Metalwork was always a fairly minor thing at my school, but we did have Engineering Workshop Theory and Practice - in which we made Engineers Clamps and for my O-level I designed, cast the base of and machined the parts of a stand for a Dial Test Indicator. The stand was designed to sit on a surface table or to bolt to another piece, allowing it to sit on my dad's lathe bed.
When its hard boiled and you want an egg and something sandwich, stupid.
Don't have a specific name for it.
When I read the original posting and the thread title, I immediately assumed that it related to a device with a row of parallel "cheese wires" in a frame for cutting a boiled egg into thin slices.
I've never heard of a "fish slice" or "spatula" being referred to as an "egg slice" but I can see the logic in it: a device for turning over fish when shallow-frying it or grilling it would be equally useful for turning over a fried egg or for scooping it up and serving it after cooking.
Just goes to show: the English language is great for devising multiple, mutually incomprehensible terms (used in different locations) for the same object.
That's a spatula. The egg slice does for eggs what a cheese slice does for cheese: turns a solid lump into a bunch of slices. The clue is in the name.
Is this a regional thing?
I (and the OED) recognise egg-slice as a thing for removing fried eggs & omelets from pans.
An egg slicer is a thing for slicing eggs. And similarly cheese slicer, bread slicer, meat slicer, vegetable slicer, veneer slicer etc
I have never heard either term used here except by pommy immigrants.
Sure, but why call it a slice instead of a turner.
We don't even call them turners.
Yeah. One of our states calls a suitcase a port for some reason.
We call a portable icebox used for camping an Esky, usual brand name that became universal like Nugget. The NZ sheep shaggers call it a chilly bin even tho few of them are bin shaped, they are normally rectangular and usually big enough to sit on.
That's because you're not in the UK.
I've always known it as a fish slice. Our language has moved on since your criminal ancestors were shipped out to Australia.
Plenty in the UK don't and not just immigrants, fool.
In the late 60s/ 70s we did metalwork, woodwork and technical drawing. We may have started the latter in 3rd year ( around 13/14) rather than first year at Grammar School.
I worked for a gap year as a lab technician in a school prior to Uni. While I was in the Science department, we worked with the Technical department on a new exam scheme. I’m pretty sure by then, at least in that school, traditional metalwork / woodwork had moved towards becoming “Design Technology” as such departments are generally now known. That would have been about 1975.
So it removes or moves eggs.
And now you say it slices them. Which is it?
Quite right. But, somehow, when I remove an egg from a frying pan, it doesn't end up as thin slices of egg.
Different words. slice and slicer.
Indeed. And I wondered if regional variations in "r-dropping" were playing a role here.
Indeed, and we have a cake slice as well which may be at the root of the name?
Pure sophistry.
No, different words, different meanings. An egg slicer slices eggs to go in sandwiches/salads. An egg slice lifts eggs from a frying pan in the same way a cake slice lifts a slice of cake.
The subtleties of the English language.
On 23/02/2023 23:29, Rod Speed wrote: snip>
Portmanteau.
So a cake slice gives me a slice of cake, and an egg slice gives me a slice of egg, is that your story?
Subtle indeed.
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With a non-stick pan, you have to be a bit more careful in your choice of hardware.
We used a metal one with a plastic handle (on cast iron pan), for flipping. When the plastic broke, I fixed it (nut and bolt). When the metal broke, it was off to the tip.
This was the style. So now I have learned we were using a fish turner, to flip a fried egg.
And agreed by the Collins dictionary and others:
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