Apparatus for precision steeling/conditioning of knife edges
AssigneeEdgecraft Corporation
InventorsDaniel D. Friel, Sr., Daniel D. Friel, Jr., Robert P. Bigliano, Abraham Leibson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for manually steeling or conditioning the edge of a knife blade comprises a precision angle guide attached to a manual sharpening steel. The angle guide establishes a guiding surface that provides for sustained sliding or rolling contact with the face of the knife blade such that the plane of at least one edge facet adjacent to the edge of the blade is maintained at a precisely established angle relative to the plane of the sharpening steel surface at the contact point of the facet with the surface of the sharpening steel.
Claims26
A sharpening apparatus for manually obtaining a microstructure of microteeth along the cutting edge of a blade having two faces that at their terminus having been sharpened forming two facets that intersect to create an elongated edge at the junction of the two facets, said apparatus comprising a member which is mounted to be non-rotating during sharpening, said member having a generally non-abrasive hardened surface, a precision angle guide mounted in intimate proximity to said member, said precision angle guide having an elongated two-dimensional planar knife-face contacting guide surface to be of sufficient size to establish the plane of the blade and along which a face of the blade can be stroked to position a facet of the blade in sustained moving contact with said hardened surface, said planar guide surface being at an angle to said hardened surface at the location of contact of the facet with said hardened surface, and said precision angle guide and said member when attached together forming a generally rigid assembly wherein said angle remains fixed and constant whereby during repeated strokes of the facet against said hardened surface at the constant angle alternating stresses of sufficient magnitude are created along the blade edge to harden the blade edge and make the blade edge more brittle and prone to fracture and fragment causing small sections of the blade edge to drop off leaving a microscopic microtooth-like structure along the blade edge.
An apparatus for manually sharpening the edge of a knife blade comprising a movable precision angle guide for a knife blade with two faces each of which terminates in an edge facet which meet to form the edge, said guide being mounted on a supporting structure that allows sliding movement of said guide in a direction parallel to the axis of a stationary sharpening member in response to hand pressure applied to the blade as one face of the blade is held in sustained contact with said guide and drawn manually along said guide and in a direction nominally perpendicular to the axis of the sharpening member with said precision guide angled to position the plane of one blade facet in sustained contact with the sharpening member at a predetermined angle relative to the plane of the sharpening member at the point of contact with the sharpening member, where the movement of said guide in response to hand pressure applied to the blade is resisted by a supporting spring, where said guide is a first movable angle knife guide mounted slidingly on a supporting structure and a second movable angle guide mounted on the same structure, the sharpening member being a hardened steeling rod, each of said guides mounted slidingly in juxtaposition to a corresponding one of said hardened steeling rods to permit said guides to move in a direction parallel to the axis of said rods as each is moved manually by the motion of the knife as it is drawn in a direction nominally perpendicular to the axis of said rods with one edge facet in contact with the corresponding hardened steel rod.
A method for obtaining a microstructure of microteeth along an elongated edge of a knife blade which has two faces that at their terminus form two edge facets that intersect to create the elongated edge at the junction of the two facets, the method comprising providing at least one precision knife guide having a planar knife face contacting surface, providing in intimate proximity with the at least one precision knife guide at least one member having a hardened surface which is substantially free of abrasive particles, the hardened surface having a hardness at least equal to the hardness of the knife blade, repeatedly placing each face of the knife blade against the planar knife face contacting surface of the at least one precision knife guide, maintaining each knife blade face alternately in sustained moving contact with the face contacting surface of the knife guide as each facet is stroked against the hardened surface at a location of contact while the hardened surface is non-rotating, and maintaining sustained contact between each facet and the hardened surface on each stroke to locally stress and fracture the edge of the blade on repeated stroking until a microscopic serration is created along the edge.
A holder for manually sharpening the edge of a knife blade having two faces that at their terminus having been sharpened forming two facets that intersect to create an elongated edge at the junction of the facets, said holder comprising a supporting structure supporting and positioning at least one sharpening member, at least one movable precision angle guide structure supported by said supporting structure, said angle guide structure having a planar knife-face contacting guide surface along which a face of the blade can be stroked to position a facet of the blade in sustained moving contact at an angle with said sharpening member, said guide structure being slidably mounted to said supporting structure to selectively dispose said guide surface at different locations with respect to said sharpening member, aligning structure engaging said guide structure to said supporting structure for maintaining the angle of said guide surface constant when said guide structure is moved to different positions with respect to said supporting structure and said sharpening member, and where said sharpening member is a non-abrasive sharpening steel.
A holder for manually sharpening the edge of a knife blade having two faces that at their terminus having been sharpened forming two facets that intersect to create an elongated edge at the junction of the facets, said holder comprising a supporting structure supporting and positioning at least one sharpening member, at least one movable precision angle guide structure supported by said supporting structure, said angle guide structure having a planar knife-face contacting guide surface along which a face of the blade can be stroked to position a facet of the blade in sustained moving contact at an angle with said sharpening member, said guide structure being slidably mounted to said supporting structure to selectively dispose said guide surface at different locations with respect to said sharpening member, aligning structure engaging said guide structure to said supporting structure for maintaining the angle of said guide surface constant when said guide structure is moved to different nositions with respect to said supporting structure and said sharpening member, where said supporting structure supports two spaced sharpening members, and said guide structure having two mirror image guide surfaces each of which is disposed at a respective one of said sharpening members.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.