US2308624A - Resilient nail file - Google Patents

Description

1943. R. J. POUECH RESILIENT NAIL FILE Filed Aug. 14, 1941 OIHMONP PHRT/CLES INVENTOR fiE/VE J. POUECH BY Q KLC! HTTO RN EY ?aiented aFara. i9, 3%43 RESILIENT NAIL FILE Ren J. Pouech, New York, N. Y., asslgnor to Cartier, Inc, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application August 14, 1941, Serial No. 406,764

2 Claims.

This invention is a resilient nail file embodying a resilient metallic blank to a portion of at least one face of which is adhesively secured diamond particles to form the abrasive surface or surfaces of the file.

The metallic blank may be formed from the precious or base metals and may be made correspondingly hard or soft as desired. The diamond particles are preferably relatively fine and are disposed over the surfaces of the blank, preferably in a layer of substantially one particle thickness. They are caused to adhere to the surface of the blank by means of an adhesive which strongly bonds with both the diamond particles and the metal of the blank. This adhesive must be of a flexible nature, in contradistinction to brittle adhesives, so as to permit the normal fiexing of the file without disrupting the adhesive with consequent release of the diamond particles.

The object of the invention is to provide a nail file which will remain efiicient through long periods of use and which may be economically and easily manufactured without the employment of expensive apparatus or the use of high temperatures or great pressures.

Features of the invention, other than those adverted to, will be apparent from the hereinafter detailed description and claims, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

The accompanying drawing illustrates one practical embodiment of the invention, but the construction therein shown is to be understood as illustrative, only, and not as defining the limits of the invention.

Figure 1 shows a nail file embodying the present invention.

Figure 2 is a greatly enlarged fragmental section of a portion of such file.

In manufacturing the file of the present invention I stamp out from any appropriate sheet metal a blank I of the desired nail file shape. The edges of this blank are first smoothed in any appropriate way so that they will not be unduly sharp. I next apply to the surface of the blank, which is to serve as the abrading portion, an appropriate adhesive 2. Both sides of the blank may be made abrasive, if desired, but, for illustrative purposes, I have shown a file with only one abrasive surface.

The adhesive employed may be any one of a wide variety of thermoplastic, thermosetting. heat drying or air drying adhesives or filmforming substances, including natural and synthetic resins which do, and others of which do not, require heat treatment in their manipulation and conversion into final set condition. Casein or other plastics may also be employed. The adhesive 2 is applied to the portion of the blank to be treated in a uniform layer, and thereafter diamond particles 3 are deposited on the adhesive coating and they are preferably pressed into the coating, so as bed into the adhesive layer as shown in Figure 2. Light pressure is sufficient for this purpose. In practice, the adhesive layer should be of a thickness less than the size of the diamond particles, so that a portion of each particle will project beyond said layer when seated therein to leave clear sharp edges to carry out the abrasive function.

In practice, the layer of diamond particles is preferably of one particle thickness, as shown in Figure 2, for by this arrangement, I am able to obtain a maximum abrasive area with a minimum quantity of diamond grit and thus economize in this material. A single particle thickness is found to be thoroughly efficient and satisfactory, as human nail growths are relatively soft and do not cause excessive wearing away of the adhesive surface or dulling of the edges between the facets of the diamond particles.

After the diamond particles have been applied as stated, they became permanently secured in fixed position by the application of heat or by air drying, or by light pressure drying or otherwise, depending upon the particular adhesive employed. If a thermoplastic adhesive is used the adhesive may be softened by heat during the pressing of the diamond particles into the coating thereof and the implement thereafter permitted to cool, so that the adhesive will set to hold the particles in place. With some adhesives baking may be resorted to for solidying the adhesive, while in other cases air drying will be sufiicient. In any event, an adhesive should be used which has such suflicient inherent elasticity or flexibility that the blank may be flexed without disrupting the coating or releasing the diamond particles therefrom. Many flexible coatings are well known which will effectually serve as an adhesive for use with this invention and the invention is therefore not limited to any particular adhesive.

This invention, while adapted for incdi'poration in all nail files, is especially applicable in the jewelry line where the blank may be made from precious or other metals. In such environment very beautiful effects may be produced by using colored adhesives against which the diamond particles stand out in sparkling relief. Water white adhesives may, however, be used where desired so as to permit the beauty of the diamond particles to appear in natural form.

I am aware that diamond particles have heretofore been used in connection with the manufacture of tools, more particularly in connection with the making of abrasive grinding wheels,

and the like. In this latter environment, it has been the practice to prepare a mixture of diamond particles and a binder, then spread this mixture, sometimes in plastic and sometimes in dry form on a rigid backing and then by the application of either or both great heat and pressures, sometimes with attendant vulcanizing operation, to amalgamate the whole into a grinding wheel structure. These mixtures, wherein the diamond particles are scattered in substantially uniform dispersion throughout a relatively thick mass, permit the freeing of the surface particles from the mass as they become worn and dull during the wearing down of the wheel, in order that the wheel will not lose its efllciency as a grinder. The present invention contemplates no such mode of operation. It does not embody this homogeneous mixture type of construction. On the contrary, the sharp edges of a substantially single thickness layer of particles are not covered by or encased within a binder at any time. These particles are merely set into an appropriate anchorage with a material portion of their sharp edges exposed beyond the surface of the adhesive layer in which they are added.

In the preferred form of the invention the nail file is resilient and embodies a resilient metal blank. It is possible, however, to obtain some of the advantages of the invention in a rigid or substantially rigid file and this may be accomplished by using a rigid or semirigid metal blank in lieu of the resilient blank hereinbefore described. In a rigid or substantially rigid file, the adhesive also need not necessarily be a flexible adhesive.

The foregoing detailed descriptionsets forth the invention in its preferred practical form and the invention is to be understood as fully commensurate with the appended claims.

The manner of making a nail file, as hereinbefore described, constitutes a novel method also forming part of the present invention.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A nail file comprising a metal nail file blank, a layer of solidified adhesive over at least a portion of the surface of said blank and firmly adhering directly thereto, and a substantially one particle thickness layer of diamond particles in uncoated natural condition bedded in and permanently secured in said adhesive layer with appreciable portions of the individual particles projecting beyond the surface of said adhesive layer.

2. The method of making a nail file which comprises stamping a nail file blank from metal, applying adhesive to at least a portion of the surface of said blank in a layer of less thickness than the layer of diamond particles to be embedded therein, placing on said adhesive layer a substantially one particle thickness layer of diamond particles in loose condition, pressing said particles to seat in the adhesive layer, and there after setting the adhesive layer to permanently bond the diamond particles to the blank.

RENE J. POUECH.

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