Cutlery

What the cutlery range covers

There are two halves to this range. The first is the full canteen: a matched set of knives, forks, dinner spoons and teaspoons, bought in one go for a table that needs everything at once. The second is the serving piece, bought singly or in small sets, for the jobs a canteen does not cover. Salad servers, cheese knives, butter knives, cake slices and cocktail forks all sit here. Most people need both at some point, which is why they share a page. A first home or a replacement set sends you to the canteens; a cheeseboard, a birthday cake or a bowl of salad sends you to the serving pieces.

What the cutlery is made from

Stainless steel does most of the work, and it is the material behind nearly every blade and bowl on the page, because it holds an edge, resists rust and goes back in a drawer without ceremony. The handles are where the range opens up. Some are the same steel, drawn out and polished. Others are iron, which gives a heavier, more rustic piece. Brass and brushed gold appear as finishes over iron and steel. Wood turns up as acacia and as plain turned timber, and one pair of servers is wrapped in seagrass. A few handles are glass. Each material changes the weight in the hand more than it changes the job, so it is worth thinking about how a piece feels as much as how it looks.

Gold, silver, black and natural finishes

Finish is the quickest way to narrow the range. Gold and brushed gold read warm and sit easily beside brass serveware, wooden boards and anything with an amber or honey tone. Silver, pewter and plain polished steel are the cooler choice and the safer one if a table already carries several colours. Black is the sharpest option and shows up strongly against pale crockery. Natural finishes, where timber is left to speak for itself, soften a setting and work well with stoneware. Two-tone pieces, where a brass or wooden handle meets a steel head, bridge the two camps and are the easiest to mix with cutlery already owned.

Canteens of twelve and sixteen pieces

A sixteen-piece canteen is built around four place settings: four knives, four forks, four dinner spoons and four teaspoons. That suits a household of four, or a table of four with nothing held back. A twelve-piece set is laid out differently, so check what a set contains before ordering rather than dividing by four. For a longer table, two sets of the same design is the simplest route, and ordering them together keeps the finish consistent. Where a design is made in more than one finish, the shapes match across them, so a gold set and a silver set of the same pattern will lay together without looking accidental.

Serving pieces for cheese, salad and cake

Serving pieces are bought for a job rather than a place setting. Cheese knives come in small sets, usually with a different blade for hard and soft cheeses, which is what makes a board work. Salad servers come in pairs and are the piece most often missing from a kitchen drawer. A cake slice handles tarts and quiches as well as cake. Butter knives and cocktail forks are small enough to keep in a drawer and bring out when needed. Because these are sold separately, they are also the easiest way to add a finish to a table without replacing a whole canteen.

Looking after cutlery

Care varies piece by piece across this range, so each product page is the place to check before a first wash. As a rule, plain stainless steel is the most forgiving. Brass, brass-plated and gold-finished pieces keep their colour longest when they are washed by hand in warm soapy water and dried straight away, because prolonged soaking and harsh detergents are what dull a plated finish. Wooden and seagrass handles should not be left to soak or put through a hot cycle; a wipe and an immediate dry keeps timber from drying out and splitting. Glass handles want the same gentle treatment. Whatever the material, drying cutlery rather than leaving it to stand in water is the single habit that makes the most difference.

Mixing cutlery across a table

A table does not have to match to look considered. The reliable trick is to keep one thing constant and let the rest vary: the same finish across different shapes, or the same shape across two finishes. Serving pieces are where a contrast works best, because they sit in the middle of the table and are seen on their own rather than beside a plate. Brass servers over a steel canteen is a common pairing and reads as deliberate. If a table already carries a strong pattern on the crockery, plainer cutlery gives the eye somewhere to rest. Free delivery worldwide on all orders over £99.