US408307A - Manufacture of cutlery - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

A. JOHNSTON.

MANUFACTURE OF GUTLERY. No. 408,807. Patented Aug, 6, 1889.

Nv PETERS, Pnawmm m hur. Washington, D. c.

UNITED sTaTns PATENT OFFICE.

ALLEN JOHNSTON, OF OTTUMWVA, IOIVA.

MAN U FACTU RE OF CUTLERY.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 408,307, dated August 6, 1889. Application filed January 2, 1889. Serial No. 295,220. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALLEN JOHNSTON, a ciiizen of the United States, residing at Ottumwa, in the county of \Vapello and State of Iowa, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Art of Manufacturing Cutlery, of which the following is a specification.

The customary method of manufacturing the blades of table-knives and kindred cutlery, to which my invent-ion relates, has been as follows: A section of metal somewhat shorter than the finished blade, but of a thickness suiiicient for the thickest part thereof, is heated and then rolled, so as to taper from the longitudinal center or thickest part to a thin edge at the end approximating the degree .of sharpness required at that point when finished. Sometimes, also, the metal is tapered from the center to each of its ends by separate rolling operations. The rolling has two objects in viewfirst, to save metal by elongating the blank, and, second, to lessen the labor involved in the subsequent grinding or shaping of the blade. It however has certain attendant disadvantages. First, the rolling is apt to leave the blank in a twisted or bent condition, one portion of the blade perhaps projecting too far to one side, so as to necessitate not only great care in the subsequent grinding, but also an unnecessary amount thereof at the bent portions; second, the rolling may reduce the blank too much in thickness, leaving it so thin that it will be worthless after the removal of the scale formed in the forging operation, and, third, lumps of scale or other foreign matter are liable to adhere to some portion of the rolled blank and form hollows therein,which cannot be removed without grinding away too much of the metal. Many of the blanks are spoiled in some of these ways. After the rolling the blade-blank is stamped or cut outof the rolled metal, and after being reheated and straightened is subj ected to a grinding operation to finish shaping it to the fashion of the completed blade.

I have found that much more perfect work may be produced at a greatly-reduced cost in the following manner: I first stamp from sheet or ribbon metal possessing the greatest thickness requisite in the finished blade blanks of the full length required in. the com pleted blade. Instead of rolling these blanks to bring them to the approximate shape required for the finished article I shape them wholly by grinding. The blank is then ready for the subsequent finishing or polishing operation.

In the drawings I have shown at Figure l a plan of the blank produced by theiirst step of my new process, and at. Figs. 2 and 3 thereof sections upon the lines 2 2 and S 3, respectively, of Fig. 1. Fig. 4shows the blank after it has been ground, and Figs. 5 and 6 are sections upon the lines 5 5 and 6 6, re spectively, of said Fig. 4C.

In said drawings, A represents the blank as it appears when first stamped from sheet metal. It may be cut from sheet or ribbon metal possessing the greatest thickness requisite in the completed blade. It is of the full length required. After being stamped out the blank is next ground to the form shown at Figs. 4, 5, and 6 without being rolled or heated for any purpose whatever] This grind-- in g of the blank brings it into the proper condition for the subsequent finishing operation of polishing. By this method of manufacture I avoid not only the labor and other expense involved in the heating, rolling, reheating, and straightening operations of the old process, but I also avoid the production of the worthless and imperfect blanks that so often result from the old mode of operation.

I claim The improvement in the process of manu facturing the blades of table-cutlery, &c., con sisting in the following steps: first, stamp- .ing from sheet or ribbon metal a blank having the length and greatest thickness requt site in the finished blade, and then wholly shaping said blank by grinding, substantially as specified.

ALLEN JOHNSTON. Witnesses:

J. CHAMBERS, Jr., W. C. MAJOR.

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