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Reviews > Cook and Food Storage Gear > Utensils > Sea to Summit Delta Cutlery > Owner Review by Duane LawrenceSEA TO SUMMIT DELTA CUTLERY SET TESTER INFORMATION
I have been an avid outdoor enthusiast for the past 25
years. I enjoy a verity of outdoor
activities including mountaineering, day hikes, multiday backpacking trips,
river and ocean kayaking, backcountry skiing, snowshoeing, mountain biking and
rock climbing. I have climbed throughout British Columbia, the United States
and when opportunity presents itself in Europe and India. I carry a wide variety
of gear depending on the type and length of trip. I am a search and rescue team member in the
Southern Rockies and am part of the swift water, rope rescue technical teams
and ground search teams. PRODUCT INFORMATION 
SEA TO SUMMIT - Delta Cutlery Set
DESCRIPTION The Sea To Summit Delta Cutlery Set is a compact three piece cutlery set that includes a knife, spoon and fork. The set comes with a unique carabiner that clips the three handles of the set securely together while providing a standard attachment option. The back of each utensil has a waffle pattern which appears to be designed to augment the grip. Although the knife blade is advertised to include a half serrated half straight blade, it is more like two-thirds serrated to one-third straight blade. The spoon is a good sized soup spoon holding 10 ml (33 fl oz) and the fork is of similar size. Overall the Delta Cutlery Set appears to be everything it is advertised to be. FIRST IMPRESSIONS Although only 6 inches (15.2 cm) in length the Delta Cutlery Set does not appear to be too small to hold comfortably. The knife has a much larger serrated edge than flat edge as indicated in the product description, more like two-thirds one-third, which works quite well. I did a quick at home test with the fork and knife, consisting of a baked potato, pork chop and blanched carrots (this would well exceed what I would normally cook on a backpacking trip). The knife did surprisingly well cutting through the chop with relative ease. The fork which has rounded tines did surprisingly well on the carrots, speared them without any real trouble. Although flexible they do not appear to be in jeopardy of breaking. The spoon looks to be of adequate size and shape which should be easy to use with soups and anything else I might want to scoop up. Over the duration of the test I will see how they hold up as my primary cooking utensils, if they stain and their general usability. I am particularly interested in seeing if they are too small for comfortable use with mitts once it gets cold out. SUMMARY LONG TERM FIELD REPORT January 2, 2015  TEST CONDITIONSAlthough weather did not really play a role in the performance of the cutlery I did end up using the Delta Cutlery set in a wide variety of weather conditions. The weather varied from from the hot dry desert to rain and snow in the alpine with temperatures from 30 C (86 F) to -5 C (23 F). The hikes ranged from a short overnight with only a few kilometers in, to a nice 30 km (18.6 mi) hike two night trip in the alpine. I ended up using the delta cutlery on eight overnights with three trips being multi-night trips. I used the cutlery for both food preparation and consumption with two types of cook pots: a wide pot about 8.4 cm (3.3 in) deep and a tall slender pot about 14.5 cm (5.7 in) deep. Foods included porridge, dehydrated instant food, soup, pasta and even a cantaloupe. To round out the test I also used the cutlery at home on some more challenging foods including cooked and raw vegetables, a steak and potatoes. OBSERVATIONS The Delta Cutlery set is a very small and light set of cutlery weighing in at 29 g (1 oz) and 15 cm (6 in). The set fit easily in my both my pot sets which, was convenient for finding them when needed. They were all very durable with no discernible effects from either hot or cold weather. When used for cooking, the glass reinforced Nyon 66 material stood up to boiling water and being left in the pot while food was cooking. Neither the knife or spoon deformed or even went soft due to the heat. Likewise when used during cold weather, -5 C (23 F) there was no discernible effects. One nice feature was that the Nyo-construction material did not absorbed the heat or cold making the set comfortable to use at any time. It was nice to be able to hold the spoon without it transferring the heat from cooking or the cold from sitting out in cold weather to my hands. The set was very easy to clean with no food staining the set; even spaghetti sauce did not transfer onto the set. Even when left overnight without being cleaned right away, dried-on food came off quickly and easily. The carabiner clip was useful for keeping all three utensils together into a convenient small package. By far the spoon was the most useful of the set. It held an ample amount of food weather it was soup, pasta, rice or porridge. It was great for cooking although the shape of the spoon did not allow for easy scraping of the bottom edges of the pot due to the wide shape of the spoon. My only complaint would be that the spoon is short. It preformed very well with a shallow pot (8.4 cm, (3.3 in)) but did not work very effectively with my deep pot (14.5 cm (5.7 in)). I would not recommend it for cooking with the deep pot opting for some other product. It was also challenging to get to the bottom of a mug to stir my hot chocolate without getting your fingers wet.  The fork, although not as versatile as the spoon, definitely held up. The tines are strong enough to spear fairly hard food such as blanched vegetables and close enough together to scoop up rice and any other type of food. I used the fork to eat mainly pastas and rice dishes and it picked up everything very well. I did notice when trying to penetrate harder vegetables such as raw carrots the tines tended to splay a bit but with any other softer food this was not an issue. As I only used the fork for eating, the short length did not effect its overall performance. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the knife. Although small, I was able to cut up a variety of foods including cheese, sausage, carrots and even a cantaloupe. The knife was a little small for the cantaloupe but did a pretty good job of it considering the size of knife versus the cantaloupe. It also preformed very well for retrieving and spreading jam and peanut putter on crackers. Again, the only draw back was the size. I do not have overly large hands but they are not small either and I ended up with peanut butter on the ends of my fingers. Cleaning the knife was also easy. I'm not sure how many other people clean by knives by licking them but it was nice to not have to worry about cutting my tongue. That being said the knife is sharp. The serrated edge cut through anything I threw at it, including a stake (cooked at home) although you do have to 'saw' your way through what you're cooking, unlike a metal blade. The size of the blade was adequate for what I used it for and its handle, although small, did not inhibit my use of the knife. SUMMARY  The Delta Cutlery Set is a small, light weight, knife, fork and spoon set. All of the utensils preformed very well on a wide-variety of foods. The spoon and fork are able to hold a good portion of food and the knife cuts and spreads well. The set stood up to boiling water and cold temperatures with no ill effects. One of the best things I liked about the set was the lack of heat transfer. The only downside of the set was its size. It was great for storing but i would have preferred another inch (2.5 cm) or so on all the handles and give up that benefit for comfort of use. PROS
 CONS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thanks to Sea To Summit and BackpackGearTest.org for the opportunity to test the Delta Cutlery Set. Read more reviews of Sea to Summit gear Read more gear reviews by Duane Lawrence Reviews > Cook and Food Storage Gear > Utensils > Sea to Summit Delta Cutlery > Owner Review by Duane Lawrence | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||