Cutlery set assembly

• US 7,856,722 B2
• Filed: 09/27/2004
• Issued: 12/28/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/26/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Marta Lago-Arenas, Royal College Of Art
• Original Assignee: Marta Lago-Arenas, Royal College Of Art
• Inventors: Lago-Arenas, Marta
• Primary Examiner(s): Dexter; Clark F.
• Application Number:
  US10/573,414
• Publication Number:
  US 20070079513A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,283 Days
• Field of Search: 301/42, 301/43, 30147-150, 30322-328, 303/40, D7649-652, D7642-645, 715/8, 152/451, 206/553
• US Class Current: 30/147
• CPC Class Codes: A47G 21/06 Combined or separable sets of table-service utensils; Oyster knives with openers; Fish servers with means for removing bones kitchen equipment A47J
• CPC Class Codes: B26B 3/00 Hand knives with fixed blades handles, attaching the handles B25G

Abstract

A cutlery set assembly is disclosed and comprises a knife (50) and a spoon (10) and/or a fork (30). The items of cutlery are made of resilient plastics material and each item of cutlery has a cylindrical handle. The handles are shaped such that they can be nested coaxially with each other. When in such a nested condition, the handle of the outermost item extends more than half way around the handle of the second item to hold the items in the nested condition. The resilience of the plastics material keeps the assembly together.

Claims

1. A cutlery set assembly comprising at least a first and a second item of cutlery made of resilient plastics material, one of said items of cutlery being a knife having a blade, wherein each item of cutlery has a cylindrical handle and a head, and wherein the handles are shaped such that they can be nested with each other and wherein, when in such a nested condition, the heads of the items are adjacent one another at a same end of the assembly and the handle of the first item extends outside of and more than half way around the handle of the second item, thereby grasping the handle of the second item, whereby the items are held together in firm engagement in the nested condition.

2. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a third item of cutlery and wherein, when in the nested condition, the handle of the second item extends outside of and more than half way around the handle of the third item thereby grasping the handle of the third item, whereby the second and third items are held together in the nested condition.

3. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the handles of at least two of the items of cutlery are hollow.

4. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein at least one of the items of cutlery has a slit running along the length of the handle of said at least one item.

5. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 4, wherein the knife has a rib forming an extension of the blade and being joined to, and extending along, an inside of a hollow handle of the knife.

6. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the knife has a rib forming an extension of the blade that extends along an inside of a hollow handle of the knife.

7. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the handle of the knife tapers towards an end of the blade of the knife to expose a sharp edge of the blade.

8. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein part of the handle of the knife extends over at least part of the blade of the knife.

9. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein each item has a neck between the handle and the rest of the item, said neck being part cylindrical in cross-section.

10. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein surfaces of adjacent handles engage when nested, a resilience of walls of the handles keeping the cutlery set assembly together.

11. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 10, wherein engaging surfaces of the handles are textured to further resist slippage of the handles when nested.

12. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein a diameter of an outside of the handle of the second item is greater than an internal diameter of a hollow handle of the first item when the handles are in an unnested condition.

13. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the items of the assembly include a knife, fork and spoon.

14. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the resilient plastics material is polypropylene.

15. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the items of cutlery are formed by injection moulding.

16. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the handle of each item of cutlery nests or is nested by the handle of another item of cutlery of the set.

17. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the handles of the items are coaxial when nested.

18. A cutlery set assembly comprising a first, a second and a third item of cutlery made of resilient plastics material, wherein each item of cutlery has a cylindrical handle and wherein the handles are shaped such that they can be nested with each other and wherein, when in the nested condition, the handle of the first item extends outside of and more than half way around the handle of the second item thereby grasping the handle of the second item, whereby the first and second items are held together in the nested condition, and the handle of the second item extends outside of and more than half way around the handle of the third item thereby grasping the handle of the third item, whereby the second and third items are held together in firm engagement in the nested condition.

19. A cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 18, wherein the first item is a knife having a blade and the second and third items each have a slit running along the length of their handles and wherein the blade of the knife is located in the slits of the second and third items when the items of the cutlery are in the nested condition.

20. A cutlery set assembly comprising a spoon, a fork and a knife having a blade as items of cutlery and each made of resilient plastics material wherein each item of cutlery has a cylindrical handle, wherein the handles are shaped such that they can be nested with each other and wherein, when in such a nested condition, the handle of one of the items extends outside of and more than half way around the handles of the other items thereby grasping the handle of one of the other items, whereby the items are held together in the nested condition, wherein the knife has a rib forming an extension of the blade that extends along an inside of a hollow handle of the knife and wherein the handles of the spoon and fork each have a slit running along the length of its handle and the slit of the spoon handle lies in register with the slit of the fork handle when the handles thereof are nested with each other so that the slits receive the rib of the knife, the handles of the fork and spoon being nested within the handle of the knife.

21. The cutlery set assembly as claimed in claim 20, wherein a head of at least one of the spoon and the fork has a thicker cross-section than a cross-section of its corresponding spoon handle and fork handle.

22. A cutlery set assembly comprising a first, a second and a third item of cutlery made of resilient plastics material, wherein each item of cutlery has a cylindrical handle and wherein the handles are shaped such that they can be nested with each other and wherein, when in the nested condition, the handle of the first item extends outside of and more than half way around the handle of the second item thereby grasping the handle of the second item, whereby the first and second items are held together in the nested condition, and the handle of the second item extends outside of and more than half way around the handle of the third item thereby grasping the handle of the third item, whereby the second and third items are held together in the nested condition, wherein the first item is a knife having a blade and the second and third items each have a slit running along the length of their handles and wherein the blade of the knife is located in the slits of the second and third items when the items of the cutlery are in the nested condition, and wherein the blade of the knife includes a rib joined to and extending along an inside of the handle of the knife, and the rib is located in the slits of the second and third items when the items of cutlery are in a nested condition.

23. A cutlery set assembly comprising at least a first and a second item of cutlery made of resilient plastics material, one of said items of cutlery being a knife having a blade, wherein each item of cutlery has a cylindrical handle and a head, at least the knife handle being hollow, and wherein the handles are shaped such that they can be nested with each other and wherein, when in such a nested condition, the heads of the items are adjacent one another at a same end of the assembly and the handle of the first item extends outside of and more than half way around the handle of the second item, thereby grasping the handle of the second item, whereby the items are held together in the nested condition, wherein at least the second item of cutlery has a slit running along the length of its handle, wherein the knife has a rib forming an extension of the blade and being joined to, and extending along, an inside of the hollow handle of the knife, and wherein in the nested condition, the rib of the knife is located in the slit extending along the handle of at least the second item of cutlery.