When my family moved from the East Coast to the West Coast, we flew, and we brought our silver set on as a carry on. The security people at DCA wouldn't let us on the Shuttle with it... They pointed to the steak and butter knives.

I asked who had the final authority, and they told me the airline, so I asked to speak to a manager. The manager for Delta let us on the plane, but said the captain may request that the knives be stowed seperately in the front of the plane.

After we were confident that we wouldn't have to check our sterling to New York (sure we'd see it at the other end, sure we would!), we had a good laugh imagining taking over the Delta Shuttle with a silver butter knife.