On Tines

[ChrisGreaves]

• Why do forks have a weird end to ONE tip?
• Why is it one tip?
• Why not all tips?
• What purpose does the weird tip serve?

(signed) "Can't eat for staring at the fork" of Toronto

HPIM3628 [640x480].JPG

[John Gray]

The purpose of that fork is to act as a "conversation piece".

Alternative explanation: a problem with the stamping machine, and Quality Control saying, "Never mind that, just send them out - nobody will notice." But they didn't reckon with Chris "eagle eyes" Greaves...

Third explanation: those tines are used for eating parsley, sage and rosemary with.

[ChrisGreaves]

parsley, sage and rosemary with.

It's actually Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and , but never mind that.
How can I set up a filter to hide all John Gray's responses in the Cooking Forum?

[HansV]

The notch is usually seen on salad forks and (in combination with the slightly greater width of the notched tine) is supposedly intended to give better leverage when eating food that normally isn't cut with a knife. But the fork in your picture looks more like a dinner fork...

[DaveA]

It is notched so you use it as a toothpick

[ChrisGreaves]

... (in combination with the slightly greater width of the notched tine) ...

I think I've seen something like that, but a much shorter fork, and perhaps only three tines, (or perhaps only three times) and, (memory fade creeps in) used as cake/dessert forks.

(later) look here
Scroll about half way down and look for http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://lh6.ggpht.com/_FVuhrz8ZXkI/S8-ZEHvC_vI/AAAAAAAAA68/UZeQt2aOjJ0/kannpastryfork3.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thegreatwithin.org/2010/04/silver-desire-two-tete-tete-table.html&usg=__xb_Aj84yraeBIPgsfG9jcJho_Y0=&h=480&w=553&sz=72&hl=en&start=116&sig2=lBbLQx6YAFUa-Ynymaps_A&zoom=1&tbnid=WTQh-5z5TYSosM:&tbnh=163&tbnw=188&ei=rCFcTYSCI5PksQPIzpnXAQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dwide%2Btines%2Bforks%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DOdn%26sa%3DX%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26biw%3D1152%26bih%3D679%26tbs%3Disch:10%2C3920&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=223&oei=nCFcTcPzEoKC8gbF7oz7DA&page=8&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:8,s:116&tx=76&ty=70&biw=1152&bih=679 (I claim the record for the longest URL ever pasted in The Lounge)

Or here and again, about half-way down.

kannpastryfork_thumb1.jpg