One of the initial steps in the manufacture of plywood and other veneer products requires peeling logs into sheet like strips. This is done by axially rotating the logs against a special cutting apparatus, a lathe knife. The cutting edge of the lathe knife is typically upturned to receive a log that is biased against the knife for the peeling operation.
The lathe knife faces upward and is positioned to present its cutting edge to the log. Machine operators and maintenance personnel are called upon to keep the blade in a sharpened condition. Typically, lathe knives are honed, on the machine, on both the face and back side each hour or two. The knife is back beveled once or twice daily, at the discretion of the operator. The lathe knife can be in excess of ten feet in length. It is very difficult to maintain an accurate bevel angle along the full length of the cutting edge with currently available hand tools. Many cut hands result from operators using hand held stones and files.
Clipper knives are similar to lathe knives with respect to sharpness required and length but face downward. Typically clipper knives are positioned at an angle that makes it very awkward for operators to sharpen them with hand held stones. This procedure (honing) is required approximately once each week. Many equipment operators are reluctant to perform the sharpening function because of the difficult access. This invention greatly reduces the difficulty operators experience when honing a clipper knife.
This present invention relates to improvements in the apparatus and method by which lathe knives and clipper knives are kept in a sharpened condition. This invention allows even the most inexperienced operator to maintain exact bevel angles while honing a knife to a quality cutting edge. In the industry today it is the standard practice to sharpen both the lathe and clipper knives by a stone hand-held by the operator and manually moved across the blade to be sharpened. Considerable experience and skill is required to properly sharpen the knife and obtain good quality cutting results by this standard method.
This invention relates to an improved means for honing a knife to a quality edge that is not possible With hand-held stones and files. The invention will eliminate routine hand back-bevel filing, except for nick repairs. The invention will reduce by approximately seventy-five percent the amount of hand filing required by the current standard sharpening method.
This device further relates to a method of promoting a higher quality peel on veneer lathes and also to increasing the life of the knives while simultaneously providing a safer method for honing and back-bevel filing a knife.