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Some facts about cutlery
by Danny Trinders
http://www.rbcutlery.com
Cutlery gets its name from the person who makes it, a
skilled person who makes knives. Here in the United States,
we call our cutlery either silverware or flatware and we
use it to eat our food with instead of our hands. In very
early times in London, it was a very important trade to be
a cutler.
The history of cutlery starts with the shell and the sharp
flint used for cutting. Gradually, chipping flint began to
improve naturally sharp edges. When copper and bronze came
into use, knives began being fashioned by those two metals.
Later steel and alloys of steel displaced other materials
for blades and other cutting instruments. Table knives were
introduced around 1600. Before that time, individuals
brought their own knives to the table, which also doubled
as daggers. The cutlery industry evolved from
handicraftsman to mass production. Certain localities,
especially in Europe, have become known for the superiority
of their cutlery. The Toledo blade of Spain was famous when
the sword was an important weapon. In addition Solingen,
Germany and Sheffield, England, have been recognized for
their cutlery since the Middle Ages.
Silverware as we know it here in the U.S. consists of a
knife, spoon and fork. It used to be made out of silver,
giving it the silverware name. Steel was always used to
make utilitarian knives and for awhile pewter was used to
make less expensive silverware, especially spoons. Almost
all of the eating utensils in the country today are made
out of stainless steel or electroplated nickel silver or
EPNS.
The best knives are made of high-carbon steel. Cheaper
grades are beveled from steel bars or are stamped from
metal sheets. The sides are concaved in hollow-ground
blades. The steel is usually partly replaced by, or coated
with, chromium to make stainless blades. Most scissor
blades are cast in molds or stamped.
The best cutlery is made out of carbon steel, as most good
chefs know. Most tableware is mass produced today from
steel bars or stamped out of long sheets of metal and
coated with chromium to make stainless blades. When fast
food and all things disposable came into existence, so did
plastic tableware. Plastic tableware is very handy to take
on picnics, BBQ's, and sports tailgating events because if
a spoon or fork and knife breaks or gets left behind, it's
really no big deal. Actually, a recent invention called the
"spork" a combining of the spoon and the fork. What did we
ever do before that invention came to be?
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