Air Ministry butter knife.

[Rob]

I have regularly used this old stainless steel butter knife for decades, but only recently noticed the faint blade markings and have now tentatively identified it as 1918-1952 RAF. It has a serial number heavily stamped on the handle and the blade is marked on both sides, on one side with the Sheffield manufacturer markings and most importantly, on the other side with the King's Crown above "AM" (Air Ministry.)

 

[oldstarfire]

Maybe not a butter knife, but a bug scraper on a Lancaster........

 

[gregc]

interesting piece of history, thanks for showing

 

[37patt]

Remember that the mess hall had tons of things like cutlery, plates and cups. I have a German Navy fork that I like to think was removed by some Canadian infantryman from a German mess in Bremen.

 

[Rob]

I've owned other military cutlery; German, English and American but have never seen a monster serial number like that. Still, I think its an RAF mess hall butter knife, that may or may not have been pressed into windscreen bug scraping duty. Maybe the over serial numbering is just a British thing, like on some of the Lee-Enfields.

 

[uglydukwling]

There was a video recently about converting a rifle to full-auto. One of the things he mentioned that you needed was a "military-grade butter knife". And I thought it was a joke.

 

[maple_leaf_eh]

The kitchen in my camp in Bosnia had Canadian mess hall eating irons. I did a jaunt to Sarajevo for a couple days, and we ate in the European menu dining hall. I distinctly remember the shape of the cutlery wasn't what my hands were used to!