When the fork is On, the tines are separated.
When the fork is Off the tines close together.

The mechanism that allows the space between each tine to close and open is concealed within the handle, and powered by a wind up storage spring, primed using a key.
-- xenzag, May 30 2010

More Complex Utensils Extremely_20complic...arameter_20utensils
Related, but more complex [csea, May 30 2010, last modified Jun 01 2010]

(?) US patent 1,603,286 http://www.google.c...AAAAEBAJ&dq=1603286
closest I could find
also check out US 1,351,045 and US 1,351,046 for variations on a theme by the same inventor [xaviergisz, Jun 01 2010]

Mad magazine fork (reply to CSea) https://snipboard.io/46sgpQ.jpg
[pashute, Nov 16 2022]

Hahaha.... [xaviergz] , is there a patent on this? I found a rake patent for adjustable tines, wondering if the bastard covered himself all the way to dinner fork. +
-- daseva, May 30 2010


Handy for that last unlooped bit of spaghetti (unless you are a slurp and splash merchant)
-- gnomethang, May 30 2010


In a second mode, again for spaghetti, the business end could spin.
-- ldischler, May 30 2010


With some simple linkages, you wouldn't even have to spring-load the think. Just build a sliding trigger on the top so you can retract/deploy the tines with your thumb.

Now if you wanted to be really clever with it, you should have it convert from fork to spork to spoon by partially overlapping the tines. That might be too baked, though...
-- victory, May 30 2010


Fork off.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 30 2010


[+] obviously, but you wouldn't need a storage spring, just a return spring.
-- FlyingToaster, May 30 2010


Laterally of course, though I can't decide if this should be a rapid action like a flick knife or a slow, controlled motion.
-- xenzag, May 31 2010


Anything that complicates utensils gets my [+]. [link]

Digging a bit deeper, I searched for an image of a rotatable fork with a scissors below, intended for winding and clipping spaghetti.

I'm pretty sure it was printed in MAD magzine in the early-to-mid 1960s.
-- csea, Jun 01 2010


Sadly too late to answer csea (Charles Seagrave) RIP.

Its in the MAD Magazine #35 October 1957. A Google search for mad magazine spaghetti fork

shows this pic: https :// snipboard.io / 46sgpQ.jpg

The headline was "Mad eating untensils"
-- pashute, Nov 16 2022



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