Grinding jig for knives
The invention relates to a device by a grinding apparatus for knives and other grindable objects, for example scissors, comprising a rotatable grinding wheel and a, relatively thereto, swingable stand arm at whose free end, near the grinding wheel, is formed a groove, in which the knife blade is displaceably held in a fixed manner during grinding, and in which said groove is defined by an upper branch and a lower branch, the latter being mainly parallel to the former in the unaffected state, both branches being attached to the stand arm.
Such a grinding apparatus is known from NO patent No. 10.694. This known grinding apparatus comprises an upright fixed post which supports a sleeve or similar, adjustable in height, which is connected to a stand arm or grinding arm. At the outer end of the stand arm or grinding arm is formed a groove, in which the knife or the object to be ground, may be secured. By means of this known device is achieved, that during the entire grinding operation the knife may be held unchangeably
fixed at the required angle against the grinding surface.
The knife fixing groove at the outer end of this known stand arm or grinding arm will in use be unchangeable, to steadily hold the knife blade in a fixed manner.
However, unchangeable groove width is unfavourable for two reasons: (a) The groove will not be able to receive knife blades of different thickness, some will not fit into the groove, while others will be too thin for the groove walls to provide proper support for the knife blade during the grinding; and (b) the narrow fit between groove and knife prevents the operator from tilting the knife upwards by the cutting edge during grinding, so as to achieve a correct grinding of the point of the knife.
The object of the present invention was, therefore, to provide an improved clamp which forms said groove for the reception of the knife blade during grinding, which clamp is configured partly to allow reception and steady fixing of knife blades of varying thickness, partly to provide for the operator to tilt the knife upwards by the cutting edge during grinding, so as to ensure correct grinding of the point.
This object was realized, according to the invention, by configuring the clamp in such a manner, that it exhibits the features appearing from the characterizing part of claim 1.
Advantageous, subordinate features which are integral with the invention disclosed in claim 1, have been made objects of subsequent dependent claims.
According to the present invention, at least one branch is resilient/yielding in one direction essentially perpendicular to the stand arm.
Said clamp which is fixed at the free end of said stand arm, may take the form of a U-shaped spring wire clamp, in which the groove between the clamp branches, serving to resiliently receive and fix the knife blade in a known manner, is open towards the grinding wheel, one branch of the clamp being above the groove, while the other branch of the clamp is below the groove.
The resilient properties inherent in the spring wire clamp, combined with the U-shape, enable reception and steady fixing of knife blades of different blade thickness.
The most important thing about the spring wire clamp is, however, that the resilient fixing of the knife blade enables the operator to tilt the cutting edge upwards at the knife point, so as to get a correct grinding of the latter by means of the grinding wheel rotating about a stationary axis of rotation.
To achieve the required resilience and deflection of the lower branch of the spring wire clamp, during the upward tilting at the point of the cutting edge portion of the knife, without thereby causing undesirable corresponding resilience and deflection of the upper branch of the spring wire clamp, the upper branch of
the clamp may, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, be fixed to the outer free end portion of the stand arm at a short distance from the end thereof, while the lower branch of the clamp is attached at a considerably larger distance from the end of the stand arm. The upper branch of the clamp will thus have a considerably higher bending strength than the lower branch of the clamp.
An example of a practical embodiment of the invention will appear from the following description referring to the drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 shows a side view of a grinding apparatus of a type, with which the invention may be realized, and illustrates a U-shaped spring wire clamp according to the invention, mounted at the free end of a swingable stand arm, fixedly holding a knife blade to a rotatable emery grinder;
Fig. 2 shows a plan view, from above, of the grinding apparatus according to Fig. 1;
Figs. 3 and 4 show, on a larger scale, side views of the free outer end portion of said stand arm with the mounted U-shaped spring wire clamp fixedly holding the knife blade;
Fig. 3 showing the U-shaped spring wire clamp and the knife blade in the positions they adopt by normal grinding; and
Fig. 4 showing the U-shaped spring wire clamp and the knife blade in the positions they adopt when the
cutting edge of the knife blade is tilted upwards, in order to grind the knife point correctly.
The grinding apparatus comprises, in a known manner, a grinding wheel 2, whose direction of rotation is indicated and designated 0. The emery grinder 2 is driven in a known manner by an electric motor 3.
The apparatus is - also in a known manner - provided with a stand arm 4 which is swingable about an axis A, which forms a small acute angle with the vertical. The stand arm 4 is connected to a bracket 5 by means of a screw 6, whose axle respectively displaceably and lockably engages a horizontal groove in the bracket 5. The bracket 5 is also respectively displaceably and lockably attached to an upright stand element 7 by means of a screw 6'. The stand element 7 is connected to a stationary stand element 8 by a screw 9. The screws 6, 6' and 9 may be loosened for subsequent tightening, if adjustment of the stand arm 4, the bracket 5 or the stand element 7 is required. The base plate of the grinding apparatus is designated by the reference numeral 10. The swingability and adjustability of the swingarm 4 is previously known and are not objects of the present invention.
At the free end portion of the stand arm 4 a spring wire clamp is mounted, which is generally designated by reference 11, and which has the form of a compressed, lying U, whose step 11' passes through a transverse hole 4' in the stand arm . The U-shaped spring wire clamp 11 is arranged with its one U-branch 11' ' on the upper side of the stand arm 4 and its other U-branch ll111 on the underside of the stand arm 4, so that between the U-branches, ll1', ll''' and the outer end
of the stand arm 4 is formed a lying groove, open towards the emery grinder 2, and forming a small acute angle with the horizontal plane.
Besides the U-step, taken through the transverse hole 4' of the stand arm 4, the upper U-branch 11' ' is attached to the stand arm 4 by means of a fastener 13, for example in the form of a cramp or the like, placed at a relatively short distance from the outer end of the stand arm 4, the lower U-branch 11''' being secured in a corresponding manner, but here the distance between the fastener 14 and the outer end 4 ' ' of the stand arm 4 is considerably larger than for the upper U-branch ll'1. The different locating of the fasteners 13, 14 of the branches 11", 11* ' ' of the spring wire clamp on the stand arm 4 aims at a greater deflection capacity of the lower U-branch ll'1' than of the upper U-branch 11". Thus is achieved a firm grip on knife blades 1 of different thickness, while at the same time the spring wire clamp 11 allows the earlier mentioned tilting of the cutting edge of the knife on grinding the point. It is hereby an absolute condition that the lower U-branch ll'11 may be deflected downwards by its free end portion, while the free end portion of the upper U-branch is not deflected or only insignificantly deflected, see Fig. 4 in connection with Fig. 3.
During grinding, the operator holds the stand arm 4 (near the point of pass-through of the U-clamp step 11' on the stand arm) by one hand, and the knife handle or the tang for the handle by the other hand.
The successful grinding is essentially attributed to the U-shaped spring wire clamp constituting a clamp for the fixing of the knife blade during the grinding. Such
a resilient clamp also enables the operator to easily displace the knife blade in the plane of the groove 12.
In another embodiment, not shown, the resilient wire clamp 11, with the lying groove 12 between the clamp branches 11", ll1'1, may, for example, be formed by separate branches 11", ll''', which appear when the U- step 11' is removed and the separate branches are separately attached to the stand arm 4. It is sufficient that one branch is resilient/yielding, but it is an additional advantage when both branches 11", ll''' have a certain, mutually different resilience in a direction essentially perpendicular to the stand arm 4. In a further embodiment, not shown, the stand arm 4 may constitute one branch.