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Looks like your comment is being downvoted due to lack of clarity in my note. My apologies!

Well yes, I agree they are sensible but it seems in the USA they are not only typically unknown but seen as pretentious.

E.g. rather than have a butter knife for transferring butter to your plate and then using a regular or smaller but regular style knife for spreading it on your bread, each person (in a typical semi-fancy US restaurant) is issued a butter knife which is used both to retrieve butter and to spread it on your (potentially bitten) bread.

And they are learned matters.



> Looks like your comment is being downvoted due to lack of clarity in my note. My apologies!

I have more than enough karma to take a hit once in a while. No need to apologize :)

> it seems in the USA they are not only typically unknown but seen as pretentious

I live in the US, so I'm finding it surprising that you think these are not the norm. Perhaps I'm self-selecting the people I'm around, or don't pay attention to the people who do these things…


Butter knives are used to prevent crumbs transfering to the butter dish, which can go mouldy. They've got nothing to do with germs in the mouth.




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