Abrading

SECTION I - CLASS DEFINITION

While theoretically all abrading (or grinding) may be said to involve a cutting action, the cutting instrument being a natural one, for example, the sharp edges of randomly oriented crystals, as opposed to the teeth of a file, milling tool, or the like, nevertheless there is a practical distinction between an abrading (or grinding) device on the one hand, and a cutting device on the other, as means of working various materials, which is sufficiently well understood throughout the industrial world to permit this distinction to be made in the classification of inventions relating to such devices. The present classification therefore excludes any and every form of cutting, milling, or filing if the abrading is done with materials of sufficiently fine grain to produce a light-reflecting surface or polish. The term "abrading" may include a polishing device that acts by removal of an integral portion of the material acted upon, but not such as depends upon the application of a coating capable of taking a polish by friction or upon a compression, consolidation, or swaging of the material, for which see Lines With Other Classes and Within This Class, below.