Abstract: A method and apparatus for grinding a knife blade to form a sharpened edge. The blade is held in a fixture including a self-centering clamp with a pair of jaws gripping the knife blade by engaging opposite sides of a part of the blade tapered toward an edge location, and holding the blade so that the intended edge location of the blade is in a desired location with respect to the fixture. This permits use of profiled grinding wheels of hard material mounted on a carriage under computer control to grind an edge bevel accurately on each side of the blade, forming a sharp edge.

Abstract: A multipurpose tool may have several tool elements which pivot into storage positions in profiled handles attached to one of a pair of pliers jaws. A wire-cutter portion of each pliers jaw includes a sharp edge and a notch located at the throat of the pair of jaws, adjacent the sharp edge. The notches face toward each other to support and shear wire, but the bottoms of the notches are prevented from passing each other so that bulging material at the bottoms of the notches does not cause the jaws to bind against each other.