The Greatest Fork in the World

[Chris Amirault]

If you mean the photo in my original post, it's not a fish fork. That's just one of our Rostfrei forks, a midcentury design that features the longer indent on both entrée and salad forks.

[Karri]

Please google fish fork and knife:

http://cookies.cookiesfromitaly.com/silverfromitaly.com/hazel-doc/cutlery_service/fish_service.jpg

[Chris Amirault]

Yes, I know what you mean. I'm just clarifying that this is not a fish fork; it's a design feature. S'all.

[Karri]

Ahhh... Well my question is still valid? What IS the longer indent for?

[andiesenji]

Ahhh... Well my question is still valid? What IS the longer indent for?

It serves no purpose. It began appearing on dinner forks and also salad forks in the 1950s in some patterns.

Conversely some patterns had a center that was shorter than the two outside.

My mother got a set of Reed & Barton's Autumn Leaves in 1957 and they had that shorter center space.

It just depended on the designer. Some were touted as "European" designs or "continental" designs which became confusing because continental also referred to the size of the flatware.

These were simply marketing ploys to get people who had been using the same flatware, sometimes for generations, to buy new.

This was still the post-war era when new families, who produced the "baby boomers" were moving into their own homes instead of living with parents, as had been common prior to the war.

[Karri]

Thank you very much, and thus I am wiser.

[barbarataylor]

I do strange things with my forks:

dcarch

Those pictures are great !

[Kerry Beal]

 

I need to show you the greatest fork in the world for stirring large batches of mashed potatoes after adding the milk and butter. It's a beauty - solid and heavy. My mother used it for the same purpose.

[lindag]

13 minutes ago, Kerry Beal said:

 

 

I need to show you the greatest fork in the world for stirring large batches of mashed potatoes after adding the milk and butter. It's a beauty - solid and heavy. My mother used it for the same purpose.

Is it larger than standard dinner fork size?

[Kerry Beal]

18 minutes ago, lindag said:

Is it larger than standard dinner fork size?

Yup - big fork!

[paulraphael]

Someone wake me up when the designer of this thing and Gray Kunz collaborate on a spork.

[gfweb]

@Kerry Beal Are those ancient Knights Templar symbols on the thing?  Was it found on Oak Island?

 

Edited December 29, 2018 by gfweb (log)

[Kerry Beal]

9 hours ago, gfweb said:

@Kerry Beal Are those ancient Knights Templar symbols on the thing?  Was it found on Oak Island?

 

 

Yes - deep in one of the side tunnels - apparently the diver who went after it died just after handing it off to the people above when one of the traps collapsed on him!

[andiesenji]

Speaking of interesting and useful forks, while digging in a box of odd and old kitchen gadgets - I've been selling groups on ebay - I came across this fork and remember someone giving it to me back in the '60s or '70s. 

I used it a great deal and then it was misplaced in one of my moves and I didn't see it for decades.

 

It was made specifically as a "pastry fork" for cutting fat into flour and mixing it.  The contours of the tines are unusual in that they are thick and sharp on the back side.   I wasn't thinking when I put it in the dishwasher - it's aluminum and has taken on the dark color from the detergent. I can polish that off with MAAS but not right now.

 

Made Italy

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

What is MAAS?

 

[andiesenji]

On 12/30/2018 at 12:45 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

What is MAAS?

 

It's a metal polish that works great on aluminum.  I buy it in a bundle, several types.   MAAS polishes  

I've used it for many years on my vintage chrome appliances. There are many polishes and I have tried most of them and always go back tot his one.

It will also polish fine scratches out of PLEXIGLAS and I have used it on many sheets in picture frames. 

 

In my experience, it does the job with much less effort and at my age, I need all the help I can get!

 

 

Edited December 31, 2018 by andiesenji (log)

[boilsover]

1 hour ago, andiesenji said:

There are many polishes and I have tried most of them and always go back tot his one.

 

You favor the MAAS metal polish over Flitz?  If it's better, I'll buy some.

[andiesenji]

5 hours ago, boilsover said:

 

You favor the MAAS metal polish over Flitz?  If it's better, I'll buy some.

I like it better. I've been using it since I was at an antiques fair with a friend who was setting up for the opening next day.

I was wandering around and noticed that people doing last minute polishing on silver, brass, and other metals were using Maas instead of Semichrome and other "traditional" polishes.  

One guy told me he saw it on QVC and it was invented by a housewife and his wife insisted he order it because SHE was tired of having to polish the same items over and over and over. This slows or halts tarnishing.

It's been some years since I used Flitz but I didn't use all of it. I tossed out a bottle that was hard as a rock, more than half full.

[boilsover]

14 hours ago, andiesenji said:

I like it better.

I'll give MAAS a try, thanks.  I noticed from your link that MAAS has a separate product to prolong the polish.  Have you also tried that?

 

My experience with many copper polishes is that the Flitz polish alone achieves such a microfine polish, it makes the metal very resistant to tarnish.  Not of much use for working pans, but the rarely-used pieces seem to stay bright a long time.

[andiesenji]

I took about half an hour today to find the MAAS and a rag, open a new tube and do a brief clean up on The Fork.

I didn't spend a lot of time working between the tines - and I can attest to the fact that those tines are SHARP as I now have perforation on the outside edge of my left hand. not bad but it penetrated easily.

It looks quite different and certainly in usable condition.  I just have to remember NOT to put it in the dishwasher!

 

 

 

 

[naguere]

As a small boy i often wondered why our cutlery (forks as well) had logos on them such as 'Mascot Cafe', 'Property of Selby District Council' and so on.It was years later when down my grandad's yard where he prepared food for his pigs that the food came from Cafe's, Hotels and Government Institutions that the answer came to me, but thought nothing of it.

By 1960 I was in Germany as a soldier and found you could get a modern12 setting of cutlery with even a cake fork (who had ever heard of a cake fork?) at a modest price, so i took a box home.

 

My dad said much later "do you remember when you came home on leave and tipped the cutlery tray contents  into  the bin, and put in your new stuff?"