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REI TI WARE SPORK
BY NANCY GRIFFITH
OWNER REVIEW
May 11, 2009
TESTER INFORMATION
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NAME:
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Nancy Griffith
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EMAIL:
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bkpkrgirlATyahooDOTcom
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AGE:
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43
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LOCATION:
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Northern California, USA
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GENDER:
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F
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HEIGHT:
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5' 6" (1.68 m)
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WEIGHT:
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130 lb (59.00 kg)
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My outdoor experience began in high school with involvement in a local canoeing/camping group called Canoe Trails. The culmination was a 10-day canoe voyage through the Quebec wilds. I've been backpacking since my college days in Pennsylvania. I have completed all of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Now I usually hike in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Most of my trips are section hikes or loops from a few days to a week. I carry a light to mid-weight load, use a tent, stove and hiking poles.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
 | | Image courtesy of REI website |
Manufacturer: REI
Year of Manufacture: 2007
Manufacturer's Website: http://www.rei.com
MSRP: $7.95 US
Listed Weight: 0.62 oz (17.6 g)
Measured Weight: 0.55 oz (15.7 g)
Other details: 6.5 x 1.4 in (16.5 x 3.6 cm)
The REI Ti Ware spork is a titanium alloy kitchen utensil. A spork is a combination of a spoon and fork. Basically it is a spoon with short tines at the end. It has a hole at the end of the handle and two slots in the handle.
FIELD USE
I have used the REI Ti Ware spork for all of my backpacking and camping trips for the past 20 months or so. My trips have ranged from overnight to a week and totaled approximately 30 days. Some of my typical uses were for eating oatmeal, stirring hot cocoa, eating tuna from a pouch, mixing dry hummus with water, eating tortellini and stirring sauces and stews.
For years I carried a regular kitchen spoon and fork on my trips or plastic utensils. The plastic utensils usually broke when it was least convenient and the standard kitchen utensils are heavy. So, about a year and a half ago I decided to purchase a couple of titanium sporks. Other than the obvious benefits of being more light weight than kitchen utensils and more durable than plastic, I found several other features that I really liked.
I have been carrying a 1.5 L (1.6 qt) MSR Alpine stainless steel pot on the trail. In this pot I store all of my cooking gear such as the stove, windscreen, utensils, lighter, etc. The Ti Ware spork fits nicely in this pot.
I like the slots on the handle because they slip perfectly over the tangs on my pot holder. This allows the spork to be held out of the way during cooking and keeps it from slipping down into the pot. I have not found the spork to get too hot by doing this and have never burned my mouth or fingers on it. My husband and I usually eat our meals from the pot to avoid carrying additional dishes. So the slot is handy while eating too. We can slip our spork on the pot holder while the other person takes a few bites.
Clean up has always been easy. I have yet to find any foods to be difficult to remove. Once I get home, I put the sporks in the dishwasher for a good cleaning. I have not noticed any discoloration or other effect from this.
I haven't had any problem with them bending. After all of the use, the handle still is straight. Their durability seems quite good.
Although a spork is technically a combination of a spoon and fork, it really works best as a spoon. I haven't found it easy to stab foods with it. The short teeth do allow for some grip on things like pasta which works much better than with a regular spoon. However, this lack of grip isn't a problem because my typical meals on the trail lend themselves better to being eaten by a spoon anyway. On the other hand, the forked teeth are short enough that when I want to use it as a spoon, they don't allow too much to slip through like a true fork would. For instance I spoon out cocoa mix into our mugs using the spork and do not have problems with it slipping between the tines.
SUMMARY
The REI Ti Ware spork is a useful light weight piece of kitchen gear.
THINGS I LIKE
Light weight
Slot on handle
Durability
THINGS I DON'T LIKE
Nothing
SIGNATURE
Nancy Griffith
This report was created with the BackpackGearTest.org Report Writer Version 1.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
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