58 
House & Garde 
n 
THE KNIFE-LIFE OF THE KITCHEN 
Very Important Adjuncts to the Proper Management of the 
Cuisine Are These Simple Tools 
ETHEL R. PEYSER 
“T WOULD like to have a 
vegetable knife,” says a 
woman to the salesman. 
“Yes, Madam,” says he, hand¬ 
ing her a knife. 
“Thank you,” says the cus¬ 
tomer, not even looking at it. Then 
she goes home and tries to pare a 
pumpkin with the dainty little 
flexible knife that she has bought 
and finds that the task is quite im¬ 
possible. Why? Because she has 
used a knife not designed at all 
for anything but a potato or an 
apple. 
Such things are very frequent 
because the purchaser doesn’t real¬ 
ize that “vegetable knife” as well 
as “motor car” spells many types, 
and that the knife is even more 
diversified in design than the car 
to meet various kinds of work. 
What carpenter would think of 
cutting across the grain with a 
plane meant for cutting with the 
grain? The carpenter realizes the 
range of design in his tools, how¬ 
ever. So should it be with women 
if they wish to save their nerves, 
their hands and their time and 
make their food look worthy of its 
cost. 
EL- 
imiTlQ Mil IEIRi: 
A very simple device for hanging up the larger knives is to use 
a narrow notched shelf above the work table, on which the knives 
can be suspended blade down and always within reach 
Ej«tva 
/Table 
GarUioJ 
IE»)ivey 
The average kitchen table drawer 
is a Reno for the knife. Instead 
The background of the knife 
and fork is surrounded with his¬ 
toric significance and romance. 
The knife seems to be the first¬ 
born of Father Cutlery, and the 
fork a late development as a table 
essential; and the spoon comes so 
late that it isn’t even romantic. 
First of all, cutlery was de¬ 
veloped from the hunting knife in 
various guises. Then it became 
the sword of history. Not until 
the Middle Ages were knives used 
on the table, and then only one or 
two. Not until two or three hun¬ 
dred years ago were they used by 
each individual! And this first 
took place in Italy. 
Ordinary cutlery was really first 
used in the form of the sheep 
shears, very much like the shears 
used in the Rembrandt painting: 
The Old Woman Cutting Her 
Nails. 
Before steel was used, bamboo, 
shell, then copper, bronze, tin and 
copper and the so-called “steel” of 
Damascus were the materials out 
of which the knives and swords 
were built. 
As forks were a late develop- 
(Continued on page 90) 
Tight springs can also be 
arranged to hold knives. 
The larger knives are 
kept far apart and the 
smaller close together 
The old coil spring can 
also be employed for a 
knife rack and presents 
one of the easiest solutions 
of the problem 
A complete gamut of 
kitchen cutlery runs from 
a small paring knife to a 
broad spatula for cleaning 
pots and includes a variety 
of knives and two forks. 
Courtesy of the Harring¬ 
ton Cutlery Co. 
