Historians beleive that Man started to eat with spoon and fork two thousand years ago. Earliest spoons were made of wood and had semi-sphere ladle. In the middle of the century, European nobles used flatware made of other materials: gold, silver, sea shells and nacre.
Knifes
Obviously, knife was the first table set piece, it appeared in the rise of mankind, primeval people used it for various life purposes — hunting, cutting food. Thousands years later knifes got handles, and the blades became bronze, iron, and steel. Before forks came onto stage knife were used not only as cutlery, but also for taking food to the mouth.
In middle ages very soon noble feasts ended with slaughters, so new legislative act appeared forbidding using knifes resembling dagger. From that that time up to know we use knifes with rounded tip.
There exist four basic kinds of serving knifes:
Table knifes are the biggest, they are used for eating hot meat dishes with garnish.
Smaller salad knifes are used for eating various salads, pickles, aspics , etc.
Fish knifes for eating fish have original design.
Dessert knifes are the smallest, to eat desserts (mostly fresh fruits)
Besides, there exist other special knifes — for cheese, oysters and others.
Spoons
There are four kinds of serving spoons, according to their size:
Table spoons, the biggest, for eating soups of deep plates;
Dessert spoons, smaller ones, for eating clear soups, served in bouillon cups, ice cream of ramekins, stewed fruits, etc.
Tea spoons and coffee spoons, the smallest, for Turkish coffee, served in demitasses.
Modern etiquette is liberal for substituting dessert spoon by tea spoons, 
for example, for eating ice cream or stewed fruits.
Forks
Fork is the youngest piece of table set, it appeared in Europe in XVI century, for jabo fashion of that time requested an instrument to take food into moth safely, without staining a suit.
Early European forks had two or three teeth, later on — four teeth. Fork teeth became curled in XVII century,
for making it easier to cut food on a plate, without slipping a food pies over a plate when cutting it. To make eating garnish easier with such fork, it is turned up while eating.
Tradition of eating with fork and knife both was established in France, when Italians brought forks here. So do people up to hour days.
Today for setting a table we use four kinds of forks:
Table forks — the biggest four-teeth forks, for eating meat dishes accompanied with garnish and served in shallow plates.
Salad forks — smaller in size, four-teeth forks, for eating hot and cold appetizers and salads.
Dessert forks — the smallest, two or three-teeth, for eating fresh or canned fruits.
Fish forks.
Besides, there exist special forks — for fondue (Swiss dish of melted cheese), snails and other exotic foods.
