this post was submitted on 11 Apr 2025
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Dumb foreigner here, so what’s the deal with silverware? I mean, if you really want silverware, you get forks and knives that are actually made of silver and come in a fancy wood box. Do people use that word for common steel forks too?
Yeah, it's kind of a generic term for not just tableware, but damn near any utensil that isn't for cooking, like serving spoons, ladles and the like.
Actual silver silverware is just expensive is all. So you aren't going to run to a big box store find it, so a lot of people don't even realize it's out there. Tbh, the way brick and mortar places have been priced out or otherwise failed, you often have to go to a decent sized city to find real silver cutlery and tableware, but when I was growing up some of the department stores still carried it.
Hell, at the lower end of the income scale, steel utensils can be pricey to afford. You end up with some pretty crappy alloy parts with plastic handles. It might technically be steel, but it's such a low grade it falls apart under use.
Yeah, that’s t true. Even steel utensils come in a variety of prices. The nicer ones look cool, have interesting shapes are heavy etc. Moderately priced ones are just stamped steel, but still good and durable. The cheap ones, are stamped out of the thinnest low grade trash you can find. Those will bend if you just look at them wrong. Also, some cheap fruit knives have a plastic handle and aluminum rivets. Stick that into a washing machine and you’ll find out how soluble aluminum is at high pH.