Master Butter Knife Notch

[jimmbobb]

Does anyone know the purpose of the notch along the top edge of the blade on a master butter knife?

Thanks.

[admin]

A picture of the notch in question would be very helpful.

Regards, Tom

[jimmbobb]

Here's a picture of a master butter knife with a notch on the top edge of the blade:

[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8zLBwsKrCrM/SUWGYqjJgDI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/CZkVmvcsiXA/s400/Buter+Knife+Notch.jpg[/img]

I have not been able to determine what its purpose is. Not all master butter knives have this notch.

Thanks.

[silverly]

I hope you don't mind, but I copied your picture and uploaded on to tinypic.com, and then just copied the IMG code for forums onto this page.

In my opinion, the notch is purely decorative. Older butter knives were sometimes even more elaborate in this regard.

[jimmbobb]

Thanks for reposting the picture and for the answer.

[silverport]

Hello

The here shown form of the blade is interpreted, to be a cheese server; that’s in more or less all of the West European's cultures.

But a nearly similar form of the blade is there also interpreted to be a fish knife. Another, less in dimensions, would be a fruit knife. Or much more little, it’s being used as a knife for sweets.

Well, that’s always a question of cultures, and of the dimensions too.

A similar interpretation you could find in America too:
http://www.silvercollecting.com/silverm ... knives.jpg

I’ve seen a similar blade, with an additional hump, being the blade of an European cheese server — well, that server was designed in a »Neo-Renaissance« style of the last quarter of the XIX century.

My interpretation of the “notch” is: To be a visual sign of prevention, that the same knife wouldn’t be used for butter.

Kind regards silverport

[dragonflywink]

Have found over the years, that manufacturers offered identical or very similar items for whatever use might sell it, a sound marketing strategy (in additon, similar pieces may have different uses in various countries and regions). While I've seen fish knives and other pieces with similar decorative top edges, the one illustrated looks like a butter knife to me.

~Cheryl

1899 British catalog page showing similarly shaped blades:



1905 American catalog page:



1906 American catalog page showing a butter knife with decorative scallops, forming four "notches" (at bottom left), basic rounded butter spreader (at right):



1911 Canadian catalog page showing one (bottom) and a different decoratively shaped blade (top):



1922 Canadian catalog with similar butter knife:



1901 American catalog page showing various knives and spreaders:

[jimmbobb]

WOW!! Thanks for all the great answers.

[JLDoggett]

The notch serves 2 purposes: It allows a quick visual reference to the edge that is broader and non-cutting (helpful when tyring to get a bit of butter). It also give a spot where it will rest against the edge of the butter dish, many older butter spreaders and the like had a twist in the stem so that the blade was perpendicular to the handle and the notch served its purpose, they later kept the notch style on blades that run straight from the handle.