A table knife can make a perfect table setting.

They are typically of moderate sharpness and designed to cut only prepared and cooked food. They are usually made of stainless steel and may be ornate, often having handles that are made of bone or wood.

The distinguishing feature of a table knife is its blunt or rounded end. The origin of this, and thus of the table knife itself, is attributed by tradition to Cardinal Richelieu, reputedly to cure dinner guests of the habit of picking their teeth with their knife points! Eugh.

Originally knives were narrow and their sharply pointed ends were used to spear food and then raise it to one’s mouth.

However, once forks began to gain popular acceptance, (forks being more efficient for spearing food), there was no longer any need for a pointed tip at the end of a dinner knife.

In 1669, King Louis XIV of France decreed all pointed knives on the street or the dinner table illegal, and he had all knife points ground down like those to the right in order to reduce violence

The English city of Sheffield is noted for its cutlery manufactury and many knives bear the city’s name in addition to the maker’s.