Knife and Fork, Which Hand?

the purple tin · 04-08-2020 2:18pm #1

Which hand do you hold your fork in when you eat?
There seems to be a divide, the older generations were always taught to use the left hand for their fork, right hand for the knife (table manners, for some reason

).
That seems to have almost died out now and most people go the other way.

Americans used to have a strange way of eating as well where they were constantly switching the fork from one hand to the other, maybe that has gone by the wayside too?

And does it make a difference if you are left of right handed?

hynesie08 · 04-08-2020 2:20pm

Fork in the left hand if it's anything that needs to be cut, use the dominant hand for cutting.

Bowl of chips or goujons or some bar food...... Who cares.

gipi · 04-08-2020 2:22pm

I'm left handed, but have always used knife in right hand, fork in left. Traditional knives have the blade on the inner side when held in the right hand, they're more awkward to use with the left as the blade is on the outside.

bee06 · 04-08-2020 2:22pm

Fork in left hand, knife in right for cutting then switch fork to right for the eating.

the purple tin · 04-08-2020 2:27pm

Why was it considered proper to hold fork-left, knife-right does anyone know? Where did that originate?

banie01 · 04-08-2020 2:31pm

I'm a philistine when it comes to fork etiquette.
No zig-zagging or tines down for me

It's fork in the right, knife in the left and scoop! :pac:

ELM327 · 04-08-2020 2:33pm

Knife in right foot, fork wedged between butt cheeks.

Gregor Samsa · 04-08-2020 2:35pm

the purple tin wrote: »

Why was it considered proper to hold fork-left, knife-right does anyone know? Where did that originate?

Because, for the majority who are right handed, you have more precision and control cutting with your dominant hand. Less chance of the spud slipping under your knife and hitting the person across from you.

Dravokivich · 04-08-2020 2:39pm

Right handed, fork in my right hand. To me it's odd to watch people use their left hands to hold forks.

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Because, for the majority who are right handed, you have more precision and control cutting with your dominant hand. Less chance of the spud slipping under your knife and hitting the person across from you.

I'd rather the thing going to my face, to be done with the dominant hand. When using a knife to cut, while eating, you're leaning it against a fork anyway.

the purple tin · 04-08-2020 2:40pm

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Because, for the majority who are right handed, you have more precision and control cutting with your dominant hand. Less chance of the spud slipping under your knife and hitting the person across from you.

Lefties would have been told to do it the same way too though. It's like the nuns used to 'correct' a child years ago if they wrote with the left hand.

the purple tin · 04-08-2020 2:42pm

Dravokivich wrote: »

Right handed, fork in my right hand. To me it's odd to watch people use their left hands to hold forks.

I'd rather the thing going to my face, to be done with the dominant hand. When using a knife to cut, while eating, you're leaning it against a fork anyway.

There are so many ways people do it. I never used to think about it but I find myself sneaking a peek a people's hands these days while they eat.

Dravokivich · 04-08-2020 2:49pm

the purple tin wrote: »

There are so many ways people do it. I never used to think about it but I find myself sneaking a peek a people's hands these days while they eat.

Yeah, while at my brothers wedding last year, I opted for fish and was provided with an alternative knife, that seems to be specifically for fish, and designed to only be held in the right hand (holding it in the left hand, meant a very blunt unusable edge). It seems etiquette is set in such a way, that it is not just about table manners, the knife is supposed to be in the right hand.

But if I'm to be wrong, I don't get it. The other way around makes no sense to me at all.

Gregor Samsa · 04-08-2020 3:35pm

the purple tin wrote: »

Lefties would have been told to do it the same way too though. It's like the nuns used to 'correct' a child years ago if they wrote with the left hand.

Well yeah, left handed people were usually made to act right handed, so they would have been expected to use their cutlery the right handed way.

Latin for left is “sinistram”, where the word “sinister” (evil or suspicious) comes from. Left handedness was actively discouraged, so the fact that they weren’t using their dominant hand for the knife wasn’t considered.

Personally I do it the US way: fork in left, knife in right to chop the food, then fork in right to eat it. Unless I was at a formal or business meal, where I’d make an effort to do it right. And would try to hold off on drenching everything in ketchup.

Mitch Connor · 04-08-2020 3:37pm

Fork left hand, Knife right hand, and I would move my drink to my left as well.

I'm right handed.

biko · 04-08-2020 3:37pm

Knife in this hand *lifts hand*, and fork in this hand *lifts other hand*.

Seamai · 04-08-2020 3:43pm

I'm right handed but have always use the fork in my right hand and knife in my left. It's not something I think about but on the few occasions I tried to switch it always felt awkward so I changed back. I guess there would be a tiny percentage of people out there who feel that things like this are important and not doing things properly is poor manners, I'm not one of them, having said that speaking with your mouth full is a different matter.

RMAOK · 04-08-2020 3:45pm

Fork in the left hand, knife in the right hand.

the purple tin · 04-08-2020 3:47pm

biko wrote: »

Knife in this hand *lifts hand*, and fork in this hand *lifts other hand*.

corner of hells · 04-08-2020 3:50pm

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Well yeah, left handed people were usually made to act right handed, so they would have been expected to use their cutlery the right handed way.

Latin for left is “sinistram”, where the word “sinister” (evil or suspicious) comes from. Left handedness was actively discouraged, so the fact that they weren’t using their dominant hand for the knife wasn’t considered.

Personally I donut the US way: fork in left, knife in right to chop the food, then fork in right to eat it. Unless I was at a formal or business meal, where I’d make an effort to do it right. And would try to hold off on drenching everything in ketchup.

I'm left handed , you know too much about us lefties , you're now on the list with your "sinistram".

gifted · 04-08-2020 3:50pm

Mitch Connor wrote: »

Fork left hand, Knife right hand, and I would move my drink to my left as well.

I'm right handed.

I'd always use my right hand for drink and keep the drink on my right so I don't put the fork down in my left hand.
People who eat with their right hand were dragged up.....

Just dropped a prawn there to see who'll bite lol lol

Gregor Samsa · 04-08-2020 3:51pm

Anyone use a spoon? (Not for soup/dessert/cereal).

We had an Indian guy over in work a while ago. Went down to the canteen and there was potatoes, peas and lamb on. We all grabbed a knife and fork, he got a desert spoon too. While we were all wrestling with getting a couple of peas to balance or stick on the fork, he just looked bewildered at us and shovelled them up with the spoon. He asked us why we didn’t use one, and we didn’t have a good answer.

Church on Tuesday · 04-08-2020 7:47pm

I hold fork in right hand and knife in left.

I'm right handed.

Mam of 4 · 04-08-2020 7:58pm

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

I hold fork in right hand and knife in left.

I'm right handed.

Same here , and oddly my kids do the same .

Eggs For Dinner · 04-08-2020 8:07pm

I'm left handed, but hold the fork in my left hand, knife in the right. I don't think it makes a difference which way people do it. However, I'd be quite concerned about how a lot of younger people seem to have severe difficulty in using them in the first place. You see some out in restaurants and you can only assume they must only eat takeaways at home where hands are used.

sunshinew · 04-08-2020 8:51pm

My mother grew up on a farm and left school at 14 but table manners were a pet peeve of hers. Knife in right, fork in left, no elbows on table, never scoop with the fork, you balance food on the outside of the tines....and god forbid you would ever, ever, ever contemplate putting the knife in your mouth.
I've probably the least amount of table manners in my family but I'd still baulk at looking at somebody put a knife in their mouth or scoop their food with a fork like a shovel... there's a reason I'm single! Watching people shovel food into their mouths makes me queasy. Thanks Ma!

Church on Tuesday · 04-08-2020 8:54pm

Mam of 4 wrote: »

Same here , and oddly my kids do the same .

Glad I'm not the only one!

JasonStatham · 04-08-2020 10:19pm

I have no etiquette, whatsoever. Interchangeable with me! I lived in Asia for two years, and out of force of habit eat curry with a fork and spoon.

1990sman · 04-08-2020 10:31pm

what about chopsticks?

JasonStatham · 04-08-2020 10:37pm

1990sman wrote: »

what about chopsticks?

Yep, can use those, but wouldn't be crazy about them either. Most times I would just grab a fork and spoon off the lads if it was available.

04-08-2020 10:40pm

I was never taught table-etiquette growing up so I've spent most of my life being mostly oblivious to it. I've spent most of my life using the side of my fork in place of a knife. Although if I was eating something that really requires cutting, like a steak, I used a knife to cut it into little pieces and then put it down when I was finished cutting so I could hold my fork again in my right hand. In recent years I've realised that other people were taught certain table manners at a young age and I have tried to implement them when I'm in a situation where I can be negatively judged for not doing so, but it's mostly a big act for me. It's just an aspect of our culture at this moment in time and the rules were different centuries ago and will be different in centuries to come. A way for people to try to demonstrate to themselves and others that they are elevated above others, without there being any actual substance behind it.

beertons · 04-08-2020 10:45pm

Church on Tuesday wrote: »

I hold fork in right hand and knife in left.

I'm right handed.

Same. Except I have to swap the knife over to the right hand to butter the bread.

Darc19 · 04-08-2020 10:50pm

Knife/fork/left/right doesn't matter.

Once you eat quietly and keep your mouth shut if there's food in it.

Quantum Erasure · 04-08-2020 11:20pm

hibble · 05-08-2020 1:25am

gipi wrote: »

I'm left handed, but have always used knife in right hand, fork in left. Traditional knives have the blade on the inner side when held in the right hand, they're more awkward to use with the left as the blade is on the outside.

I too am left handed and always use knife and fork as above.

Dessert spoon always set for and 99% of the time used with the left hand.

Play darts right handed????

Never let my wife forget that she threw out my left handed Lancashire peeler when she moved in with me 31 years ago.... haven't peeled a potato since!

Lewis_Benson · 05-08-2020 2:05am

Why would anyone need to ask this?

05-08-2020 2:39am

Fork left, knife right.

Good table manners are some of the most basic things a parent should be able to teach their children.

If they don’t it helps the rest of us spot the social degenerates and look down on them as sub-human.

I note every time this question comes up here that more and more people think it’s a ridiculous notion. Degeneration in effect.

Meanwhile, many of the same people wonder why they struggle to get on in life or why things are stacked against them from their perspective.

Well, learn good table manners now and stop that gradual slide towards eating your dinner from a trough or a bucket. You’ll do better in life.

Chris_Heilong · 05-08-2020 3:31am

You are meant to use your strong hand for cutting.

05-08-2020 3:36am

Chris_Heilong wrote: »

You are meant to use your strong hand for cutting.

No, you’re not. You’re supposed to use an appropriate knife and simply coordinate your hand movements. The knife does the cutting. If you need to use your ‘strong hand’ you have some physical impediment or need to stop using a butter knife to eat your dinner with. Or tell cook to stop overdoing the roast.

kowloonkev · 05-08-2020 4:10am

Agreed you're not cutting down trees, if taught properly how to use cutlery then from the habit alone it should be no problem cutting a bit of meat with one's weaker hand.

Good manners, just like fine attire can take you a long way whether you think so or not. If you don't want to climb the ladder fine, but at least teach your kids and set an example because they might be more ambitious than you.

SoupMonster · 05-08-2020 4:50am

kowloonkev wrote: »

Agreed you're not cutting down trees, if taught properly how to use cutlery then from the habit alone it should be no problem cutting a bit of meat with one's weaker hand.

Good manners, just like fine attire can take you a long way whether you think so or not. If you don't want to climb the ladder fine, but at least teach your kids and set an example because they might be more ambitious than you.

Catherine de Medici would be proud of you. She strongly believed that the use of knife and (the newfangled) fork was what marked out the civilized from the savages. By 1600, no European court was without a large set of forks.

Hamsterchops · 05-08-2020 8:09am

the purple tin wrote: »

Which hand do you hold your fork in when you eat?
There seems to be a divide, the older generations were always taught to use the left hand for their fork, right hand for the knife (table manners, for some reason ).
That seems to have almost died out now and most people go the other way.

Americans used to have a strange way of eating as well where they were constantly switching the fork from one hand to the other, maybe that has gone by the wayside too?

And does it make a difference if you are left of right handed?

Same standards apply today as they did thirty years ago (in a dinner setting at the dinner table).

Fork in left hand, knife in right, spoon right too...
Tuck in and eat away, with closed mouth while you're eating.

Ferris_Bueller · 05-08-2020 11:17am

JayZeus wrote: »

Fork left, knife right.

Good table manners are some of the most basic things a parent should be able to teach their children.

If they don’t it helps the rest of us spot the social degenerates and look down on them as sub-human.

I note every time this question comes up here that more and more people think it’s a ridiculous notion. Degeneration in effect.

Meanwhile, many of the same people wonder why they struggle to get on in life or why things are stacked against them from their perspective.

Well, learn good table manners now and stop that gradual slide towards eating your dinner from a trough or a bucket. You’ll do better in life.

Can't tell if this is a p**s take or not, but if someone judged someone based on what hand they held their knife or fork I think it says a lot more about them than it does the other person.

Deleted User wrote: »

I was never taught table-etiquette growing up so I've spent most of my life being mostly oblivious to it. I've spent most of my life using the side of my fork in place of a knife. Although if I was eating something that really requires cutting, like a steak, I used a knife to cut it into little pieces and then put it down when I was finished cutting so I could hold my fork again in my right hand. In recent years I've realised that other people were taught certain table manners at a young age and I have tried to implement them when I'm in a situation where I can be negatively judged for not doing so, but it's mostly a big act for me. It's just an aspect of our culture at this moment in time and the rules were different centuries ago and will be different in centuries to come. A way for people to try to demonstrate to themselves and others that they are elevated above others, without there being any actual substance behind it.

I would be fairly identical to that, I would try and follow the 'etiquette' in certain company or if you are somewhere fancy but it is definitely a big act, at home I will use the side of a fork to cut a lot of things! I've never really understood the whole table etiquette and why it exists.

gutenberg · 05-08-2020 11:39am

Fork in the left hand, knife in the right hand (I'm right-handed).

If it's a dish that just requires a fork, with no cutting (pasta for example) I'd use the fork in my right hand, as I would a spoon.

CrankyHaus · 05-08-2020 11:52am

JayZeus wrote: »

Meanwhile, many of the same people wonder why they struggle to get on in life or why things are stacked against them from their perspective.

Well, learn good table manners now and stop that gradual slide towards eating your dinner from a trough or a bucket. You’ll do better in life.

I was wondering what was holding me back.
Especially after I got passed over for that last promotion.

Now it all makes sense.
Shuold have copped it when Lord Reamsbotham dropped his monocle after he saw me use the wrong spoon in our Private Members Club in Mayfair.

PsychoPete · 05-08-2020 11:56am

Fork in the right hand and knife in the left when eating, swap them over for cutting then swap them back for eating

Badly Drunk Boy · 05-08-2020 12:01pm

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Anyone use a spoon? (Not for soup/dessert/cereal).

We had an Indian guy over in work a while ago. Went down to the canteen and there was potatoes, peas and lamb on. We all grabbed a knife and fork, he got a desert spoon too. While we were all wrestling with getting a couple of peas to balance or stick on the fork, he just looked bewildered at us and shovelled them up with the spoon. He asked us why we didn’t use one, and we didn’t have a good answer.

Yes, I'm a philistine too.

I prefer a tablespoon if I'm having a curry. I was going to jokingly say I only use a ladle but that'd be silly.

I'd never eat peas though. I'm not a sicko...

o1s1n · 05-08-2020 12:02pm

I had good table manners drilled into me as a kid by my grandmother. Eating with cutlery in the correct hands, using the correct cutlery for the correct food etc.

I wouldn't say I'd 'look down' on someone for using a fork in their right hand or tilting a bowl the wrong way when eating soup, but my brain would still interpret it as bad manners.

Eggs For Dinner · 05-08-2020 12:56pm

PsychoPete wrote: »

Fork in the right hand and knife in the left when eating, swap them over for cutting then swap them back for eating

User name is apt 😜

05-08-2020 1:10pm

Dravokivich wrote: »

Yeah, while at my brothers wedding last year, I opted for fish and was provided with an alternative knife, that seems to be specifically for fish, and designed to only be held in the right hand (holding it in the left hand, meant a very blunt unusable edge). It seems etiquette is set in such a way, that it is not just about table manners, the knife is supposed to be in the right hand.

But if I'm to be wrong, I don't get it. The other way around makes no sense to me at all.

It's called a fish knife. It has a blunt edge so it won't cut through any fish bones.

Unless the fish has been cooked so long that its tough, a fish knife should easily cut through the fish.

Homelander · 05-08-2020 1:11pm

Fork in left if I'm using a knife, if I'm solely using a fork I'll use right hand.

Greyfox · 05-08-2020 2:14pm

Fork in my right hand always, fork in my left hand feels unnatural and weird, thank god the table manners police are dying out

Knife and Fork, Which Hand?

Comments