fidget wrote: 
i don't have grey hair!  :p

dave - nice forks.  i love triprong forks!

 DaveInVA wrote: 
I love it.   I have one old fork like that which I use all the time.

 fidget wrote: 
Our school principal used to eat sweet peas off of a knife. It was fascinating.

 fidget wrote: 
Maybe they are re-inactors

 DaveInVA wrote: 
I still see this some places. WTF

 fidget wrote: 
Before forks became the norm most people just ate off the end of their knife. Guess they tried to make it more civilized making people use forks instead.
I have more old stuff like that just don't feel like digging for it as most my kitchen stuff is still packed up from my last move 5 years ago. I never got my new kitchen finished here so no place to put it.

 DaveInVA wrote: 
As you say, most people were expected to carry a knife. How things have changed. (At least in this country)

I have always, and still do carry a small Swiss army knife. If I get stopped by the police, I expect I too will end up with a record 

Edit: nice collection, by the way

 hobiejoe wrote: 


Boring picture as promised threatened. Most my kitchen stuff is still packed away as I don't have a real kitchen here. I have much more but just can't get to the rest as its buried in the back of one of the junk, I mean storage rooms.

These are all from 1790 to 1860 give or take a few. They all either have bone or wooden handles. Old butter knife lower right. The 2 shakers are coin silver from late 1700's.
Right click on pic and select view for bigger pic.

 fidget wrote: 
 
Ha. The question is whether what hair I have left will have enough time to turn grey dignified silver before it all falls out.
 
I wouldn't mind so much, but I'm only 41

 Proclivities wrote: 
Canus is the word for 'old man with grey hair' probably like most of us

 DaveInVA wrote: 
 
I love this place

 hobiejoe wrote: 
I have several old 2 and 3 tine forks from the late 1700's and up to the 1860's.
I'll try and take some boring pics of them later..
Another useless fact:
Knives were also not included as you were expected to have your own as most everyone carried a knife..

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Yea, the only thing I got to say about the spork is that the inventor should be tried for crimes against humanity!

The fork as an eating utensil was first introduced to the dining rooms of England by Thomas Coryate, a contempory of Shakespeare, who also introduce the English to the umbrella.
 
The convention of forks having four tines did not become established until the late 19th century, before when numbers varied between two and six.
 
The history of the aberration that is the "spork" is of little consequence and need not detain us here.

 fidget wrote: 
Is it "canus"? 

Latin has no word for grey

 Manbird wrote: 

 

 hobiejoe wrote: 
no wider than 510

 oldviolin wrote: 

 Manbird wrote: 

Always the nitty gritty with you