My slightly mad quest for the perfect spoon | Hacker News Reader

My slightly mad quest for the perfect spoon

ft.com

30 pointsaarghh32 comments

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For getting around the paywall...

https://archive.ph/jJLuz

If only we had a bot for this.

This extension might help - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-archives/hklig...

Note: I used the archive link.

How could anyone write this article and fail to include pictures of the spoons? The first thing I did was skim the article for spoon pictures or links to spoon pictures and was immediately disappointed.

Gotta agree with the other posters, this is a pretty shallow article.

However, seeing this makes me cognizant that there must be a huge cutlery fandom somewhere.

But in reality, there can be no perfect spoon. The ideal spoon will vary depending on your situation and use case. The best spoon is whatever's available on hand. The curse of expensive cutlery is that it only gets used on special occasions, in a betrayal of purpose.

One can imagine a fine dining experience where the spoon head is pre heated or cooled in preparation of a dish. This level of attention to detail is a delight.

That’s because you mistook the article for being about spoons. It’s not really. It’s a literary article about obsession and a very fine one at that. It’s more about the form than the substance.

You still need pictures of the spoons in an article like this.

It's really very strange how awful a lot of cutlery is in terms of ergonomics. Forks with only three widely-spaced tines, tines with huge blunt cross-sections, tails on forks and spoons that go the wrong way, sharp handle ends, circular cross-section handles that roll over, very few sets don't have any questionable design.

Personally I find Robert Welch Radford to be pretty good, though maybe the knives are a little back-heavy which makes them dive to the floor rather easily when clearing.

> It's really very strange how awful a lot of cutlery is in terms of ergonomics

We've got the Amefa Newton[1] cutlery which I think is a good example of design over practicality. It's excellent quality,8mm forged 18/10 stainless steel, and a beautifully simplistic design which feels like it will [unfortunately] last for ever.

Having used it regularly, I'm sure they called it Newton because it continually reminds you of gravity each and every time you use it. They are so badly balanced, particularly the knives, having far too much weight in the handle. It's not too much of a problem using then, for they do work very well, but when clearing the table it's not uncommon for some pieces to fall off the plate handle first.

[1] https://www.lockhart.co.uk/Cutlery/Amefa-Cutlery/Newton-By-A...

This reads like a paid ad for those spoons. I’d expect a “mad quest” to talk about trying many spoons, deep discussion of spoon properties. But no, this looks like standard-issue blogspam. We’re not far away from this shit being auto-generated.

> This reads like a paid ad for those spoons. I’d expect a “mad quest” to talk about trying many spoons, deep discussion of spoon properties. But no, this looks like standard-issue blogspam.

If it is a paid ad, there's not much of an audience: the article is paywalled for me.

The usual paradox of paid media: the more the subscribers pay per month, the more desperate advertisers are to put their ads in front of them, since they're prequalified by the paywall. (Back when free "newspapers" existed, how much do you think they charged per CPM versus what the New York Times charged?)

i remember putting out ads in various newspapers and actually the prices were decent and only dictated by what the market would bear since you can always just print another page. paper and setup costs were nothing compared to the ad. prices in "free" newspapers weren't so low because they reach a LOT of people compared to paid-for gazettes. if you wanted something to get a lot of eyeballs, you put it in a free newspaper. if that was your demographic, then you were happy to pay for that.

It doesn’t sound like you read it very carefully, as it only mentions two makes by name, both of which are only available on the secondary market.

Like a modernist chair, this spoon looks equally uncomfortable. The tapered butt lacks purchase, a functional faux pas.

I prefer 70+ years old serving spoons, like the Gorham King Edward[0]. The wide butt and thin neck feel great in the hand.

[0] https://www.replacements.com/silver-gorham-silver-king-edwar...

Our old cutlery is apparently Dubarry pattern (fairly similar to that linked below) which looks to be a very similar profile but less fancy than your Kings pattern. I much prefer using it over our newer Newton, see my other post in this thread for what I think about that one.

Off down the rabbit hole, https://www.antiquesilverspoons.co.uk/knowledge-center/all-a... seems to be more about the decorative pattern than the basic shape and balance.

[1] https://www.thesheffieldcutleryshop.co.uk/shop/new-dubarry-p...

I'm pretty happy with my Ikea spoons...

I'm a bit of a cutlery snob. Most high grade consumer brands are way too expensive. We finally found Salvinelli Grand Hotel, after dining at a small Italian restaurant in Amsterdam. I actually called them back the next day to find out which line they had. Salvinelli only sells b2b, as far as I can tell, per dozen an item. Their Grand Hotel line is a heavy 4mm. 2 dozen sets of 6 only set me back €480.

The best flatware ever made (IMO): WMF Nortica

The have a really nice balance, perfect weight and are practical while modern.

Unfortunately they are not longer manufactured and and now cost $240/set!

https://www.replacements.com/silver-wmf-flatware-nortica-sta...

The fork looks a bit sporky, at least to my eye.

If it is, I've never noticed it. They just work and stay out of your way. The knives aren't as corrosion-resistant as I'd like, though. (Why are butter knives always made out of 400 stainless? They're butter knives. It's not like they need to hold an edge.)

Anyone know of a good replacement for Nortica? It's getting tiresome to track down replacements when your son, say, skips a groove and throws a spoon in the trash. They didn't used to be so expensive and thin on the ground. Not a set to buy in to these days!

Counterpoint: https://www.serax.com/en/collection/floravulgaris

Wow. These look like the Yoko Ono of cutlery. Or Tim Burton.

I have this exact set. It was a wedding gift to my parents, I grew up using and abusing it, and now it has been passed down to me. I wish it was easier to find replacements, as I find it too the best cutlery I’ve used.

Maybe we can band together and petition WMF to re-issue them?

I've been surprised in general at prices for used flatware. We have a set that we really like; it originally wasn't expensive relatively speaking, but we love the size and style. It's very simple and functional, and has lasted really well. Over time, we started worrying about losing pieces, so decided to augment what we had by buying whatever we could when we found it.

In the process I learned that most of what we were looking at was not actually cheaper than a brand new set, per item. Many of the complete sets were still not that inexpensive.

It seems like there's some combination of people doing what we were doing, filling out place settings and whatnot. Also, good flatware doesn't really degrade, and over time it becomes a sort of collector's item.

There's this cutlery by Danish designer Kay Bojesen from the late 30s which I've been eyeing for a while:

https://kaybojesen.com/product-category/grand-prix-cutlery/

It has very simple lines that work well on any table but also optionally comes with pretty much any accessory you can think of.

They're still making them new but I'm on the hunt for a large set popping up used eventually.

On a side note I bought a set of Korean stainless steel chopsticks and spoons on a trip to SK a while ago. I mainly got them for the chopsticks, but I noticed that the deep rounded spoons were really nice for eating soup.

Those look serviceable, but it is impossible to be sure with only a single top-down view.

A spoon should have an ovoid bowl, and the handle must not be heavy enough to cause it to flip out of a small dish when bumped.

I referred the Grey Kunz Spoon to my spouse who is a chef. Sounds like she may like it.

This whole article reminds me of Big Head, a recurring character in TES Morrowind and Oblivion, who is obsessed with forks.

It really is harder than you would think.

https://youtu.be/Hu9nhExp5KI

This is an ad, right?

I 100% have this issue with forks, spoons...knifes...

I highly recommend Parfait Spoons for all spoons.

They are great to get serving sizes down.

Smaller amounts of ice-cream seem bigger and you enjoy it longer. Don't care about the academic scandal around this, it works.

They rock for long jars. Stirring coffee. Finer control spreading. And getting out of the dishwasher is easier.

They are cheap as. Buy a 8 pack from the supermarket or Amazon. Try it.

I guess eating SE Asian parfaits would fail. Not sure how this Grey-Kunz would work for Khmer/Thai food.

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