ULTIMATE KNIFE SHARPENER UPDATE

I want to let everyone in the newsgroup know that progress is again
being made on our ultimate knife sharpener project.

The original prototype was designed to sharpen a 4 inch blade in about
one second. It utilized 8 lasers, one per inch per side. Naturally,
since we are using lasers, the finish and sharpness far exceeds anything
that can be obtained by abrasives or other mechanical means. Besides,
the lasers came from the Strategic Defense Initiative or Star Wars
program and were really cheap.

The plan was to expand the number of lasers for larger blades, but the
revelations of last summer have led us to consider using less lasers and
taking more sharpening time. The 12" version we will test this summer
uses only 6 lasers, but may take up to 4 seconds per blade.

The prototype had a fixed bevel angle, but this year's model has
variable bevel angles thanks to our acquiring an old observatory. The
motors used to rotate and point the telescope are large enough to rotate
the lasers. An unexpected benefit of combining the lasers and the
telescope is we can project our logo on the moon during idle time.

We had some unexpected results when we tested the prototype in Cleveland
last August. I apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced and hope that
tempers have subsided enough to safely release the details. We have
moved this summer's tests closer to Niagara Falls in an attempt to avoid
repeating last year's failure.

Steve
--
Sharpening Made Easy: A Primer on Sharpening Knives and Other Edged
Tools by Steve Bottorff Copyright January 2002 Knife World Publications
www.sharpeningmadeeasy.com
E-mail: steve AT sharpeningmadeeasy DOT com


--
Sharpening Made Easy: A Primer on Sharpening Knives and Other Edged
Tools by Steve Bottorff Copyright January 2002 Knife World Publications
www.sharpeningmadeeasy.com
E-mail: steve AT sharpeningmadeeasy DOT com