Protected blade edge knife sharpening apparatus

Abstract

A sharpening apparatus that may be used by a relatively unskilled person to simultaneously sharpen the two opposed cutting edges of a knife blade by hand and to maintain a sharpened cutting edge along the blade with minimal effort and training is provided by the invention. The apparatus comprises a panel member with a slot partially extending from its top edge, and a pair of sharpening steels that are pivotably mounted to the panel member to swing downwards in a crossed relation across the slot. A pair of counterweights or leaf springs biases the sharpening steels into their standby position. When the knife blade is moved down through the slot, it comes into contact with crossed sharpening steels to bow them outwards under tension applied by the leaf springs. The cutting edges of the knife blade are drawn along and against the sharpening steels to automatically sharpen their cutting edges at the proper angle without any need to match angles between the cutting edges of the knife and the sharpening steels, and without any counterweights applied to the sharpening steels. One or more secondary steeling rods are attached to the edges of the slot in the panel member to guide the knife blade in proper orientation with the sharpening steels as the knife blade travels in the slot of the panel member, and to protect the knife blade contacting the edges of the slot that might otherwise damage and knife blade. Such a sharpening apparatus can be used to maintain an extremely sharp cutting edge for precise cutting of a material without crushing or other damage with significantly reduced physical force and strain upon the user.