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Cutlery are utensils used for serving and eating food at the dining table — originally referring to just table knife, whereas and were silverware — all part of flatware (American English) or tableware, these both encompassing crockery as well. These three implements first appeared together on tables as a set in Britain in the Georgian era. (2009). 9780276445699, Reader's Digest. ISBN 9780276445699 A collected set of silverware is called a canteen of cutlery, typically referring to the polished wooden compartmental case in which they are stored.
The city of Sheffield in Yorkshire, England has been famous for the production of cutlery since the 17th century. An express passenger train – the Master Cutler – running from Sheffield to London was named after the industry. The development of cheap and mass-produced stainless steel in Sheffield in the early 20th century brought affordable cutlery to the masses.
Sheffield's counterparts are Thiers, Puy-de-Dôme in the Auvergne of France and Solingen in the Northern Rhineland of Germany.
A person who makes or sells cutlery is called a cutler."Cutlery." DBpedia. Accessed May 5, 2025. While most cutlers were historically men, women could be cutlers too; Agnes Cotiller was working as a cutler in London in 1346, and training a woman apprentice, known as Juseana.
Before the mid 19th century when cheap carbon steel became available due to new methods of steelmaking, knives (and other edged tools) were made by welding a strip of steel on to the piece of wrought iron that was to be formed into a knife, or sandwiching a strip of steel between two pieces of iron. This was done because steel was then a much more expensive commodity than iron. Modern blades are sometimes laminated, but for a different reason. Since the hardest steel is brittle, a layer of hard steel may be laid between two layers of a milder, less brittle steel, for a blade that keeps a sharp edge well, and is less likely to break in service.
After fabrication, the knife had to be sharpened, originally on a grindstone, but from the late medieval period in a blade mill or (as they were known in the Sheffield region) a cutlers wheel.
Over the years, various hybrid versions of cutlery as combination eating utensils have been made by blending the functionality of different implements, usually with portmanteau names, including the spork ( oon / f), spife ( oon / kn), and knork ( ife / f). The sporf or splayd combines all three.
Steel was always used for more utilitarian knives, and pewter was used for some cheaper items, especially spoons. From the 19th century, electroplated nickel silver (EPNS) was used as a cheaper substitute for sterling silver.
In 1913, the British metallurgist Harry Brearley discovered stainless steel by chance, bringing affordable cutlery to the masses. This metal has come to be the predominant one used in cutlery. An alternative is melchior, corrosion-resistant nickel and copper cupro-nickel, which can also sometimes contain manganese and nickel-iron.
Titanium has also been used to make cutlery for its lower thermal conductivity and considerable weight savings compared to steel, with uses in camping.
Plastic cutlery has been banned in Australia, but there remains public calls for its return. The European Union has banned such plastic products from 3 July 2021 as part of the European Plastics Strategy. Bans are also planned in the UK and Canada.
Also, plastic is used for some young children's cutlery that is often thicker and more durable than disposable plastic cutlery, often encountered in the early years of primary schools.
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