The Spork, Do you use one?

[Alan Gage]

I like a long spoon as well because I eat directly from the pot, which is on the tall side. I don't know if they still sell them but REI had a bin full of some sort of blue plastic utensils. The spoons were long and cheap (maybe a couple bucks). I figured they would be brittle but when I tried to break one I couldn't when using moderate force. So I bought two of them and they've been going strong for the last 10+ years, though admittedly they've seen much less use in recent years.

Alan

 

[PortageW/Cerberus]

Long handled spoon.

No fork, no spork; I do not like green eggs and ham.

 

[recped]

Long titanium spoon only user here. On a trip a few years ago I lost my spoon and had to borrow a spare Foon (aka Spork), really didn't like it, I always felt like I was going to shred my tongue.

Since I always seem to be unable to find my long spoon when I'm assembling gear for a trip combined with the realization that for less than $5 I could buy extras on Temu (exact same thing that is about $15 from REI etc) I now own many long spoons (and the odd foon/spork just in case somebody needs one).

To be honest, in my kitchen kit there is always a single plastic fork (replacing them this year with "borrowed" wood cutlery from my local Costco hot dog stand) just in case there is a meal that is not compatible with a spoon (eg: spaghetti).

I have tried that double ended abomination (the blue one in Glenn's post)....junk, broke it in half the first time I used it. I've also tried using a folding long spoon, another piece of junk, the way it was designed was truly stupid as it folds the wrong way, I could not even stir my tea as the "locking function" is backwards and not secure, even the slightest pressure would cause it to fold.

 

[Boatman53]

Here is the useless spork and a spoon that I actually have used, I also have a long titanium job for the rare occasions I’m eating a dehydrated meal.

Jim

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

I distinctly remember being rather frustrated that I couldn't stab nachos with the tines

I want to make perfectly clear that I have never stabbed nachos with my spork.

 

[sweeper]

Ambiguous terminology strikes again.

There are two different utensils called "sporks". One utensil has a spoon on one end and a fork on the other (perhaps including a cutting edge, too). The other utensil is a spoon with small tines on the end.

Here are a variety of sporks.

View attachment 154267

I once had the double-ended type in a colorful plastic, but never used it and have no idea where it is. I use a spoon-tined spork made titanium, like the one on the extreme right of the picture, all the time. I have used it in camp and at home for more than 20 years. I like it especially for eating hard ice cream. It's a terrific utensil.

I also have a couple of the telescoping plastic tined sporks, but have never used them at all. They just came with some cook kit I bought.

I also take a long titanium spoon (no tines) on camping trips, which is very useful for reaching the bottom of freeze-dried meal bags, which is all I eat.

A Spork with a bottle opener now you have my attention.

 

[snapper]

For as long as I can remember, I've only used a spoon and my pocket knife if something needed cutting up. I started carving spoons (out of cedar mostly) back in the mid-1980s and have used the same wooden one since then. I have carved long handled spoons for cooking as well but find that when I'm by myself, my old cedar spoon works for pretty much everything.

On a side note; when I'm carving my spoons I typically make the handle side so it can be used to spread p-nut butter, honey, etc. I can lick that side off without having to worry about cutting my tongue. Just an added bonus.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper

 

[VA paddler]

I have a set of the [spoon on one side fork on the other], in stainless. We cook a lot of grilled meats and vegies and a fork is useful in that application. I also have a set of long spoons/sporks for the dehydrated meal bags. But really, I could care less what I eat with, just so long as the food is tasty and it gets in my belly.

 

[scoutergriz]

Someone give me a spork once, I'm not sure what happened to it. I'll probably get flamed for this, but I put sporks and Tilley hat's in the same company, items that the cool kids have.

I'm definitely NOT one of the "cool kids", but if you try to take my Tilley hat there's gonna' be a fight (which I'll probably lose in my present condition)- it protects my follicly challenged noggin from rain, snow, and sun while holding my bug net off my neck. It has also served as a bucket for washing my face (yes it leaks- a lot), and as a personal "swamp cooler"- I hate ball caps because invariably I'll end up with a painful half- moon sunburn on the back of my head and ear tips that make me look like I'm caught perpetually lying or looking where I shouldn't.
But- sporks are a different matter, I've probably got a dozen laying around of both types- I had one of those long- handled titanium examples of engineering excess and ludicrousness, but I found it better as an improvised tent peg than an eating implement, a plastic one resides somewhere in the vicinity of a small swift on the French River, after I got fed up digging bits of broken tines out of my fire- roasted steak, and one double ender ended up being sacrificed to the fire gods on the Athabasca after discovering that the slightest force either dig the tines into the base of my thumb or the bowl into the palm of my hand.
For thirty years a nylon fork and spoon along with my pocket knife are the only implements I use, but then again- I place those noxious bags of chemical swill called freeze dried food a couple of steps below the slop served to prisoners during the Great Inquisition. My meals consist of REAL food, often dried myself or frozen to last a few days, interspersed with fresh caught fish- chunks of steak, chicken, or fish are not well suited for eating with a spoon, and I must maintain SOME standards of civility....

​

 

[mwaalen]

We've used the double ended spoon & fork things for years. Never before considered which end gets used most but as I think of it, the fork end is being ignored. Oatmeal in the AM & sloppy, ricey, beany, glurpy, stuff for supper. Will probably keep the utensils as-is just because it has become familiar.