Formally part of the Twyssenden Manor, in Kent, this Kent’s knife sharpening and cleaning machine, c 1905, was the most popular type of knife cleaning machine from 1850 to around 1920. Large households would have used machines like this on a daily basis. Patent rotary disc hand-operated knife sharpening and cleaning-machine, size 7, no 8926, made by George Kent of High Holborn, London. Knives are placed in the slots at the top of the rotary oak box. Inside are roller sharpeners, and felt buffers and bristles which clean and polish both sides of the knife at the same time. The knife cleaner became famous for is a wooden drum set vertically on cast iron base with four feet (each with a hole for a nail for mounting to tabletop,) a hand crank and four slots in top of drum for inserting knives for cleaning. In order to use the machine, a person would insert knives into slots on the top of the wooden drum, pour Kent’s emery powder into the drum’s chute, and crank the winch handle to start the cleaning process. Inside the machine, wooden discs covered with alternate rows of bristles and strips of leather would turn and rub against both sides of the knives. The emery powder polished the steel cutlery as it passed through the wooden discs. By the end of the nineteenth century, Kent’s patented rotary knife-cleaning machines were used in British colonies, the Americas, had won international exhibition prize medals, and had sold over 100,000 machines. The cleaners came in eight different sizes, ranging in price from £3 to £14 The largest size could clean nine table or dessert knives and the smallest versions cleaned 3-5 knives. A fabulous piece of Home Décor to place anywhere in your home looking for the extra added flare & style in true Victorian fashion.