AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CLEANING AND POLISHING KNIVES
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Harris Lake at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 7th July 1881. A communication
from abroad by Pierre Victor Godard, of Paris, France.
HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CLEANING AND
POLISHING KNIVES." [A communication from abroad by Pierre Victor Godard,
of Paris, France.]
This Invention relates to an improved knife-cleaning machine in which the handles
of the knives are fixed, the said machine providing means whereby the work may be
effected with cleanliness and rapidity, and being operated with great facility. This
improved machine, by reason of its small weight and dimensions, can be arranged
on a table or other piece of furniture, and is by reason of the solidity of its parts
not liable to get out of order.
In the accompanying Drawing I have shewn as an example a machine constructed
according to my Invention.
a,
A is a wooden frame carrying two movable cross-pieces or slides a¹, upon which
is secured the cast iron frame D and the piece G, which serves for holding and
fixing the handles of the knives to be cleaned.
The knife-blades rest upon a plate of sheet metal or other suitable material,
80 as to be in a convenient position for the operation of the brushes H fixed as
shewn in the Drawing, these brushes effecting the cleaning of the said blades by the
aid of powdered bath brick, pumice stone, or other suitable substance.
The end of each knife-handle is fixed in an orifice of corresponding section made
in the hub or nave of a toothed wheel C, the wheels being arranged in pairs aud
making a complete half of a rotation by the turning of a crank which sets the first
or any other of these gear wheels in motion.
The result of this arrangement is, that when a knife is cleaned on one side, one
movement of the crank turns the knife to receive the same operation on the
opposite side of the blade. The number of knives and consequently that of the
gear-wheels which operate the same may be varied at will as required.
These gear-wheels are enclosed in a cast iron box B which carries at its lower
part a plate d, which serves to cause the whole mechanism to slide between the

page_text: two cross-pieces a, a'; any suitable arrangement may be used in combination with
the box B for lubricating the wheels C.
When each knife-handle is placed in the notches of the piece G provided with a
band of leather or other material fixed in any convenient manner, the piece F,
with india-rubber upon the same, is lowered or depressed by means of the lever e.
The said piece exerts pressure upon the handles, and allows of the blades being
cleaned and energetically rubbed without their being liable to get out of place.
The frame D is recessed for the reception of the lever e. The uprights of the
frame have an interior groove in which the piece F slides. The device or press E,
which bears on the knife handles, consists of a piece f connected by the cross-
pieces g, g. The piece F is of cast metal, and has a wooden rod h which serves to
attach the india-rubber band.
4
The arme of the press being lifted, a coiled spring contained in the socket or
holder J causes the piece F to rise for placing the knives in or withdrawing them
from the piece G.