What Size is it?

Is it Lunch, Dinner, Place or perhaps Grille? Confused? Many are. When patterns were introduced there were two sizes of the standard knife and fork, a luncheon size and a dinner size. The "Luncheon" being smaller for the breakfast and lunch meals. The larger "Dinner" being used for the dinner or more formal meal. In the 1940's a few manufactures produced a "Grille" size, which had an elongated handle and shorter knife blade and fork tines. (An example of this is Stateley by State House.)

Then in the late 50's, early 60's, manufactor's started producing a "Place" size which was larger than the luncheon size but smaller than the dinner size. Some just renamed their luncheon size fork, made some minor changes to their luncheon size knife, and called both their "Place" size.

Here is the "rule" of thumb to go by:

A luncheon fork is between 6 7/8 and 7 1/4 inches

A place fork is between 7 1/4 and 7 3/8 inches

A dinner fork is between 7 1/2 and 8 inches

A luncheon knife is between 8 3/4 and 9 inches

A place knife is between 9 1/8 and 9 1/4 inches

A dinner knife is between 9 5/8 and 10 inches