Method for automatically resharpening a knife

Abstract

One variation of a method for automatically re-sharpening a knife includes: receiving a knife at a vice; during a scan cycle, scanning the grind head along a blade of the knife from an initial longitudinal position proximal the vice toward a longitudinal end position and recording a sequence of vertical positions of segments of an edge of the blade at various longitudinal positions of the grind head based on outputs of a sensor arranged in the grind head; calculating a blade profile for the knife based on the sequence of vertical positions; and, during a grind cycle, actuating a grind wheel in the grind head and pitching the grind head while driving the grind head longitudinally along the blade to maintain an axis of the grind wheel substantially parallel to segments the blade profile corresponding to longitudinal positions of the grind head, relative to the vice.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A method for automatically re-sharpening a knife comprising:
 receiving a knife at a vice;   during a scan cycle:
 advancing a grind head, relative to the vice, to an initial longitudinal position proximal the vice; 
 longitudinally retracting the grind head, relative to the vice, from proximal the initial longitudinal position toward a longitudinal end position; 
 as the grind head retracts from proximal the initial longitudinal position toward the longitudinal end position, recording a sequence of vertical positions of segments of an edge of a blade of the knife based on outputs of a sensor arranged in the grind head; 
   calculating a blade profile for the knife based on the sequence of vertical positions; and   during a grind cycle:
 advancing the grind head, relative to the vice, to proximal the initial longitudinal position; 
 actuating a grind wheel in the grind head; 
 longitudinally retracting the grind head, relative to the vice, from proximal the initial longitudinal position toward the longitudinal end position along the blade profile; and 
 while longitudinally retracting the grind head, pitching the grind head, relative to the vice, to maintain an axis of the grind wheel substantially parallel to local tangents along the blade profile. 
   
     
     
         2 . A method for automatically re-sharpening a knife comprising:
 receiving a knife at a vice;   during a scan cycle:
 scanning a grind head over a longitudinal scan distance between an initial longitudinal position proximal the vice and a longitudinal end position; and 
 recording a sequence of vertical positions of segments of an edge of a blade of the knife at longitudinal positions of the grind head along the longitudinal scan distance based on outputs of a sensor arranged in the grind head; 
   calculating a blade profile for the knife based on the sequence of vertical positions; and   during a grind cycle:
 actuating a grind wheel in the grind head; 
 driving the grind head along the longitudinal scan distance; and 
 while driving the grind head along the scan distance, pitching the grind head to maintain an axis of the grind wheel substantially parallel to segments of the blade profile corresponding to longitudinal positions of the grind head, relative to the vice.