How do you use a knife and fork?

One uses the fork, in the right hand (even though it is placed to the left of the dinner plate) (even if you are left handed--in the U.S.) to gently spear the food, although with peas and tiny rolling items you use the fork to collect them and gently guide them to your mouth. One never touches the teeth to the fork. The knife is supposedly used to cut food into bite sized pieces. But we all have had difficulty trying to cut meat with a dinner knife. It is in good manners to ask a server for a "sharp knife" or a "meat knife" or a "steak knife" when in a restaurant. One does NOT ask for a cutlery exchange in the home of a person to whom one is not related. Most especially not one's mother-in-law. When faced with a dull knife, one can only put some elbow grease into the act of cutting, which is supposed to appear effortless--but starving is frowned upon. Another answer is "gently." One uses all cutlery gently. If presented with a piece of cutlery one does not know how to use, one keeps his/her eye on the hostess to see what he or she should do.