How about the oyster knife? You can't get an oyster efficiently out
of its shell without a proper oyster knife with a square (never
rounded) handle and a stout blade.

At around the turn of the century, the typical silverware set would
contain such esoterica as cheese scoops and a special fork or spoon
for almost any imaginable viands.  An antique dealer friend recently
came up with a teak-handled cheese scoop, and we found page after
page of them in the catalogues of the era. I still have a three-tined
pickle fork of that era, which is quite useful.

At 9:42 AM -0500 3/26/02, Bob Hoover wrote:
>The only example that comes to mind today is the crab fork (small, three
>tyned) for prying Dungeness crab out of the shell after cracking it. These
>are still a popular item in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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