Green’s Dictionary of Slang

utensils, knives and forks.

1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 110: W’y! they don’t even take yer eatin’-irons. I kep’ me ole drummond-an’-roce.
1950		S. Murphy Stone Mad (1966) 137: Another day when we came in the knives an’ forks weren’t on the table, an’ he shouts to the woman: ‘Where’s the atin’ irons?’.
1959		N. Nye Long Run (1983) 117: She waved a hand toward a box [...] ‘Eating irons—grab a plate and fly at it’.
1977		G. Melly Rum, Bum and Concertina (1978) 12: A rather gloomy wren Galley Rating passed us our eating irons.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 119: Not to hold their ‘eating irons’ as one would hold a pencil.