table knife serrated on both edges

[DianaGaleM]

I've seen the image of a knife online that is otherwise a perfectly ordinary dinner knife in WMF's popular LAUREL/STOCKHOLM pattern (vintage 1957, Modell 4100). What's odd is that the blade curves slightly upward and is serrated on both edges. The serrations on the upper, concave edge are coarser than the ones on the lower, convex edge.

My first thought was tomato knife, though I can't find any reference to this pattern having had a tomato knife. Any other possibilities?

[dragonflywink]

Perhaps an orange knife?

~Cheryl

[DianaGaleM]

Mmmm, I don't think so. Working with vintage WMF flatware, I've only twice run across a pattern with an orange knife (orangenschäfer / apfelsinenschäfer); all the modern ones by WMF would be considered kitchen gadgets, not flatware. However, they all have one thing in common: a hook or u-shaped gouger.

I went online and found and traced one of the vintage WMF orange knives (please forgive the crudeness of the drawing, I was tracing from my computer screen):


I also did a tracing of the image of the Laurel knife that prompted my initial inquiry:


The serrations on the upper edge are coarser than the ones on the lower edge, which I also don't get.

[dragonflywink]

Sorry, I'm sure you're right, not up on German flatware at all - but your description made me think of a saw-back orange knife. In American silver, the top piece would be an orange peeler and the second resembles an orange knife, a place piece, though usually more dessert or luncheon size than dinner knife size.

~Cheryl

[DianaGaleM]

No need to apologize, I'm happy to get your suggestions. For one thing, you've kept me trying. I dug deeper and got out an old piece list for a different WMF pattern (Modell 2200) – no date on the list, unfortunately. The paper is so fragile I try not to handle it, so I didn't get it out earlier, but sure enough, it has a tomato knife (tomatenmesser). However, I only see serrations on the top edge:



Then again, the bottom edge serrations may be so fine they're not showing up in this image. The actual printed image is only 63 mm (2-½ inches) wide, so I've blown it up for this image. The lower serrations barely show up in the Laurel knife image, too.

Yes, from an American perspective, older German place settings have their oddities, especially with regard to size. In fact, Americans are likely to use the place/soup spoons for serving spoons (tablespoons) and the dessert spoons for soup spoons. In this case, I think this knife would be considered a place piece. I don't have a measurement on the knife; I'll have to ask the owner. It may be smaller than a dinner knife; I hadn't thought of that.

Thank you for your help. I'm still not going to give up until I find a Laurel piece list that shows this knife!

[dragonflywink]

Interesting - I always use a serrated knife to slice tomatoes, so can see that the saw-back would be as appropriate to deal with the sturdy thin skin over soft flesh of a tomato as the tough rind of an orange (less chance of slippage on their roundness, too). Descriptions of orange knives indicate the other edge was sharp for use as an "all round fruit knife" - perhaps the small serration on the WMF knife was also implemented to make it a more multi-purpose piece. Again, working from experience with American silver, not all items made can be found in catalogs, especially uncommon ones - suspect the availability of a piece in one pattern would indicate likely production in other patterns too.

~Cheryl



1894 illustrations of orange knives, along with a peeler and a spoon - the spoons were quite common, the knives not so much, have found them on occasion in catalogs to around the 1920s:

[DianaGaleM]

Thank you for the illustrations. It's a cautionary that we may sometimes be jumping to conclusions about the use of an object.