history of the spork

[tiptoe]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/01/magazine/who-made-that-spork.html

(the idea isn't so new)

[MuddyWaters]

Sporks suck.
Spoons rule.

[Feral Bill]

Love my Prius, hybrid tableware I can live without.

[RodentWhisperer]

But it sounds so cool. Spork. Spork. Sporkedy, sporksporkspork. What's not to love? :D

I've never used a spork, per se... I confess I used to steal plastic utensils when visiting fast-food restaurants, until Light my Fire started selling their spoon/fork combo. Now I can eat spaghetti as easy as orzo.

[rocketsocks]

Spoons rule
Sporks drule

[HikerMom58]

RS... I love my spork.. it's BLUE. I can always find it in my pack & it's like "family" to me.... just like my pack. :D I love all my "stuff".

[daddytwosticks]

I prefer the term "foon". :)

[Tuckahoe]

I have hated these damn things since the early 80s when one was was foisted upon me at a Taco Bell... some say you shouldnt eat at Taco Bell because of the food. No! Dont eat there because of the sporks!

The spork is neither a fork or a spoon and about as useful as hiking poles in the hands of LW.

[perdidochas]

I'm not a big fan of the spork, meaning the spoon with tines. I am a fan of the LMF type sporks which have a fork on one end, a spoon on the other.

[MDSection12]

Just got a new spoon! My wife was cracking up about how happy a spoon purchase could make me. I'd been looking for the right one for months. :)

Does anyone actually use the tines on the spork as a fork?

[hikerboy57]

sporks suck

[4eyedbuzzard]

spork noun \'spȯrk\ an eating utensil that poorly performs the functions of both spoon and fork saving hikers 1/2 ounce in packed weight.

[MDSection12]

I've yet to find a camp meal I can't eat with either a spoon or my hands.

[Odd Man Out]

Actually, the spork was an invention of Darko Zupančič, a Slovenian blacksmith and proofreader. He imagined a fork and spoon fighting with each other and came up the spork, from the Slovenian word Spor which means Dispute. He was help prisoner at the infamous Dredea Concentration Camp during WWII when he found his hybrid utensil was superior at digging an escape tunnel. As a fugitive, he was able to slackpack and yogi all the the Adriatic Coast at Koper where he hitchhiked on a US submarine to the navel base in Aberdeen MD. He spend the rest of the war inventing hybrid utensils for the war effort, such as his famous can-opener/flyswatter which was used extensively in the Pacific theater at the end of the war. His original Spork, now worn down from tunnel digging is on display at the International Museum of Hybrid Utensils in Murghab Tajikistan.

[tiptoe]

Just for the record, I'm not a spork fan either. I do just fine with a spoon for anything I cook on the trail, and use a small pocket knife for cutting sausage and cheese.

[theinfamousj]

Does anyone actually use the tines on the spork as a fork?

I tried once while eating a salad at work. I was able to spear exactly 1.5 lettuce leaves before giving up and going with coffee stirrer chopsticks to finish the salad.

I now consider a spork a pointy soup delivery device.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk

[Dogwood]

The spork is an invention of an industrious gram weenie ULer that had once owned a spoon.

Nice OddManOut. Who the heck has a first name like Darko in real life? Sounds like the name of a Sat morn cartoon character. Is he related to Johnny Darko?

[Furlough]

Its Just eating.

[daddytwosticks]

Spork your own spork. :)

[rocketsocks]

Spork ain't nothin but a leaky spoon. :D

[Odd Man Out]

Nice OddManOut. Who the heck has a first name like Darko in real life? Sounds like the name of a Sat morn cartoon character. Is he related to Johnny Darko?

Believe it or not, you can find just about anything on the internet, including the frequency of the use of the name Darko by decade over the past 80 years in Slovenia from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. The peak in popularity in the 60's is no doubt due to the spork.

http://www.stat.si/eng/imena_baza_imena.asp?ime=darko&priimek=&spol=M

[rocketsocks]

Much as I dislike the "Spork" (which really isn't all that much, I do own one or two) I've enjoyed reading this thread and the history of such an ingenious little tool...you guy's never disappoint.

[Hikes in Rain]

Believe it or not, you can find just about anything on the internet, including the frequency of the use of the name Darko by decade over the past 80 years in Slovenia from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. The peak in popularity in the 60's is no doubt due to the spork.

http://www.stat.si/eng/imena_baza_imena.asp?ime=darko&priimek=&spol=M


I'm amazed........!

[SunnyWalker]

I have given up my $25.00 titanium spork I purchased thru REI. Everytime I use it (Ziplock qt sized bag boil water cooking) I get food all over my fingers. Dirty fingers I should say. The spoon is too short/small to fit into the bag without my hand going into the bag. When I head out this year I will be fitted with a large lexan type serving spoon! I am looking for one now.

[hobby]

I have given up my $25.00 titanium spork I purchased thru REI. Everytime I use it (Ziplock qt sized bag boil water cooking) I get food all over my fingers. Dirty fingers I should say. The spoon is too short/small to fit into the bag without my hand going into the bag. When I head out this year I will be fitted with a large lexan type serving spoon! I am looking for one now.

I use this---> http://www.rei.com/product/782241/sea-to-summit-alpha-light-spoon-long

[kunzman]

The long version is the way to go!

[daddytwosticks]

I use this---> http://www.rei.com/product/782241/sea-to-summit-alpha-light-spoon-long
That's what I got! Love the little carabeener. It's titanium. So am I cool now or what? :)

[SunnyWalker]

I saw that in the REI site, Hobby. I need to try out something here at home that is 8.5 inches long and see if it works for me. Thanks. Do you use quart size bags? (I am assuming you are a greezer bag cooker).

[HikerMom58]

Wait what? He's carrying bear bells and no spork? This is funny and interesting... :p



http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/07/06/appalachian.trail.backpack/


http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/07/06/12.things.appalachian.trail/index.html (http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/07/06/appalachian.trail.backpack/)

[HikerMom58]

I use this---> http://www.rei.com/product/782241/sea-to-summit-alpha-light-spoon-long

OK... now you're talkin... I would gladly give up my blue spork for one of these... I'm liking it a lot! :D

[HikerMom58]

That's what I got! Love the little carabeener. It's titanium. So am I cool now or what? :)

I would say you are very cool!

[hikerboy57]

I use this---> http://www.rei.com/product/782241/sea-to-summit-alpha-light-spoon-longthe reviews have 2 pros that are also cons. its either durable or not durable, and easy to clean, yet difficult to clean.
cleaning cheese off this thing is a pita, but its better than cleaning food off my knuckles.

[daddytwosticks]

I would say you are very cool!
Nobody will match my coolness once I get ahold of some CUBEN! :)

[hikerboy57]

Nobody will match my coolness once I get ahold of some CUBEN! :)
cuben sporks suck too.

[Rolls Kanardly]

I guess the question would be: If you were locked in an AYCE buffet with only a "Spork" and the rules were you had to use only a "Spork" to eat. No forks, no knives, no lips and no fingers would you then think differently about a "Spork"

Rolls Kanardly

[Rolls Kanardly]

Just for the record, I'm not a spork fan either. I do just fine with a spoon for anything I cook on the trail, and use a small pocket knife for cutting sausage and cheese.

I thought sausage and cheese were supposed be bitten from the roll or the chunk by teeth.

Rolls Kanardly

[hikerboy57]

I guess the question would be: If you were locked in an AYCE buffet with only a "Spork" and the rules were you had to use only a "Spork" to eat. No forks, no knives, no lips and no fingers would you then think differently about a "Spork"

Rolls Kanardly
hard to do much of anything worth doing without lips and fingers

[SunnyWalker]

I take it back. I don't remember how much my spork cost when I bought i from REI. I seem to remember about $25 cuz my dividend thingee was about that much. Maybe less cuz this 8.5 incher is under $10 bucks! Such a deeeeeeaaaaaallllll! I might bite (pun intended). Still deciding. I did not like the fork tines when I did use my pot as they seem to scratch the non-stick lining. So I'll have to contemplate on this. I know I could purchase this REI 8.5 Spork and grind it down to just a spoon. May have to, but I hate to buy something and have to turn right around and fix it. Feels like I did not make a right decision, so I'll look at spoons too.

[SunnyWalker]

OH! Ha, ha, ho, ho, hee, hee, dumb me-it IS a spoon!!!!! Alright, got that figured out. Now on to the hard stuff.

[Tuckahoe]

This thread reminded me of this little artifact -- http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/opac/search/cataloguedetail.html?&priref=70534&_function_=xslt&_limit_=50

[SunnyWalker]

Hey, Tucka-you made knifes, how 'bout making a custom spoon?

[SunnyWalker]

Thy use sporks in the prison system here in Texas for all the inmates to eat with. Plastic things. Real lightweight, durable . . . . . . . Naw!!!!

[Rolls Kanardly]

hard to do much of anything worth doing without lips and fingers

Now I was thinking that you could not pick up food with your fingers and put into your mouth or you could not suck food off a table or a plate or out of a bowl but when I think about what you said: It would be hard to do anything without lips or fingers.
And not only that it would be very inconvienent. That would only leave a straw and a puree'd sandwich would suck.

RK

[SunnyWalker]

OK, I ordered the 8.5 inch spoon from REI. Will see how IT does!

[Foresight]

Sporks suck. Now a spovel, OTOH, is the cat's ass.....

A "spovel" you say? Yes, a spovel. I took a spoon and pounded the front part flat then squared it off with my grinder giving me not only a flat leading edge, but also a flat on one side. With this I was now able to more efficiently get at the cheesy goodness on the bottom of the pot and well as the peanut butter that tenaciously clings to the side of the jar......epic winning.

[perrymk]

The spovel sounds interesting. Do you have a photo?

[Foresight]

Not handy, but I can find it out and take one.

In the meantime, picture a spoon with a flat front (for scraping the bottom of a pot) and one flat side for scraping the side of a jar).

[Foresight]

Here, I made one in paint, lol....

25398

<edit to add.....damn that's small, sorry about that>

Anyway, if you leave the radius between the flats it works great for getting the peanut butter out of the rounded bottom of the jar. (can you tell I HATE not getting all the peanut butter? :D)

[perrymk]

Now if you can do that with a long handle and titanium, you will really have something. The problem with the long handle titanium spoons I have seen is the odd shaped small spoon part. I am impressed by your ingenuity. http://www.smileyvault.com/albums/userpics/13049/bow.gif (http://www.smileyvault.com/)

[Foresight]

Between eating grinding wheels and the fire hazard involved I think I'll leave the titanium work to someone else :D

[hikerboy57]

Mibes not titanium itsaircraft alloy aluminum.I haven't seen them in titanium yet