On Apr 24, 6:07�pm, Robert Klute > wrote:
> On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:06:46 -0700 (PDT), Sheldon >
> wrote:
>
> >On Apr 24, 1:53?am, "CC" > wrote:
> >> As I remember from my early days, I'm 62 now, I had been told
> >> It's to keep the carving knife from sliding down the fork and cutting
> >> your hand,
> >> Like the gauntlet on a sword
> >> They also made some that would fold out to keep the fork tines off the
> >> table when you set it down,
>
> >That's exactly what it's for, creates a tripod stand so the fork tines
> >don't stain the linen... many think (incorrectly) that it's a guard...
> >look at its placement carefully and think about the distance between
> >the fork and the carving, it guards nothing... were it truly a guard
> >every steak knife would come with a similarly constructed steak fork.
> >And nowadays carving sets no longer include that doohickey.
>
> Nope. �I have a 19th century carving set with a guarded fork. �The
> antler handle is too heavy to allow the fork to rest on the tines.

The fork doesn't rest on its tines, the whole idea is to keep the
tines off the table. It rests on the handle and the two flip out
legs, with the tines up in the air. The heavier the handle the more
stable it will be.