Choose a number, 1-5!

on this topic:

This is a cutlery model sold by a specific store chain here in sweden some decades ago, i fucking adore how simple and proletarian it is, it's absolutely ubiquitous even to this day.
Like IKEA things but cheaper and higher quality.

2, and only 2.
- Dont you love when you stick your fork into a potato and end up cutting the fucker in half? Thats what these wide tines do.
  
  Looks like 4 has wider tines… and a couple others.
- Yep, number two is the best.
  Give us a harder choice.
- Agreed, none of the others are balanced properly or have good flow. Number two is the only option.
- 2 is definitely the best-machined. Quality manufacturing right there.
  
  5 looks well made too. I like a slightly sporked fork though.
- Has a stupid handle
  
  Stupid but comfy. ☺️
- I was like this, then I saw the handle. That being said its still 2 but its very close and it could be better still like the 1 or 5 handle
- It is clear to me that the only explanation for your preference is nostalgia.
  
  I don’t understand. I think the handle would work best for my hands, and the prongs are just the right size for me.

Handle of 5 + the fork of 3
- I am so on board with you
- The will of the people
- Aesthetics - #5 is the obvious choice Handling/ grip comfort - #5 wins again Scooping/horizontal food retention - #5 with its slight bowl-shaped head Tine shape - #2 wins out for sheer uniformity
  Final answer
- Exactly

None of these. 2 has the best tines, but the handle sucks. These look like forks you'd find in a diner. Rounded outer tines is a crime against humanity. Did you maybe want a spork instead? 😡
- Agreed. 2 is the clear winner of this heat, despite the bad handle. 5 has the best handle of the bunch, but all these were stamped from thin, stainless sheet steel, rather than forged from thicker plate. All of their handles are lousy.
  5 has a better finish than the rest, but the tines are a train wreck.
  Here is the perfect fork:
  
  Handle needs some kind of texture, or else may become slippery.
  
  Yup. I've never really felt compelled to steal anything at all in my life, but I found some silverware like this at a restaurant one time and I don't think I had much of a choice.
  Once I felt that ideal shape in my hand, with the perfect amount of heft distributed exactly as it should be, I knew I could never go back to using regular flat silverware.
  The waiter caught me trying to clumsily hide the one set, and then he brought me a second one to take home as a gift. It was one of the nicest things, I'll never forget it.
  
  Allow me to introduce you to my favorite fork. I feel like yours would rotate in the hand while applying downward cutting force.
  
  Personally I don't like that handle either. Needs to be thicker.
  
  Damn, that is the most perfect fork I've seen, wow.
  Yeah I was gonna say 2's prong/head with 5's handle would probably be the best out of what's available in the OP image, but yours is... sublime, hah.
  
  Round handles don't let me know the rotation so hard pass from me.
  
  I completely agree with you that all forks in the image suck. The part that you stick into the food shouldn't be rounded like that, it should be straight, so when you take it out of your mouth, it glides through your lips uniformly without some weird bumps. It should also have enough space in between the thingys, so you don't just cut your food in half when sticking it in. Then the handle, there's no reason for it not to be straight either. My hand doesn't have weird bumps like that, so the handle shouldn't either. It should also not be that flat, so it's nicer to grip.
  Once I move out of my parents house, I'm definitely gonna buy forks like the one in your image. This is the best fork I've ever seen. Everything is straight without weird bump, it's not gonna cut my food in half and the handle is thick, so it's nice to grip. I don't understand how people who design things like this just don't think about making them nice to use. Do they stop themselves from thinking about how the thing they make would actually be used or what?
  
  This is the cutlery I have!
  What's it called? I need more!
- Please skip to 1:59

2

Slim fork, wide handle.
- Damn right. I have 4 2s and 4 4s and it's a sad day when I've been too lazy to do the dishes and only have 4s left to use.
- I can taste that flared base agaist my hard palate
- I hate them! Because can't fit to dishwasher basket
  
  Top rack is the solution! Or a basket that doesn't have slots, just the basket.
- A scholar and a gentleman

Definitely 2. All other answers are just plain wrong.

None. They’re all stamped from thin sheet metal. Tines and handles are too thin and will bend.

Head of 2, body of 5.

Apostrophe catastrophe.
Oh, there are forks: #2.

2, assuming the broad pommel is a counterweight. If it's flimsy lightweight material then none of them.

Obviously #2, but with a slightly smaller handle tip and that's about it.

Clearly its the tines of 2 and the handle of 5. Anything else is madness.
My reasoning is quite simple. The tines on the No.2 fork are longer than the others. Long things are often associated with quality, status and refinement (Long fingers, long lashes, long legs etc.). The extra length suggest dexterity and precision.
Conversely the comparatively stubby tines of the No.1 fork would likely suit a toddler or an adult who isn't allowed near pointy things without supervision. Similarly the tines of the No.5 fork suggest that this utensil was born wanting to be a spoon but then was made into a fork at the last minute. This hypothesis is further supported by the rounded end of it's handle which would suit a spoon rather well.
Numbers 3 and 4 forks are usually, in my experience found in establishments where you help yourself to cutlery from big pots with grubby labels marked "SPOONS", "KNIVES" and "FORKS".
Now to the handles. Although the tines of the No.2 fork are pleasing, it then lets itself down with a handle that widens to the point of absurdity. Perhaps the thought was that it would help the extremely aged keep a firm grip while spooning tapioca past loose dentures.
So a cleaned up fork made from an amalgam of the refined tines of No. 2 fork and the pleasantly rounded handle of No. 5 are the only option for any adult with reasonable dexterity.

Those all suck, this is the perfect fork.

2

They all have problems. If i have to pick any one of them its going to be 2, but i won't be happy about it.

Neurodivergent’s what?
- Neurodivergent is which

It's 2 and it ain't even close

I'd pick 5 but none of these look all that comfy
- Handle of 5 is the best. They usually also have a bit of a weight in it, I hate light forks.
  
  It doesn't, that's Ikea's fork, I know it. It's super uncomfortable for me but I'm the neurotypical in the house, my partner only uses those.
  
  but the handle could be a bit wider. i mean it is the best but not perfect at all.
- Yeah, I didn't think I was fork divergent... But I jumped straight to 5.
- Wow we are so different. I don't even want to be in the same room as 5. I like the edges to be straight straight straight like a hitscan ray no bend tyuuuuu ^^

2 with 5s handle suppremacy

It's a trick question, they're all bad.
(I have autism)

You don't have to be neurodivergent to have an opinion about fork shapes. Also 2 is the best.

...get that f*ucking plural-~~comma~~ apostrophe out of my face...
¹ ^head ⁺ ⁵ ^handle

Neurodivergents*

The present is now, old fella

2 No discussion, the weight, the smoothness, ist all about how they lay in the Hand.

Six.
Look at this fork. LOOK AT IT. Now, calm down.

2.The crazies here who don't think that's the best head by so much that the handle doesn't matter, they scare me. No amount of bad handle can make up for how much I hate the rest of them

Wrong sub. Post here
https://lemmynsfw.com/c/ifyouhadtopickone

2, but the base is a bit wide. Am I on the list now?

2

Trick question. These are all terrible, therefore I will eat with my fingers.

2 but its a bit big

Adding my voice to the 2 crowd.

2 with 5s handle

2

2 its just right

My fork is the correct fork. None of these are my fork.
In the event of a fork loss, any of these forks could become my fork after a period of time, probably about a month or so until it felt right.

2

Worst 5 fork designs in this meme. Thanks for nothing

2 clearly

Hard to say. It's 1 or 3.
2 has an annoying bulbous handle that upsets the balance and the tines take up too much of the fork space, leaving too little room for the little shovel bit at the back that can hold things that might fall through the tines a bit better,
5 is an utter nightmare of awful.

i only eat spoons, they taste better
- Makes perfect sense to me. Would you choose any of these handles for your spoon?

2

No discussion.

Why would this not apply to neurotypicals? seems to me that most people would have at least a slight preference

Handle of 5, prongs of 3.

5 is an IKEA fork
Source: I have an IKEA fork
- I think at least three of these are from IKEA.
  Source: I live in IKEA-Land

Definitely 2.

None of them are great, all too thin and probably have hard 90° edges from being stamped cheap metal, but maybe 2. Five can fuck off, too wide and trying to be a spoon, the rest are too narrow in the handle.

2 GANG RISE UP
- I actually own some #2s. They're great.

2

Number 2, obviously.

Handle of 5 with any other head 😭

2