Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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TITLE OF THE INVENTION
SHARPENING AND DEBURRING TOOL FOR SINGLE
AND DOUBLE EDGED TYPE CUTTING BLADES
This application claims priority based on United States Patent Application No.
11/437,369 entitled " SHARPENING AND DEBURRING TOOL FOR SINGLE
AND DOUBLE EDGE TYPE CUTTING BLADES" filed May 19, 2006, which is
herein incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to hand tools and, more particularly, to hand held
sharpening and deburring tools adapted for sharpening and deburring a variety
of
configurations of blade edges.
BACKGROUND
Many types and varieties of sharpening and deburring tools are known in the
art
for convergent-edged bladed implements used in home, business, sports,
commercial
and industrial environments. Such implements may be provided with processing
elements which are adapted to sharpen/deburr/whet either a two-sided blade
such as a
knife, cleaver, hatchet or the like blade or a one-sided blade such as a
scissors or shear
blade. These functions are usually obtained by locating processing elements at
one or
more locations on the tool. An example of this type of sharpening and
deburring tool is
disclosed in my prior U.S. Patent No. 5,673,599. This patent, along with my
prior US
Patent Nos. 5,488,885 and 5,679,068, are also exemplary of a configuration
providing a
unitary blade guide, handle and finger/hand guard. With these tools, the
handle may be
gripped so that the user's gripping hand is shielded from the cutting blade
being
sharpened as the tool is drawn along the cutting blade during the
sharpening/deburring/whetting process. The versatility of this type of tool
has been
somewhat limited in the past, especially with regard to one-sided blade
implements,
due to the rather wide variance in not only the size of the implement blade,
but also the
angle between the flat face on one side of the blade and the converging
cutting surface
on the opposite side of the blade. This variance in size and configuration
occurs
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between such implements as garden shears and much smaller implements such as
common household scissors.
SUMMARY
A hand-held sharpening/deburring/whetting tool is provided which has a body
including a handle, blade guide and finger/hand guard with the body
incorporating a
plurality of processing elements. The tool body has first and second end
sections and a
third mid section. Diverse processing elements, such as
sharpening/deburring/whetting
elements which may be mounted on the end sections, are positioned to be drawn
along
a blade with the hand guard means shielding the user's tool gripping hand as
the tool is
moved in a first use mode. For use in this mode, the tool body may be provided
with a
blade guide means for confining and guiding a blade during the
sharpening/deburring/whetting process. The third section is located between
the
processing elements of the first and second end sections and comprises an
elongated
handle on an upper side of the body and an elongated blade guide and hand
guard
extending inwardly of the end sections. The handle and hand guard form an
elongated
ring inward of the end sections with sufficient space for a user's fingers to
extend
between the handle and the hand guard. The blade guide depends from the hand
guard.
A third processing element is positioned along the extent of the hand guard
and may be
oriented for processing a blade drawn through the processing element in a
direction
transverse to the longitudinal axis of the tool in a second use mode,
providing even
further diversity in the processing units. In the second use mode, the tool
may be hand
gripped along the handle section exterior of the elongated open ring of the
body. With
this structure, the tool may be adapted for use on V-shaped double sided
blades such as
knives and the like as well as various sizes of single edge blades requiring
sharpening
on one side only, ranging from garden tools, shears and pruners to household
scissors.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the hand-held sharpener/deburrer tool;
Fig. 2 is a right side elevational view of the tool;
Fig. 3 is a left side elevational view of the tool;
Fig. 4 is a front elevational view of the tool;
Fig. 5 is a rear elevational view of the tool;
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Fig. 6 is a top plan view of the tool;
Fig. 7 is a bottom plan view of the tool;
Fig. 8 is an expanded perspective view of the tool;
Fig. 9 is a perspective view illustrating use of the tool for sharpening a
knife
blade in the first use mode with the tool applied to the knife blade and with
the blade
tracking in the blade guide;
Fig. 10 is a perspective view illustrating use of the tool for sharpening a
single
edge blade such as a scissors with the scissors blade being drawn through the
elongated
ring of the handle and across the third processing element in the second use
mode;
Fig. 11 is a perspective detail view of the processing element mounted on the
hand guard;
Fig. 11 A is a partial elevational view of the processing element of Fig. 11
with
the blade being sharpened shown in cross section; and
Fig. 12 is an exploded perspective detail view of a modified mounting
structure
for mounting the processing element on the hand guard.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENT
The hand-held sharpening-deburring tool 10 includes a tool body 11 having a
hand/finger guard section 12, a blade guide section 13, and a handle grip
section 14.
The sharpening/deburring/whetting insert members 16 and 17 are fastened to the
front
and rear sections 18 and 19 of the body 11 respectively. It will be
understood, of
course, that the designations front and rear end sections of the tool are used
as a matter
of ease of description only with respect to the present embodiment. The
designation of
front and rear end sections of the tool body could be reversed without
changing the
scope or intent of the present invention.
The end sections 18 and 19 of the tool body in the present embodiment are
provided with thumb rests 21 and 22 respectively above each insert mounting.
It will be
noted that the insert mountings and thumb rests are located both forwardly and
rearwardly of the handle grip section 14, the blade guide section 13, and the
hand/finger
guard section 12. Consequently, the tool is double-ended in that a user's
thumb may be
rested on thumb rest 21 to apply the sharpening/deburring/whetting members 16
as
shown in Fig. 9, or the user's thumb may be rested on thumb rest 22 to apply
the
sharpening/deburring/whetting insert members 17. The main part of the tool
body 11 is
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formed as a longitudinally elongated flattened ring. The upper part of this
flattened ring
is provided by the handle grip section 14 and the bottom part is provided by
the
hand/finger guard section 12. The interior 23 of this flattened ring is long
enough and
high enough to accommodate a user's fingers when the user wraps his/her
fingers
around the upper part in a gripping fashion when the tool is used in the first
use mode
as shown in Fig. 9. Gripping the ring thusly naturally places the user's thumb
on either
the thumb rest 21 or 22 and the bottom of the ring naturally forms the
finger/hand
guard.
The blade guide section 13 depends from the finger/hand guard 12. Section 13
comprises a pair of depending walls 13a, 13b which have interior facing
surfaces 13c,
13d that are upwardly convergent when inverted as viewed in Figs. 4 and 5. The
walls
13a, 13b may be V-shaped in cross section as can be seen Figs. 4, 5 and 7.
The sharpening/deburring/whetting inserts 16 may be rectangularly shaped flat
members made of various known materials such as tungsten carbide, stone,
ceramics or
the like suitable for blade sharpening. As will be appreciated by those
skilled in the art,
each blade has a ground face to be employed in the sharpening/deburring
process with
the ground faces intersected and overlaid as shown to provide convergent
sharpening/deburring working edges that define a V-shape notch. The ground
faces of
the inserts 16 may be beveled at about 5 so that the faces themselves lie in
convergent
planes. Therefore, the cutting edges of a knife blade or like device may be
rested upon
the working edges of the insert 16 to deburr the cutting edges as shown in
Fig. 9. The
outside front corners of the insert 16 may also be rounded as shown in Figs. 1
and 4.
Inserts 16 are received in overlying abutting relationship and held in such
relationship
as a result of being secured within the tool body 11.
As illustrated most clearly in Fig. 8, the tool body 11 may be formed by two
mating halves 11 a and 11 b with each mating body portion including an insert
retainer
such as shown at 24 in Fig. 8 to securely mount one of the associated inserts
in the
overlapping relationship when the mating body portions are joined as shown in
Figs. 1-
and 7. The body portions may be clamped together by means of screw threaded
fasteners 26 which engage complementary mating internally threaded fastener
bases 27.
In this manner, the two halves of the inserts are clamped into position but
may be
replaced after wear by simply removing the screw threaded members 26 to allow
the
inserts to be removed. In the alternative, the inserts may be held in place by
molding
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the body 11 around the inserts or by fastening the inserts into a slot or the
like provided
in the body 11 in the event that a unitary molding is utilized.
The sharpening/deburring/whetting inserts 17 may be similarly fixed in the
body portions by means of the insert retainers 28 on the opposite end of the
tool body
in the manner previously described for the inserts 16. Referring to Figs. 5
and 7, the
sharpening/deburring/whetting inserts 17 may also be generally rectangularly
shaped
flat members made of appropriate material. One insert 17a may be fabricated
from a
material such as tungsten carbide or other materials such as described
relative to the
inserts 16. The other insert 17b may be fabricated from a material such as
steel or the
like. Insert 17a has a ground face to be employed in a sharpening/deburring
process as
previously described while the insert 17b has an unsharpened face
complementary to
the ground face of the insert 17a to provide a guide for single edge blades,
such as
shears and the like, to be sharpened on one side only. With respect to inserts
17, the
faces are intersected and overlapped as shown in Fig. 5 to provide convergent
edges
that define a V-shaped notch, the surface on insert 17a being a working edge
for
sharpening/deburring the beveled aspect of the single edged blade and the
complementary surface on insert 17b being a guide edge to position the flat
side of the
blade being sharpened. The faces of inserts 17a and 17b may be appropriately
beveled
as previously described relative to the inserts 16, so that the faces
themselves lie in
convergent planes. It will be understood also that the inserts 17 are securely
held in the
tool body as previously described with relation to the inserts 16. When the
tool is
employed in the first use mode, the tool is placed over a blade, such as the
knife blade
29 as shown in Fig. 9, with the webs 13a, 13b of the blade guide 13 disposed
on either
side of a blade 29. As is apparent from Fig. 9, the inverted V-shaped notch of
the blade
guide will guide the blade edge into the proper relationship with the inserts
16 for
sharpening/deburring. The V-shaped notch, defined by the inner surfaces 13c,
13d of
the webs 13a, 13b, is longitudinally elongated, underlying and extending
substantially
the whole length of the flattened ring of the body 11. The bottom of the notch
is located
at the base of the finger/hand guard 12 so that the knife blade edge will be
guided
longitudinally through the sharpening/deburring insert 16 just below the
finger/hand
guard 12. The inserts 16 extend forwardly and outwardly at an obtuse angle
from the
front end section 18 so that they will form an acute angle with respect to the
blade edge
to be sharpened/deburred. In operation, the blade being sharpened/deburred is
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CA 02589436 2007-05-22
shielded from the user's hand and, when the tool is pulled beyond of tip of
the blade 29,
the front end section 18 continues to shield the user's knuckles and thumb. In
order to
process a single edge blade, the tool would be simply reversed from the
condition just
described so that the user's thumb would be placed on the thumb rest 22.
According to the present invention a third processing element, providing a
second use mode for sharpening/deburring still other blade configurations, is
provided
by a third processing assembly 31 located on the hand/finger guard 12 as shown
in
detail in Figs. 11 and 11 A. As previously described relative to Fig. 8, the
tool body 11
in the present embodiment may be constructed from two mating body portions 11
a and
11b. These mating body portions may be essentially mirror images except for
the
details of the clamping screw threaded members 26. Thus, when assembled as
shown in
Fig. 1, the mating body portions together form the flat surface of the
hand/finger guard
12. As most clearly illustrated in Figs. 1 and 8, each of the two mating body
portions is
provided with a transversely directed aligned channel structure comprising
complementary side surfaces 32 and 33 which define a transverse groove or
channel
extending completely across the surface of the hand/finger guard 12. Although,
in the
illustrated embodiment, the transverse groove is preferably located at the mid
point of
the surface 12, it will be understood that the groove can be located at other
convenient
positions along the surface and need not be exactly normal to the longitudinal
axis of
the tool. In order to index or locate and align the faces 32 and 33, an
alignment slot,
such as shown 34 in Figs. 11 and 11A, may be provided in one of the body
halves l la -
11b and it will be understood that the opposite mating face on the other body
portion
will be formed with a key or rib to engage the slot 34 for alignment. It will
also be
understood that the order of the key end slot arrangement may be reversed from
that
shown in Figs. 11 and 11 A without departing from the spirit and scope of the
present
invention.
In order to provide seating for a third sharpening/deburring insert 36, an
insert
retainer structure 37 is molded into the wall of the body portion l la as
shown in Figs.
11 and 11A. It will be understood, of course, that a mating structure is
formed in the
body portion 11 b (not shown) such that, when the body portions are mated and
aligned,
a retainer well 38 is formed for the reception of the bottom end of the insert
member
36. The dimensions of the we1138 are such that approximately one-half of the
thickness
of the insert member 36 is contained in each body portion when they are
assembled.
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Fig. 11A illustrates the inserted position of the insert member 36 in the well
38. With
regard to the insert member 36, it will be constructed from such material as
tungsten
carbide or the like as described previously relative to the inserts 16. The
top end of the
insert 36 as viewed in Figs. 11 and 11A is provided with an inclined ground
surface or
face 39, the degree of slope of the surface 39 being variable depending on the
angle of
the cutting surface of a one sided blade of an implement such as the common
household
scissors. The ground face 39 provides the working edge for the
sharpening/deburring
process.
As seen most clearly in Fig. 11A, the vertical exposed flat face 33 of the
transverse slot in the hand/finger guard 12 provides a guide surface for the
flat face 42
of the one sided blade to be sharpened/deburred. The insert member 36 may be
held in
the well 38 by means of the clamping action when the halves 11 a and 11 b of
the tool
body are clamped together by the screw threaded fasteners 26. In the
alternative, if the
tool body is a single molded piece, the insert member 36 may be molded into
the body
of the tool as described relative to the inserts 16 and 17. It is conceivable
that still other
means may be used for securely retaining the insert member 36 within the well
38
without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Fig. 10
illustrates
the manner in which the tool is utilized in the second use mode involving the
processing element 31. The tool body 11 may be gripped and supported by the
user's
hand or may be hand-held and placed on a flat surface such as a table top or
the like 43
as illustrated in Fig. 10. The one sided blade 41 may then be drawn through
the
transverse groove in the second use mode with the insert 36 providing the
sharpening/deburring function on the beveled blade edge and the surface 33
providing
the back-up guide surface for the flat side of the blade.
Fig. 12 illustrates an alternative embodiment for locating a third processing
assembly on the hand/finger guard 12 of the sharpening/deburring tool 10. The
Fig. 12
embodiment effects only the structural mounting of the third processing
assembly and
the positioning of the sharpening/deburring insert 36a. It will be understood
that the
balance of the structure of the deburring tool may be identical to that
illustrated in Figs.
1-10. As previously described, the mating body portions 11c and l ld, when
assembled
as shown in Fig. 1, form the flat surface of the hand/finger guard 12. Any
form of
alignment or indexing structures, such as the alignment slot 34a or its
equivalent with a
mating key or rib (not shown) formed on the mating face of the opposite body
portion
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may be utilized as described with respect Figs. 11 and 11A. In the Fig. 12
embodiment,
each of the two body portions is provided with a transversely directed aligned
channel
or groove, defined by the complementary side surfaces 32a and 33a. Although,
in the
Fig. 12 embodiment, the transverse groove extending across the surface of the
hand/finger guard 12 is preferably located at the mid point of the surface, it
will be
understood that the groove can be located at other convenient positions along
the
surface and does not need to be exactly normal to the longitudinal axis of the
tool. In
this embodiment, the transverse groove in the body portion 11c includes a
projecting
alignment pin 43 which is dimensioned to extend into the transverse groove of
the
mating body portion 11 d. The aligning pin 43 will serve to align the
transverse channel
or groove in the tool body. It will be understood that the indexing or
aligning pin 43
may be molded into the mass of the body portion 11 c or may be otherwise
secured in
the transverse groove. An insert retainer structure 37a is molded into the
wall of the
body portion 11 d such that, when the body portions are aligned and mated, a
retainer
well is formed for the reception of the bottom end of the insert member 36a.
As shown
in the exploded view of Fig. 12, the insert 36a will be inserted downwardly
into the end
of the transverse groove and is restrained in one direction within the groove
by means
of the shoulder extensions 46 and 47 on the outside surface of the body
portion 11 d.
With the insert 36a dropped in position, the protrusion 43 will contact the
inside surface
of the insert and is dimensioned so as to clamp the insert 36a against the
shoulders 46
and 47 when the body portions are clamped together as previously described.
The insert
36a may be identical in structure and composition to that previously described
for the
insert 36 of Fig. 11.
As seen in Fig. 12, the vertical exposed flat face 33a of the transverse slot
in the
surface of the hand/finger guard 12 provides a guide surface for the flat face
of a one
sided blade to be sharpened/deburred as previously described. The insert
member 36a is
held in the well provided by the insert retainer structure 37a by means of the
clamping
action of the body portions 11 c and 11 d when the screw threaded fasteners 26
are
tightened. With the protrusion 43 clamping the insert 36a against the shoulder
elements
46 and 47, the insert is located on one side of one of the body portions 11 c
and 11 d
with the result of providing a significantly longer guide surface for a blade
being drawn
through the transverse groove in the second use mode described. It will be
understood
that the insert 36a when seated in the retainer structure 37a presents an
inclined ground
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surface as the working edge for the sharpening/deburring process as described
relative
to the embodiment shown in Figs. 11 and 11 A.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the
preferred embodiments, it will be apparent that alternative structural or
mechanical
details, as well as variations in design, may be made in order to accomplish
the objects
of the invention. The scope of the invention, therefore, is only to be limited
by the
claims appended hereto.
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