Chris and I recently went backpacking along the Appalachian Trail for a few days, and it was the perfect opportunity to try out my humangear GoBites Ti-Uno Titanium Spork.
First, let me say – this is not a spork. Buncha blasphemy and malarkey to call this a spork. A spork is a spoon with prongs on the end. This is a utensil with a spoon on one end, and a fork on the other. The fork has beveled edges that allow it to function as a knife. There, I got that off my chest and I’ll be referring to it as a utensil for the rest of the article.
humangear makes two versions of this utensil in plastic and titanium. I went titanium because I’ve had a myriad of other plastic camping utensils and fork prongs often have a short life on them. I didn’t want to deal with broken prongs while backpacking, so I went titanium. This review will focus strictly on the titanium version, and will not apply to the plastic version which may not directly compare.
Off the bat, this thing feels durable. While I’m sure you could bend it with concerted effort, a cursory light attempt to bend it by hand did not yield any results. I wouldn’t hesitate to carry this with me into the most rugged of outdoor adventures. The ridge along the handle is presumably there to give it an extra layer of durability, to prevent bending / breaking in the middle. I think it works as designed.
The utensils also work well. The spoon scoops and the fork picks food up as it’s meant to. The knife edge to the fork even provides some impressive cutting power! I figured a carrot might be the hardest reasonable object one would cut with this, so I did a test and voila – with the right pressure applied I was able to slice a carrot into rounds. While it won’t be ideal for cutting a steak or anything, it serves a purpose – albeit limited. Carry another knife if you need more cutting power – you can’t really expect more of this utensil.
humangear is a company with a commitment to sustainability. In buying this utensil, you can feel good about reducing the impact your particular utensil had on the environment compared to other options on the market. Thus the “clean money” part of this article’s title.
So what about “dirty hands”? Well, this utensil is a bit short. On my trip I was using the Stanley Adventure Cook Set to heat water and was eating freeze-dried backpacker meals. For both the cook set and the backpacker meals, the utensil was too short. If I needed to stir something hot in my cook set I was at risk of burning my fingertips. If I was to scrape something from the bottom of it to eat, I would not have the best leverage. For the backpacker meals, I consistently got my fingers / knuckles dirty trying to scrape food out of the pouches (I eat right out of the pouch so I don’t have to do dishes while backpacking). I’m not sure if this is an issue, per se, but it is an annoyance to be aware of. I think this product could be made much better by being a bit longer like the long-handled titanium sporks that are all the craze these days (true sporks!).
Pros
- Durable
- Functional as a spoon, fork, and knife
- Sustainably produced
Cons
- Too short, can result in dirty or burnt fingers
Rating: 4 / 5
Overall, this is a good product. I give the humangear GoBites Ti-Uno Titanium Spork four stars because I think the simple fix of making the product longer could make it a great product. Besides that though, I don’t have any complaints. It’s durable, functional, and sustainable. I’m not sure I would purchase it again knowing what I know about length, and I’d probably recommend someone go with the long titanium spork instead, but it will do and I don’t plan to replace it. I’ll suffer with dirty hands the rest of my backpacking life, because I think this utensil (not spork) will outlast me.
Have you used this utensil? I would love to hear your thoughts. Do you have other utensils you recommend? Let our readers know! Comment below.
Dad Likes Gear 