A table knife is an item of cutlery

Cutlery

Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...

, part of a table setting

Table setting

Table setting or place setting refers to the way to set a table with tableware—such as eating utensils and dishes for serving and eating. The arrangement for a single diner is called a place setting...

. Table knives are typically of moderate sharpness only, designed to cut only prepared and cooked food. They are usually made of stainless steel

Stainless steel

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 and may be ornate, often having handles of bone

Bone

Bones are rigid organs that constitute part of the endoskeleton of vertebrates. They support, and protect the various organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells and store minerals. Bone tissue is a type of dense connective tissue...

, wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

 or (less commonly now) ivory

Ivory

Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...

.

The distinguishing feature of a table knife is a blunt or rounded end. The origin of this, and thus of the table knife itself, is attributed by tradition to Cardinal Richelieu around 1637, reputedly to cure dinner guests of the unsavoury habit of picking their teeth with their knife-points.

Later, in 1669,
King Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV of France

Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...

 banned pointed knives in the street and at his table,
insisting on blunt tips,
in order to reduce violence.
In any table setting, the knife will typically be the piece to bear the maker's stamp, on the blade. The English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 city of Sheffield is noted for its cutlery manufactury and many knives bear the city's name in addition to the maker's.

• Butter knife
  Butter knife
  In common usage, a butter knife may refer to any non-serrated table knife designed with a dull edge and rounded point; formal flatware patterns make a distinction between such a place knife and a butter knife...
  
  
• Steak knife
  Steak knife
  A steak knife is a sharp table knife, used for cutting steak. These often feature serrated blades and wooden handles, and are the only sharp knife commonly found at the modern table....
  
  
• Knork
  Knork
  A knork is a hybrid form of cutlery which combines the cutting capability of a knife and the spearing capability of a fork into a single utensil. The word knork is a portmanteau of knife and fork...
  
  
• Sporf
  Sporf
  A sporf is a generic term for a single eating utensil combining the properties of a spoon, fork, and knife. One popular brand was invented by William McArthur in the 1940s in Australia and sold with the brand name Splayd, another brand with a serrated edge is the Eazi-Eater-Shape:A sporf typically...