SectionHiker.com Backpacking Gear Reviews and FAQs 
Sporks are one of the backpacking industry’s greatest inventions. It’s a wonder that they’re not more widely used since having multifunction utensils would be such a great way to cut down on the plastic utensils polluting our oceans and urban landscape. Perhaps more amazing, is the amount of creativity and design ingenuity that manufacturers have applied to making different types and styles of sporks to fit different needs and preferences. But surely there can’t be that many types of sporks! You’d be surprised. They vary by functional capabilities, length, strength, material, price-point, and so on. That’s only touching the surface. The differences are far more nuanced and defy categorization. They’re a mouthful.
So without further delay, here are the 10 Best Backpacking Sporks of 2020!
| Make / Model | Material | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Forestry Labs Bamboo Spork | Bamboo | 12.4g |
| Toaks Titanium Folding Spork | Titanium | 18.0g |
| UST Spork Multi-Tool | Stainless Steel | 34.0g |
| Sea-to-Summit Alpha Light Long Spork | Hard Anodized Aluminum | 12.0g |
| Sea-to-Summit Delta Spork with Knife | Food Grade Polyproplene | 19.5g |
| Toaks Titanium Spork | Titanium | 17.0g |
| humangear GoBites duo | High Temp Nylon | 22g |
| Snow Peak Titanium Spork | Titanium | 17.0g |
| bambu Large Spork | Bamboo | 11.3g |
| humangear GoBites Uno Spork | High Temp Nylon | 14.0g |
1. Sea-to-Summit Delta Spork with Knife
2. bambu Large Spork
Check for the latest price at:
REI
3. Snow Peak Titanium Spork
4. UST Spork Multi-Tool
5. humangear GoBites Duo
Check for the latest price at:
REI
6. Toaks Titanium Spork
7. Forestry Labs Bamboo Sporks
Check for the latest price at:
Amazon
8. Toaks Titanium Folding Spork
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Amazon
9. humangear GoBites Uno Spork
10. Sea-to-Summit Alpha Light Long Spork
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REI | Backcountry
How to Choose a Backpacking Spork: Key Criteria
Here are the most important properties of a spork and some guidance about how to select one that will work best for you.
Length: If you need to reach deep into a freeze-dried or rehydrated meal bag, or a deep cook pot like a Jetboil, a long length spoon can be quite desirable. Look for spoons that are 7 to 8 inches in length, as opposed to shorter ones that are 6 to 7 inches long.
Color: Get a brightly colored spork if you’re prone to lose them on backpacking trips. The titanium colored ones are easy to misplace on the ground because they look like sticks. Garish colors like purple or neon green stand out best.
Folding: If you want to have a cook kit that folds completely into a mug or cook pot, getting a folding spork is the way to go. Metal folding sporks tend to be more durable than plastic ones. Don’t try to use them as tent stakes though. They’re not stiff or strong enough.
Multi-purpose: There’s something to be said for having a multi-purpose spork that can open beer bottles or cans, even if they do weigh more than other options. It all depends on your most frequent needs and priorities.
Material: Wood, titanium, aluminum, nylon, or plastic? Metal sporks will be the most durable, as plastic can break. Wooden and bamboo sporks tend to break down with use, but they are usually biodegradable.
Single Head or Dual Head: While traditional backpacking sporks just have the one combined spoon and fork-tined head, there is something to be said for dual head sporks, since you often get a more usable fork with longer tines for spearing food. Most backpackers eat mush though, so having a true fork is often not a requirement.
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Made laugh when I saw ten best. Didn’t know the market had this many… :)
I was surprised to not see the Light My Fire one. Similar to numbers 7 & 9, in either Ti or plastic… Although perhaps it didn’t make 10 best. I never used it. I thought the serrated knife looked nice, but wondered if it was either too safe to be a gimmick or it actually could give you the joker look if you were not careful :D
The first one from Sea to Summit has a built in knife.
I had one of the Sea to Summit spork + knife utensils to take on monthly business trips. I found that I still needed two tools if I had to cut something…one to hold the food and the Spork + knife to cut.. and then if I was going to eat with the spork+ knife combo tool I had to clean off the knife portion which is the handle. This one combo utensil didn’t work out for me so I switched to separate airline friendly fast-food knife and REI Lexan spork.
Dumb question, I know, but where do you – and readers – carry your spork? Since I downsized my coo k pot, I can’t find a convenient, secure place to carry my Snowpeak.
Pop it into your food bag.
Inside my Ursack. It’s not going to damage anything else from in there.
I could never find them on the Snowpeak website or REI, but the company makes or made a short version with a wider handle. I got mine a few years back from some online retailer. I just did a search and can’t find it. Maybe they stopped making it or they only retail in Japan. I saw one with a loop handle, but that’s not it. I saw a couple of the short ones on eBay, but internationally and very pricey… They do sell here a fork mini with a similar handle.
I don’t use a spork, but have the same problem with my spoon. I usually just drop it into the food bag, too. But, since my pot has a spout, I sometimes put the bowl of the spoon inside the pot, and run the handle out of the spot. The spoon’s bowl locks it in place, and keeps it from dropping out of the pot. (Of course, sometimes it just knocks the top off the pot and falls out anyhow.)
No perfect solution; if I were really worried that I’d lose my spork/spoon, I’d probably just carry one of the cheap plastic sporks or a sturdy fast-food spoon (like the ones from Wendy’s.) as a back-up. Personally, I use my OCD instead, and am fanatical about knowing where my spoon is.
This is a weird thing to comment about but here I go: texture is also an important consideration when choosing a backpacking spork. I have a titanium Sea to Summit spoon that I was very excited about because it’s so light but after using it for several trips I realized that the rough texture actually gives me sores on my lips. No joke! I don’t like the way it feels much either but it’s the sores that are the deal-breaker. I’ve moved on to a folding spoon like #8 above (but just metal, I think; it came in a set with a fork and butter knife) and since its texture is just like regular home flatware I have no problem with it.
I switched to a polished Toaks one from a unpolished MSR one for the same reason. Makes me cringe just thinking about the roughness on my mouth/teeth.
Oh, man, makes me cringe too! I also can’t handle rough wood like wooden spoons or popsicle sticks. They give me the chills. It’s somewhat comforting to realize I’m not the only person who feels this way, weird as it is.
Nick Gatel just posted on his blog about polishing the bowl on his spoon. For some reason, my Sea to Summit long Ti spoon had a polished bowl from the factory (I got it maybe 4 years ago), but the current ones are not polished.
Wow, that’s really cool! I do not have any of the tools he has but maybe my dad would have them – he’s got pretty much All the Tools. Thanks for sharing that blog!
I laughed at this post, thinking Phillip must have run out of gear to review if he’s writing about the lowly spork. Then I saw all the nerdy comments, so I had to add my own. I’ve quit using sporks, since I mostly use freezer-bag-cooking, and the tines can poke holes in the bags. I make meals a little gloppy, to aid in clean-up and digestion, and I chop meat into small pieces, so I don’t need a fork. For salami, cheese, etc., I use the point of my knife. I loved my bamboo spoon at first, but discovered during a rainy week that it absorbs moisture and grows mold if you can’t get it completely dry. Mold is easy to clean off, but leaves unappetizing stains. Like Slow Gin Lizz, I also had issues with the bamboo spoon’s texture after washing it many times. It started out smooth, but ended up as rough as a cat’s tongue. So, I’m back where I started, with an aluminum spoon. I tie a small loop of brightly colored line to the hole in the handle, to make it easier to find. BTW, all cooking and eating gear goes in the bear bag or canister, not just actual food or garbage.
It started out as a spoof on 10 best posts, but turned out quite useful!
SpooF! Haha! I get it! Spoo(n)F(ork)! Well, even if you didn’t mean it that way, I still cracked myself up!
I’ve been using the Humangear GoBite Duo for a couple of years now and really like it: https://www.rei.com/product/108030/humangear-gobites-duo-fork-and-spoon-set
Connected end-to-end it’s about 9 inches long, perfect for rehydrated bag meals.
Now that looks useful, and a bit easier to pack than my long titanium spoon. I don’t care for sporks, myself.
I’ll second this. I just got this and like Ray, found the longer handle really nice when eating out of freezer bags.
The title of the article cracked me up. I’ve had bad experiences with plastic sporks breaking. I never considered bamboo… seems like another advantage would be that you can stir your food in nonstick cookware without the spork melting against the bottom of the pot or scraping the nonstick coating off.
I really like my Snow Peak spork and use it all the time. I just wish the handle was slightly longer so it was easier to hold and I could cook with it.
The potential to contaminate one end of the spork with your hands prior to turning it around to eat something else is too great so I stick to a spoon.
All right, i’ll be the one to say it. It they work for you, fine, but for me, sporks are up there with drilling holes through toothbrush handles in terms of silly incremental weight reduction while compromising function. The cost/benefit just isn’t there for me.
Somewhere, there must be an immutable law of industrial design that states that the usability of each additional function added to a multi-purpose device drops proportionally to the number of functions added. Like an office printer/scanner/fax, or even a Swiss Army knife, no single functionality works as well as a dedicated machine or tool would. Sometimes, it’s good enough (Army knife), but sporks don’t meet my threshold. Too bad, because it’s such a fun word.
With a spork, you get a fork that can’t grab onto much, and a spoon that can’t hold much. I just carry a real fork and a real spoon (both of sturdy polycarbonate), and do some extra leg squats to be able to haul the extra ounce.
I did try a GSI Outdoors Essential Travel Spoon, which was intended to be a kind of hybrid spatula and spoon. Basically, a spoon covered with a silicone cover that extended a bit around the perimeter. Supposedly making it easier to get the last bits off one’s pot or bowl. Which it does, but the spoon has an odd shape with the bowl being so deep that you have to turn it over and lick the food out of the bottom. Maybe it’s just the shape of my lips.
I wish the armed forces would learn your “immutable law of industrial design” and stop trying to build insanely expensive vehicles, aircraft or ships that cover many missions adequately, without handling any specific role very well. I call things like sporks “sofa beds.” Neither a good sofa nor a good bed.
Hear, hear!
I only carry a spoon. I bought some ice cream at Yellowstone last summer and they’re using these really nice plastic spoons that are practically weightless and so far have proven pretty durable, so I just carry one of those now. They’re great. Before that it was something like the GSI one that I bought at Waldemort.
Theres not much food that can be eaten with a fork but cant be scooped with a spoon. Just dont see the added value of the forkfunction. I cary a chaep seatosummit spoon, costs less than one euro and weighs approximately nothing. For food that can really only be eaten when stabbed, i sharpen a twig or use a tent peg.
I really like MSR folding Spork (foon). More spoon than fork so works well with soups and other liquids. Compact enough to neal in my 850 mug/pot. Lighter and cheaper ($3.95) than any of the Ti options I have looked at, while being durable enough to have lasted more than 200 meals with n no sign of wear.
Thanks for the info! I love sporks haha, what an invention. I personally tend to use numbers 4 and 9 a lot myself, but it’s good to know about these other ones, I may switch!
KBar came out with a decent polycarb spork that has a really sharp polycarb knife embedded in the handle. Unlike the Sea to Summit Delta, the KBar knife pulls out of the spork handle and you can use it to cut a piece of venison or salami or cheese.
Its also quite useful if you need to defend yourself from a wild-eyed out of control lunatic on weird synthetic drugs.
The price is in the same range as these “Best” ten too. A simple Google will locate it online.
I have a couple. I just wish the spoon end was bigger. The knife is super nice though.
I had a spoon and fork made from”unbreakable plastic” and didn’t want to pay $10 for a spork. I printed out a picture of a spork from the internet, traced the spaces between the tines onto my spoon, then used my Dremel to shave it into a spork. Next, I cut off the brush portion of my camp toothbrush, Dremeled the back until it roughly fit the back of the spork then glued it on. Maybe not the most practical way to spend my free time to shave off a couple of ounces and save $10.
Its amazing with what companies have done with the spork, thanks for the fun read! I never could get use to the spork idea. Eating soup with one always left a little dribble on my chin/beard. Not a good spoon or fork IMHO so I go with the spoon concept and scoop what I would normally stab with a fork at home.
Are you familiar with the Guyot Designs Microbites utensil set? After two thru-hikes (PCT and AT), I’m completely enamored with them. It’s a spork/spatula set. They’re extremely light and nest securely in one another. The spork has a nice deep bowl, but tines that are long enough to use as tines, and the spatula is great for scooping out the last bit of your PB, and it has a serrated edge that’s shockingly effective and cutting pretty much anything you’d want to eat while backpacking. As an added bonus, they’re made with 100% recycled nylon!
An aside- I believe they also make a longer set for eating out of bags, but I haven’t used it personally.
I really dig my Wildo spork. Has a decent bowl side to the spoon, it’s single-sided so I don’t mess my hands, a touch short but that’s still good for packability. Slightly bendy but won’t shatter, stiff enough to eat all the things. The fork side is slightly useless, the knife side seems designed for left-handers but works okay. The knife part will make your mouth slightly uncomfortable until it dulls a touch through use. But it’s the best spork I’ve found. I’ve tried almost all the ones on this list, and I hate most of them.
Surprised the Unitensil fold flat spork isn’t mentioned. It weighs less than a nickel, 1/4th of many of the sporks in the article, costs about $4.00USD and is food grade dishwasher safe plastic. They literally fold into a protective case that fits into a shirt pocket. You could carry two of them to solve the “need a fork & a knife simultaneously” problem and still be ahead weightwise.
I am looking for the unicorn of backpacking spoons. They all tend to be a bit too wide for me. I can tolerate it (I currently have a Toaks Spork) but I am one of those weirdo’s that likes my spoon bowl small, smooth and pretty round.
If anyone scrolling the comments has suggestions for Titanium, smallish bowled spoons with a reasonably long handle I’d love to hear about them!