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fork sharpener

 A device to make salads easier to eat.
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Problem: Sometimes when I'm eating a salad my fork slides off the smooth skin of vegitables like green peppers or radishes or carrots. The reasons are that these veggies have smooth, impenetrable skins, or they may be more dense so my dull fork can't penetrate.

Solution: The solution would be a small device with a battery-operated motor and two grinder wheels. All you'd have to do is insert your dull fork into the slot at the top, press gently, and then remove the fork, its tines nicely sharpened and ready to pierce the thickest of skins. The machine would operate like an automatic pencil sharpener, only for forks instead.

You could take it to a restaurant (maybe carry it in an attractive leather case) if the forks needed a little edge. The device would probably not work with plastic forks.

—drtbarker, Jan 18 2003

Fine Tines http://www.halfbake...m/idea/Fine_20Tines
'fraid we've done this one before, redundant [FarmerJohn, Oct 04 2004]

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       Interesting. Would it work for sporks and foons as well?
—Corona688, Jan 18 2003
   

       You might try eating with a knife as a trial to see if it poses a mouth hazard.
—lumpy, Jan 19 2003
   

       How many tines I gotta tell ya, get to the points.   

       For 30 yrs we have occasionally used sterling which is much softer than stainless. The forks are now quite incapable of impaling Jello. I often use the other end which brings withering glares from wife. I would use caution regards the sharpness of the tines. This could involve pain and blood to ones personal tongue and ruin a good Caeser salad. Portable sharpener: Fingernial file. This will also bring baleful looks from fellow diners but ...whatever works.
—rickstix, Jan 19 2003
   

       dangerous!
—non, Jan 19 2003
   

       Sharpen only one of the inner tines, and make it a mite shorter than the other three. You can still pierce your veg (with greater ease, in fact, because the longer tines either side of the sharp one hold the carrot in place), and the risk of accidental tongue piercings is minimised.
—friendlyfire, Jan 19 2003
   

       (misread this as "Folk Sharpener" - "Arr, them's are sharp folk, them 'Arfbakers...")
—hippo, Jan 19 2003
   

       As to the danger factor, the usual motion with the fork is one of dragging the piece of impaled green pepper with the teeth and pulling AWAY from the tongue. (This is if you use the fork properly as a fork and not as a spoon.) Thus, the sharpened fork would not, in normal use, come in contact with the tongue.   

       The chance of skewering the tongue or fingers could also be reduced by using a fork sheath or scabbard designed to fit over the cleaned and dried fork.   

       On redundancy: the Fine Tines idea is similar, but the mechanism is much less sophisticated. My unit would use batteries instead of the foot pedal.
—drtbarker, Jan 19 2003
   

       Tongue thimble??? Just in case.
—jerry4703, Jan 20 2003
   
      
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