msr folding spoon

I think it’s a safe bet to make that cutlery items will be the most numerous in any backpackers gear box. I’ve long handled aircraft grade aluminium spoons, LMF sporks, folding titanium foons, sliding sporks, NT wooden spoons, a selection of use once cutlery collected from various salad meals, and GSI lexan bits and bobs. I even picked up a plastic spoon from Kenwood House recently – like I really needed to add to my collection! It’s the spoon from the GSI set that’s been my go-to item, it weighs 12g and is of a decent size for eating with. The only issue I have is that its handle is too long to fit in my canteen so has to be carried in my ditty bag. And even then is not a good fit (I use a 1l dry bag for all those odds and ends).

I came across the MSR folding cutlery set whist searching for something else and decide to purchase a spoon and give it a try. The set also has a spork and fork, and are colour co-ordinated with other MSR cookware. Their folded length is 12cm and they weigh 10g.

The spoon is currently nesting happily in my AGG Three Cup Pan, along with an AGG Pepsi can stove, pot lifter, lighter and GSI Cascadian Cup making a complete canteen set up. I’ve yet to try to see whether it will integrate with some of my other set ups. But looking at my smallest capacity system, a set up based around my Snow Peak 600 mug, it fits in the mug with my Coleman F1 stove but a small (200g) gas cartridge no longer fits snugly in as it did without the spoon. I rarely use that as a cooking pot preferring systems based on the larger Snow Peak 900 these days. It’s a long handled spoon, being twice its folded length, which is handy if you use a freezer bag cooking method or eat retort meals. The only downside I can see at the moment is that the bowl of the spoon is smaller than the one I’m used to.