Knives Have Been Used Since Prehistoric Times



Posted: Friday, March 23, 2007

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Knives have been used as weapons, tools, and eating utensils since prehistoric times. However, it is only in fairly recent times that knives have been designed specifically for table use. Because hosts did not provide cutlery for their guests during the Middle Ages in Europe, most people carried their own knives, similar to the one at the left, in sheaths attached to their belts. These knives were narrow and their sharply pointed ends were used to spear food and then raise it to one's mouth

Long after knives were adopted for table use, however, they continued to be used as weapons. Thus, the multi-purpose nature of the knife always posed the conceivable threat of danger at the dinner table. However, once forks began to gain popular acceptance, (forks being more efficient for spearing food), there was no longer any need for a pointed tip at the end of a dinner knife. In 1669, King Louis XIV of France decreed all pointed knives on the street or the dinner table illegal, and he had all knife points ground down like those to the right in order to reduce violence

The grinding down of knife points led to other design changes. Cutlers began to make the blunt ends of knives wider and rounder so that any food which fell between the two tines of a fork could be piled on the knife. In fact, many knives were designed with a handle like a pistol grip and a blade which curved backward so the wrist would not have to be contorted to get food to the mouth as can be seen to the left.

Interestingly, this birth of blunt-tipped knives in Europe had a lasting effect on American dining etiquette. At the beginning of the 18thCentury, very few forks were being imported to America. However, knives were being imported and their tips became progressively blunter. Because Americans had very few forks and no longer had sharp-tipped knives, they had to use spoons in lieu of forks. They would use the spoon to steady food as they cut and then switch the spoon to the opposite hand in order to scoop up food to eat. This distinctly American style of eating continued even after forks became commonplace in the United

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