Vintage Wednesday: Butter knives

I know, I know, it's a burning question in our society today: what's the difference between a master butter and a place or table butter knife? Well question no more my friends because I'm here to give you the answer so you can once again sleep at night.

In my silver, the handles of the knives are different with one having a hollow handle and one being flat. Generally, however, the master butter is long (like a saber) with a pointed tip. The master butter knife is used to transfer a pat of butter from the master butter plate to your individual bread plate. The individual or table butter knife is used to spread the butter onto your bread AFTER you've transferred the butter to your bread plate - so you don't contaminate the communal butter.

That leads to the etiquette tip of the day: be sure to transfer the butter to your bread plate with the master and THEN butter your bread. Never butter your bread straight from the butter plate.

And so ends the lesson for today!