Placement

• Placement on the table readily distinguishes the salad fork and dessert fork. For salads served after the entree, the salad fork will be located to the right of the dinner fork. If the salad is served first, the fork will be to the outer left side of the plate, next to the fish fork. The dessert fork resides above the plate with the tines pointing to the right. Sometimes a dessert spoon will be set above the dessert fork with the bowl of the spoon pointing to the left. However, in other formal settings, the dessert fork comes to the table with the dessert.
  
  

Size

• The sizes of the two forks can vary slightly, but in many cases the salad fork and dessert fork are the same size. Both are smaller than dinner forks but larger than the oyster fork, the smallest fork in a formal place setting. With some flatware, the salad fork has longer tines but a shorter handle than the dessert fork, which has shorter tines but a longer handle, making them the same length. In many everyday silverware sets, one fork can be used interchangeably for both the salad and dessert.
  
  

Tines

• Salad and dessert forks typically have a fourth tine, where a dinner fork usually has three but sometimes four. The thicker left tine on some salad forks makes cutting greens easier; it's on the left because the majority of people are right-handed. The thicker tine on the salad fork distinguishes it from the dessert fork in some flatware patterns. However, often in sets containing both a salad and a dessert fork, the salad forks will have four tines and the dessert forks will have three.
  
  

Design

• The design of the salad and dessert forks are the same because in a formal place setting all the flatware has the same design. The differences between all the forks of a place setting have to do with overall length, placement, the different sizes of the tines and handle, and the course being served.