Reader Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5

This our only eating utensil. It works well as a fork and a spoon. I really like the fact the fork is on one end and the spoon on the other, don't know why.

The serrated edge on it is kind of a joke I guess ... but it does work ... only if I am using my pocket knife to hold a piece of food down while I cut it, I would rather hold the food down with my spork and cut it with my knife.

Because it has survived being crammed in the top of my pack and has not broken and weighs something like .3 oz. it gets a 5. If I can't break it noone can. Also, its plastic material so it does not get cold.

If I am eating out of a food package, which I usually don't do since my partner and I share the food and I put it in my MSR pot, my carry along extra used, cleaned and reused small Mountain House cooking bag, or my Ti plate I don't get the guck on my hand.

Usually I am so hungry and happy to have warm food I don't care so much anyway about the guck getting on my hand, if it does.

Edited by bdavis on 12/01/2006 21:28:05 MST.

Rating: 5 / 5

***Update

MRE Spoon, Titanium Spork, Lexan Fork, knife, spoon, and spork...

The Light My Fire Spork looks cool, works great! I agree that the only down side is the length... But then again I will just cut the bag down to the food when I eat anyway...

***update:

Check out their website. They have two new sizes to choose from!!! I can't wait to check them out!

Edited by cuzzettj on 01/02/2008 16:17:06 MST.

Rating: 5 / 5

I bought one of these about a year ago to test as a possible piece of gear for my first backpacking trip. I promptly bought one for my wife and one for my son! These puppies are the best design out there in my opinion.

Unlike other sporks, that try to blend the fork and spoon on one end but only succeed in combining the worst aspects of both utensils, the Light My Fire spork uses a real fork end, and a real spoon end. The serrations do work on meat, though like a previous reviewer, I'd rather use a knife and hold it with my spork.

The only downside is that the presence of the serrations require one to be a little careful with how they put the fork end in their mouth. However, the downside is so tiny, it won't impact my score at all!

Rating: 2 / 5

Other reviewers have covered the LMF Spork's merits. And while I certainly agree, there's just no getting around the fact that mine broke into two pieces after just two days of use. Inevitably this happens with Lexan-type cutlery when exposed to boiling water over time, but usually after many weeks of fine service.

The LMF Fork is noticeably more flexible than comparable products I've used; in fact its lack of stiffness in the aggressively-curved handle had struck me as potential trouble from the start. Never would I have suspected such a short lifespan, though.

Admittedly I tend to do a bit of vehement stirring during meal prep, folding veggies into pasta over a rolling boiling. And then there's the hard-as-bricks au-natural peanut butter I'm perpetually scooping from jar to mouth throughout the hiking day.

But come on, two days of service from a backpacker's spork? Bolster thy flexy handles, Light My Fire!

Rating: 3 / 5

How often do you need a fork? For salad (rarely taken), pasta (break it into smaller pieces)? I still use this thing for its versatility but I'm not sure why. It is harder to hold than a plain spoon (shorter and the tines are attracted to my hand), prone to melting (looked like a VanGough fork after setting on top of mr pot with tines over edge).

Rating: 2 / 5

Also had one break on me after about a week. The pieces served admirably attached to tent pegs for the rest of the trip, but generally not what I had in mind when I bought the thing.

Rating: 4 / 5

I like the LMF Spork, but it's almost too flexible. I can agree with many if not most of the comments above, and have had one break. When you use it to stir something very hot, it gets soft and can be too flexible.

I'd offer one of two recommendations to the vendor. Add a small spine down the middle to make the spork less flexible, or just make it overall a little thicker. Doing that would easliy make this a 5/5.

Edited by eaglemb on 11/23/2007 21:51:11 MST.

Rating: 4 / 5

We bought 3...one for Papa Bear, one for Mama Bear, and one for Baby Bear. Used it when camping and used it at home. Fun factor is high. Have survived 2 months with constant use and gets lots of requests for use by kids visitors.

Rating: 1 / 5

Artistic yes - practical no. I tried 3 times to dig into different mealbags and this baby left more on my knuckles than on the spoon.

Rating: 4 / 5

I like sporks, and the LMF version is a nice addition to the world of Sporkdom. Yeah, it can bend and it can break, and as I found out, it can melt if used to flip flapjacks in a hot skillet. But heck, it's plastic so what did we expect? It's about as good as any other plastic spoon, fork, or spork that backpackers might use and certainly better than most.

Oh and the knife part really does work, again, about as well as any other plastic serrated knife. It just adds one more option to an already useful little tool.

I give it a 4 only because it's not made out of titanium :o)

Michael

Rating: 3 / 5

I like the LMF Spork, and really want to like it more but since I owned 4 and 2 of them broke after less than 2 weeks of use each I can't give it a great rating. I also contacted their customer service to let them know about the product failing and never heard back. Returned to REI and they switched them out for 2 new ones.

It is nice for a short trip but I wouldn't trust one on a longer trip. I keep them around for car camping and eating at the office but won't take it on the trail again.

Rating: 2 / 5

I went through 3 of these on my AT thru-hike last year before finally giving up and going for .99 Lexan spoon. At first I adored the spork, but after a few weeks of usage it broke in cold weather. I wasn't even eating from the spork, but found it broken upon opening my food stuff sack I had it stored in while suspended on bear cables. I'm assuming that the extreme cold and a tiny bit of force placed upon it by a few pounds of food caused it to break? Another spork broke when trying to get peanut butter out of a jar. I can't even remember what happened to the other.

Normal Lexan spoons aren't indestructable by any means, but I found them to last at least 3x as long. They take a bit of care, but it is obvious that the handles are more robust than the thin connection between the spoon and fork on the Lite My Fire spork.

Good idea but it just needs more work. Bummer.

Rating: 2 / 5

I bought the LMF spork because it looked cool and didn't weigh enough to worry about. I took it on one 3 day trip and it worked fine. However, it somehow snapped into two pieces on the car ride home. I think the titanium spork is a more reliable utensil.

Rating: 2 / 5

Mine broke too. The 3 in 1 design is nice, but it breaks easily and does not fit in most cook pots. The folding Ti-Spork is much better.

Rating: 4 / 5

I recently used this "spork" during a solo effort to traverse the Ross ice shelf in Antarctica, and thought that your readers would be interested to hear about my real-world experiences of using it in the field.

I first came across the curiosity at a garden centre in Surrey, and was instantly attracted to its small size and weight, durable build quality and the promise of an innovative all-in-one design. The "spork" comes in several different colours. I opted for the bright red version so I could easily locate it in the snowy wastes of Antarctica.

As you can imagine, space and weight are at a premium when planning for a one-man walk across hundreds of miles of inhospitable ice in crippling winds and temperatures plunging to minus 40 degrees centigrade. The risks are numerous and all too often deadly. For example, recent historical and ethnographic studies by the British Antarctic Survey have concluded that Scott's doomed 1912 expedition failed primarily because of the "additional weight penalty incurred by carrying largely superfluous cutlery items" [1].

During the meticulous preparations for my arduous journey, I calculated that the "spork" represented a significant saving of around 13.8g in weight and some 4.4 cubic centimetres volume in my backpack - space and weight that could be put to better use storing potentially life-saving food or fuel.

After setting off from McMurdo Station, the "spork" soon justified its inclusion in my backpack when I sat down for a meal of mild Mexican chilli flavour Super Noodles. The four-tined fork coped admirably with the cooking process, and enabled me to break up the dried noodle block in my mess tin without showing any signs of melting or even softening in the boiling water. Once my tasty meal was ready to eat, the fork facility once again performed well during consumption and enabled me to eat all of the noodles without fuss, despite my not being able to feel my face and wearing several layers of gloves and Gore-tex mittens. A pudding of Muller light layered fruit yogurt was rapidly polished off afterwards using the spoon end of the "spork", again without any difficulty.

Over the following days, subsequent meals of Bacon, BBQ beef, Chow mein, Sweet & sour, and Southern fried chicken flavour Super Noodles were all quickly despatched using the "spork", which by this time had become an indispensable piece of kit.

My only gripe with the otherwise excellent design was the serrated knife edge that runs along one side of the fork end. If not careful, this would often graze the corner of my mouth while eating. This did not cause any pain because I had not felt any sensation on my face for several days due to the intense cold. However, it could prove to be a problem if used in more temperate climates.

Furthermore, my largely noodle-based diet did not really call for the knife functionality in the first place, which made this inconvenience all the more frustrating!

Entering the second week, my "spork" became increasingly difficult to use and its performance was gradually compromised by a flexing and wobbling motion which made eating noodles quite difficult. I initially put this down to the effects of the extreme temperature (which by this time had plunged to minus 70 with wind chill) on the polycarbonate construction.

However, I eventually realised that the problem did not lie with the "spork" construction at all but with a combination of malnutrition, and my right hand which was suffering from the advanced stages of frost-bite. Imagine how silly I felt for doubting the "spork"!

When you are in extreme survival situations you are often called on to make extreme decisions, and I came to the difficult but inevitable conclusion that my index finger was beyond help by this point. My only hope for saving the rest of my right hand was to amputate my finger and halt the spread of the frost-bite.

I was very impressed with the left-handed operation of the "spork", as I used the serrated knife edge to slowly saw off the dead black stump that the index finger on my right hand had become. The knife is deceptively sharp despite its plastic construction, and even coped well upon reaching bone.

After two debilitating weeks and three more fingers, I was eventually rescued by a French research team who happened to be passing by my tent. The medic who accompanied them was particularly impressed by the quality of my amputations, and when I revealed my "spork" it was met with a combination of curiosity and confusion. Imagine my embarrassment though when we got back to their camp, and the French army officer leading their expedition pointed out that despite my insistence to the contrary, I had in fact been using a "Splayd" all this time! [2].


What I liked
* Takes up a lot less room than a separate knife, fork and spoon
* Cold weather performance
* Self-mutilation capabilities


What I disliked
* Slight grazing to the mouth
* Misleading marketing - it's not a spork, it's a splayed!



References

[1] "Sticking the knife in: Cultural attitudes to cutlery in the Scott-Amundsen rivalry" - British Antarctic Survey, 2006

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splayd

Rating: 4 / 5

This is a great spoon/fork/knife combo. I eat out of bags exclusively (mostly quart sized freezer bags), so gooky fingers are really not the same kind of issue it would be with a Mountain House or gallon sized bag.

My one quibble is that the "knife" sometimes slides along the edge of my mouth when trying to remove the spoon, and one day I'm sure it will get me good. It has only rubbed me the wrong way thus far (and it really isn't all that often.

I often rub the knife the wrong way with my finger/thumb when trying to navigate the utensil.

Both of these aspects are minor quibbles.

The utensil works great, is light, and can be had a Walmart for less than $3.

Rating: 2 / 5

A good idea in theory, but not in practice. I even sanded off the relatively useless serrations on the fork side. Despite the alteration, the overall ergonomics leave much to be desired. While holding the utensil it is not only short, but also unbalanced in the hand. Either side curves over the knuckles (depending on which end is being used) , providing for an awkward "sweet spot" in which to hold it.
This type of plastic also tends to leave tiny remnants of what was eaten that require extra attention to remove in comparison to metal.
It is lighter than the titanium sporks that I own though.

Rating: 4 / 5

When I got this product from Light My Fire, it was love at first sight. It’s got a comfortable shape that feels as natural as the human hand. The Light My Fire Spork is stiff enough that eating with it is no problem, but flexible enough to serve as an excellent catapult (to which I give 5 stars). The plastic is heat resistant, and I have had no difficulties cooking with it.

If I could change some things on it, I would add/subtract:

1.subtract the “knife” part on it. ???
2.add some kind of hinge while keeping it under 0.5 oz.

I really recommend the Light My Fire Spork, no matter your budget. I got mine for $2.50 at Wal-Mart!

Edited by edude on 03/02/2009 21:17:43 MST.

Rating: 2 / 5

I love hate this thing. This is to say I loved to use it right up to the point where it snapped in two.

I love the design with the spoon at one end and the fork at the other. I find other sporks designs with a serated tip on the spoon just useless and annoying.

The light my fire is the perfect size for packing and use.

The problem is it doesn't handle either the extreme cold or the heat of boiling water. I used mine on about 5 trips over the winter, then one day it just snapped in two with very little force.

I will probably buy another since they're cheap and try using it solely for summer camping. But if it breaks again I'm done.

What I wish they'd do is make the exact same design out of Ti, aluminum or other lightweight metal.

UPDATE: I bought another this summer and used it for several trips until one night there was a frost. The very next morning while making breakfast it snapped in to.

I have realized though that ligh my fire makes a titanium one!! Haven't ordered one yet but I fully intend to.

Edited by mmeiser on 12/06/2009 16:49:14 MST.

Rating: 5 / 5

The Light my Fire spork is great, untill i broke 2 of the prongs off the fork end trying to open a can.So.....i cut the fork end off altogether, sanded it smooth, drilled a hole in it and now have a nice little string tied to it so it doesnt have to sit in the dirt, i hang it wherever i want when not in use.