of May, in
the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Joseph Edwards came before our
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Second day of May, in the year above written.