Improvements in or relating to forks with knife sharpening attachments

Description

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PATENT SPECIFICATION

DRAWINGS ATTACHED.

Inventor: -HUGH MURPHY.

Date of filing Complete Specification.: July 9, 1962.

Application Date: July 7, 1961. No. 24751161.

n \1' Z / Complete Specification Published: April 2, 1964.

/t 3 /) Crown Copyright 1964.

Index at Acceptance:-A4 V31Bl; B3 DlF.

International Classification:-A 47 g (B 24 d).

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.

Improvements in or relating to Forks with Knife Sharpening Attachments.

We, THE PRESTIGE GROUP LIMITED, a British Company, of Prestige House, 14 to 18, Holborn, London, E.C.1, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to. be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: -

This invention relates to forks, especially for use with meat carving knives, which are provided with knife sharpening attachments.

It is well known that meat carving knives should be sharpened regularly, and if completely satisfactory results are to be obtained, the knives should be sharpened before and possibly during each period of use.

This is, of course, inconvenient when known sharpeners are used, and it is an object of the present invention to reduce this inconvenience.

According to the present invention, there is provided an article comprising a fork, a knife sharpening attachment secured to the fork between the handle and the prongs of the fork, and a finger guard disposed between the knife sharpening attachment and the handle, the finger guard being formed as an upstanding member inclined towards the fork prongs and formed with a concave face towards the fork handle.

Preferably, the knife sharpening attachment is secured to that face of the fork which is uppermost in use. The attachment may comprise a body member and metal strips or a pair of metal wheels set in a Vshaped groove in the body member.

One embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:Figure 1 is a perspective view of a cary[Price 4s. 6d.] ing fork provided with a knife sharpening attachment; Figure 2 is a side view corresponding to Figure 1; and Figure 3 is an end view corresponding to Figure 1.

Referring to, the drawing, the fork comprises a forked blade portion 10 and a handle 11, and a knife sharpening attachment 12 is riveted to the blade portion. The attachment 12 is secured adjacent the handle on the face of the fork which is normally uppermost in use.

The knife sharpening attachment comprises a moulding of a suitably rigid plastics material. At the forward end of the moulding a V-shaped lateral groove 13 is provided and in this groove are set a pair of metal strips 14 which are arranged to act as knife sharpening surfaces. Rearwardly of the groove an upstanding and forwardly inclined finger guard is provided, the guard having a concave rear face 16 towards the fork handle.

In use a carving knife may be easily sharpened by drawing a knife blade across the knife sharpening surface of the attachment 12, which is secured to the upper face of the fork in a convenient position.

The invention thus provides an article which allows a knife such as a carving knife to be sharpened frequently without the inconvenience involved in the frequent use of a separate sharpener. Instead of being riveted to the blade portion of the fork, the sharpening attachment may be removably secured thereto.