Wooden sporks

mneedham

mneedham

Joined
Jul 8, 2006
Messages
2,776
A while back, I said that I wanted to try making a wood spork like the ones that are sold by oriental food shops (apparently made out of bamboo). I grabbed a piece of cherry tree and a hardwood chunk off the land and threw them in my pack. My son and I were in the Adirondacks for a while and I took out my Leatherman Supertool and went to work (sanded them a little later...). As the pics below clearly indicate, I'm no craftsman, but they are workable. I left the tines on the fork thick. They can be sharpened and resharpened at the time of use. I have tried the cherry model with some soup and found that it could be a little deeper in the bowl, but again workable. I am thinking about having my Scouts try making these as a project. Bottom line: if you have an SAK or multi-tool that has a knife blade, saw and file, you can make a pretty handy camp implement.....

mike337.jpg


mike338.jpg
 
Nice job and very compact. I think it would be a wonderful task for some scouts to try:o.
 
Great work - I tried one last time out on an overnighter and I lost my patience while I was doing it :)

Mtnfolk Mike sent me a bamboo spork similar to that and it's a cool little untensile.
 
How does the fork portion work? Any thought on thinning the tines out a bit? Cool project, man. :thumbup:
 
They look awesome. I started one a little while back but have yet to finsh it.

Do you have ay suggestions for carving out the spoon? I find it to be the most difficult.
 
Abe - Thanks

Myright - My suspicion is that bamboo is probably a better material for this application than the wood I used, but I haven't actually held one of the models that Mountainfolk Mike gives out (although that is where the idea came from..)

42Blades - Yep, the tines would need to be thinned-out prior to use. I decided to leave them thick for carry so they don't get broken or tear up the inside of my packs. It would take all of about 20 seconds to whittle them to sharp points. I also believe that they would need frequent touch-up...
 
orrey45 said:
They look awesome. I started one a little while back but have yet to finsh it.

Do you have ay suggestions for carving out the spoon? I find it to be the most difficult.
Click to expand...

Orrey,

Yep, the spoon is a pain in the butt... I wanted to make mine using only the Leatherman tool, so I used the tip of the blade. I pushed the tip into the center of the spoon and turned it tight half-circles.. A proper wood-working tool would have made it a heck of lot easier...
 
orrey45 said:
They look awesome. I started one a little while back but have yet to finsh it.

Do you have ay suggestions for carving out the spoon? I find it to be the most difficult.
Click to expand...

Best way I've found to make the "spoon" part is to burn it out with a coal from your fire. When you sit around the fire, just take out an ember and roll it around in the spoon part. I think it's much easier than carving out. You can clean it up with your knife but you usually don't have to.


Mneedham- nice job. Those look great. I like how compact they are.:thumbup:
 
Very nice job as an exercise in carving but the tines are pretty much useless, aren't they? ;)
 
after the bowl is roughed out like in the pic's, drop a small coal in it until a little charred. Then it is easy to carve it out round and smooth it with a little sand and water.
nice job
(was'nt trying to steal your thunder Countryboycansurvive, did'nt read all the replies.)
 
I really like the compact sturdy design of your spork. I can see your point about leaving the the tines thick and blunt until you need them. IMO, the spoon is the star of that show anyhoo, and like a sierra cup or bic lighter, it is minimalist, rugged, and easily transportable on one's person. I really like the way they turned out. :thumbup:
 
I think Countryboy and you guys have the right idea about using the ember/coal... The utility of the tines is yet undetermined, but I had in mind that I would sharpen them (very easy..) or flatten down the tines by shaving the top, at the time of use, depending on what I was eating.... My intent is to really use the spoon and fork gaucho style with a knife in the other hand. You could use the tines to hold a piece of meat while cutting it, or push food against the tines and bring it to your mouth, but I haven't really tried that yet.

The other concept that I had is to leave off the tines and round off that end, drill a whole through it, and hang on a paracord necklace.

I would also be interested in making one of those traditional Scandi wood mugs (Cuskas?)by using the ember method. Has anybody done that?
 
On youtube, hobbexp made a spoon that way. He's a man of few words but very significant skills. He is fairly prolific and seems to get almost universally positive comments, too. I'd highly recommend his work, FWIW.
 
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