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Bon Ami or Ajax do it. But the metal marks will always come. I think the problem is the quality of porcelan. The enamel finish is not strong enough. My dishes - had them for 10 years now - don't have that. It could be not a good stainless steel as well on utensils.

okay - the above sounds like BAD english.

I meant to say: BonAmi of Ajax will do.

And the damage on the plate could have been caused due to not very good quality utensils...

If you can't track down any Bon Ami (I've had no luck so far), give it a good scrub with a paste of baking soda and water. It does the trick for my Corelle dishes.

I wonder if one of the oxygen cleaners would work?
That's my bleach alternative - OxyClean (whatever the Trader Joe's house brand is...)

Love baking soda for things that don't need "lift"...

What about the Magic Stain eraser? that thing gets rid of most things. I've had white Apilco dinner plates for over 7 years and don't have any marks, so Anusha may be on to something...

Whole Foods sells BonAmi...I saw it on the top shelf of their small cleaning supply section (near the Mrs. Meyer's soap that I LOVE).

I always thought the gray marks were permanent...good to know I could try to get them off of my white dishes as well.

We bought silverplate utensils for cheap on ebay (cheaper than anything but Ikea bend-in-the-wind flatware) and got decent quality porcelain as a wedding gift and don't have this problem, so my guess is that it's a quality issue. We are inveterate fork users and almost never use knives to cut food, so that is probably not your problem.

Are your dishes Corelle? I've seen Corelle that people use only for picnics a couple of times a year with this problem; it's not very durable. And using a powdered cleaner like baking soda or Bon Ami on it will scratch the finish and make it pick up marks even faster in the future.

I would be wary using something like Magic Eraser on something I was going to eat off of - I thought they were supposed to be horribly toxic.

If the other suggestions don't work, pick up a bottle of stoneware and porcelain cleaner. I got a bottle of it with the purchase of my white Kohler porcelain kitchen sink. It's a thick white liquid that I sponge on and the rinse off after letting it set for a few minutes. It removes all the grey marks that inevitably occur when flatware bangs against the porcelain finish. (Just make sure that you wash the dishes thoroughly--preferably in a dishwasher--after using it so you don't poison yourself!) You should be able to find the product at a big-box store like Lowe's or Home Depot or in the kitchen department at Linens n' Things or Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Bar Keepers Friend. Comes in a can like Bon Ami or Comet/Ajax. I buy mine at the hardware or grocery store. Works on everything that nothing else will.

I had miracular success getting utensil marks off my vintage Franciscan white Metropolitan china with that new Bleach Pen that Clorox makes. It has a wide tip and a narrow tip, like a giant Sharpie marker. Really did the trick, and bonus: no scratching.

It also took stains off my refrigerator that I thought were there for life.

I actually did a comparison between Bon Ami, Barkeeper's Friend, and Ajax. I had bought a set of Pfaltzgraff at a thrift store for my stepmom. They were GREY with utensil marks. I used each of the cleansers, and found Barkeeper's Friend did the best job, but they all required some elbow grease.

I also worked at Steak 'n Shake for seven years. They use Buffalo China dinnerware, and we'd use Comet on the pieces that started looking bad. But the finish on Buffalo China is REALLY tough, so scratching wasn't a concern.