New Teaspoon Advice Please
Discussion
Just had a horrible experience in the office.
I don't usually have cause to use a teaspoon here at work, I use the beans-to-cup coffee machine and the action of that is sufficient to mix the milk to my taste without needing to use a spoon, and I don't take sugar, nor do I drink tea. (I know, I know, but that's for another thread)
However I have recently made a cup of coffee for a visitor to our little area of the office, and they DO take sugar. This means opening the cutlery drawer and taking out one of what they call "teaspoons" around here.
What can I say? I am all for "function over form" in many of the utilitarian items in daily life, and I would suggest that teaspoons that area in a high-traffic office with heavy use would meet the requirements as such. Experience for all of us teaspoon fanatics would tell us that producing a teaspoon is a relatively straightforward affair for a cutler to do. Take a sheet or roll of stainless steel, and stamp out the appropriate shape, smooth them down and put them in a box. These would be near perfect for such matters.
But this is not what I was presented with in a our cutlery drawer. Here we find what appears to be the efforts of a teaspoon producing company to go "a bit upmarket" but have ended up a mere pastiche of the greats. They have the appearance that somebody actually "designed" them, rather than simply having them produced as above. But the person who designed them, has clearly never seen a proper teaspoon before. They've probably had one described to them in the past, perhaps from a description in Bardot's Cutlery Almanac 1977. More likely, they saw a really high-end set that was valued the end of an old "Antiques Roadshow" episode that was caught on a VHS tape because they were intending to video The Great Escape one bank holiday and set the recording time a couple of minutes early, but of course the VHS tape has long since deteriorated into that floppy-wibbly-wobbly fuzzy picture that doesn't hold all the details, especially in an old analogue aspect!
Worse was to come though. I had to pick up one of these grotesques, to stir in the necessary sugar. The material was clearly stamped much too thinly to be comfortable against ones index finger, the fear that it would slice off the top third ever present in your conscious. The bowl was perhaps well sized, but there was no clear pouring edge that allowed the sugar to flow smoothly into the coffee below. More than a few granules escaped their boiling fate and ended up on the counter top, to be cruelly wiped away by a damp cloth.
But, to round off this already horrendous experience, the stirring action was the worst I have ever encountered. Too much drag around the side of the mug but then, like an old Porsche 911 Turbo, the back end finally caught up with the power being input and the already microscopically thing steel catches and edge and pulls your whole wrist sharply with it as you maintain the input torque necessary to drag around, with the resulting wave in the coffee easily breaching the convex rim of the porcelain.
Overall, a messy, uncomfortable experience that I hope is not one I have to repeat anytime soon.
I don't usually have cause to use a teaspoon here at work, I use the beans-to-cup coffee machine and the action of that is sufficient to mix the milk to my taste without needing to use a spoon, and I don't take sugar, nor do I drink tea. (I know, I know, but that's for another thread)
However I have recently made a cup of coffee for a visitor to our little area of the office, and they DO take sugar. This means opening the cutlery drawer and taking out one of what they call "teaspoons" around here.
What can I say? I am all for "function over form" in many of the utilitarian items in daily life, and I would suggest that teaspoons that area in a high-traffic office with heavy use would meet the requirements as such. Experience for all of us teaspoon fanatics would tell us that producing a teaspoon is a relatively straightforward affair for a cutler to do. Take a sheet or roll of stainless steel, and stamp out the appropriate shape, smooth them down and put them in a box. These would be near perfect for such matters.
But this is not what I was presented with in a our cutlery drawer. Here we find what appears to be the efforts of a teaspoon producing company to go "a bit upmarket" but have ended up a mere pastiche of the greats. They have the appearance that somebody actually "designed" them, rather than simply having them produced as above. But the person who designed them, has clearly never seen a proper teaspoon before. They've probably had one described to them in the past, perhaps from a description in Bardot's Cutlery Almanac 1977. More likely, they saw a really high-end set that was valued the end of an old "Antiques Roadshow" episode that was caught on a VHS tape because they were intending to video The Great Escape one bank holiday and set the recording time a couple of minutes early, but of course the VHS tape has long since deteriorated into that floppy-wibbly-wobbly fuzzy picture that doesn't hold all the details, especially in an old analogue aspect!
Worse was to come though. I had to pick up one of these grotesques, to stir in the necessary sugar. The material was clearly stamped much too thinly to be comfortable against ones index finger, the fear that it would slice off the top third ever present in your conscious. The bowl was perhaps well sized, but there was no clear pouring edge that allowed the sugar to flow smoothly into the coffee below. More than a few granules escaped their boiling fate and ended up on the counter top, to be cruelly wiped away by a damp cloth.
But, to round off this already horrendous experience, the stirring action was the worst I have ever encountered. Too much drag around the side of the mug but then, like an old Porsche 911 Turbo, the back end finally caught up with the power being input and the already microscopically thing steel catches and edge and pulls your whole wrist sharply with it as you maintain the input torque necessary to drag around, with the resulting wave in the coffee easily breaching the convex rim of the porcelain.
Overall, a messy, uncomfortable experience that I hope is not one I have to repeat anytime soon.
Badvok said:
Veeayt said:
Hi, newbie to this thread. I have a Soviet-made old tea spoon from very young age, which shape I recently started to admire massively. The beauty of simplicity. I gave it a name which pleases me - Varda. Will post a piccie tomorrow if anyone interested.
Why happened to the promised pics?I've been holding off renewing my subscription to NubileSpoons.
Being of sinister persuasion, and unprepared to read 34 pages for an answer, what would the collected masses recommend as a left-handed teaspoon?
Clearly I need something with a firm clockwise action, where any decorative complications and inscriptions are shown upright when held in the left hand. I had hoped to be able to pick up something relatively cheap, but given the niche in which I exist, does such a market exist?
Clearly I need something with a firm clockwise action, where any decorative complications and inscriptions are shown upright when held in the left hand. I had hoped to be able to pick up something relatively cheap, but given the niche in which I exist, does such a market exist?
AlasdairMc said:
Being of sinister persuasion, and unprepared to read 34 pages for an answer, what would the collected masses recommend as a left-handed teaspoon?
Clearly I need something with a firm clockwise action, where any decorative complications and inscriptions are shown upright when held in the left hand. I had hoped to be able to pick up something relatively cheap, but given the niche in which I exist, does such a market exist?
You'll need something Romanian, always been the best at left-handers. Ceaucausi's would likely be the easiest to find and the 1985-92 models were produced in good numbers. Perhaps try a search on European eBay?Clearly I need something with a firm clockwise action, where any decorative complications and inscriptions are shown upright when held in the left hand. I had hoped to be able to pick up something relatively cheap, but given the niche in which I exist, does such a market exist?
Shakermaker said:
You'll need something Romanian, always been the best at left-handers. Ceaucausi's would likely be the easiest to find and the 1985-92 models were produced in good numbers. Perhaps try a search on European eBay?
Thanks for that. I did hear of a healthy black market up until about 1988, but the fall of the Iron Curtain opened them up to a wider market. Are they made to the same legendary quality of the Brevlov 14, still produced by craftsman to this very day?Fabrică Linguriţă 35 in Cluj-Napoca used to be the epitome of Soviet era lefthander production in Romania.
The later work of master craftsman Laurențiu Castron-Om was revered even in the higher circles of The Kremlin.
Examples of his work may be viewed (by appointment) and the Gunoi Museum in Bucharest.
The later work of master craftsman Laurențiu Castron-Om was revered even in the higher circles of The Kremlin.
Examples of his work may be viewed (by appointment) and the Gunoi Museum in Bucharest.
AlasdairMc said:
Being of sinister persuasion, and unprepared to read 34 pages for an answer, what would the collected masses recommend as a left-handed teaspoon?
Clearly I need something with a firm clockwise action, where any decorative complications and inscriptions are shown upright when held in the left hand. I had hoped to be able to pick up something relatively cheap, but given the niche in which I exist, does such a market exist?
A left-handed teaspoon? May as well just use one of these:Clearly I need something with a firm clockwise action, where any decorative complications and inscriptions are shown upright when held in the left hand. I had hoped to be able to pick up something relatively cheap, but given the niche in which I exist, does such a market exist?
KrazyIvan said:
I recommend putting a bit of novelty in your teaspoon collection, always makes a good conversation starter.
have a look at these
http://www.housetohome.co.uk/product-idea/picture/...
£75 cushion the dog can throw around the living room !!!have a look at these
http://www.housetohome.co.uk/product-idea/picture/...
Ah, the left-handed Eastern European spoons.. I could talk about them for hours! Perhaps I should interest you in some of the finest craftsmanship of the Czechoslovakian spoonmakers, especially from the 1957–1964 period. Gustáv Kaderabek, Zbynek Kráslavský and Petr Vodsedálek to name a few. You're unlikely to be able to afford one but they're a pleasure to look at. Spending few moments in the same room is a truly unique experience.
They're extremely difficult to come by as most ended up in private hands during the cold war era, scattered throughout the Soviet Union . I was recently informed by a prominent collector and a good friend of mine that one of the finest Voskovec's works is on display in the Viktor Yanukovych's villa. Imagine my disappointment when I landed in Kiev only to discover that the said exhibit had been moved to a high security storage vault at unknown location only few hours earlier. It was, obviously, a top-secret operation so I had no way of knowing in advance. Such a shame and loss.
They're extremely difficult to come by as most ended up in private hands during the cold war era, scattered throughout the Soviet Union . I was recently informed by a prominent collector and a good friend of mine that one of the finest Voskovec's works is on display in the Viktor Yanukovych's villa. Imagine my disappointment when I landed in Kiev only to discover that the said exhibit had been moved to a high security storage vault at unknown location only few hours earlier. It was, obviously, a top-secret operation so I had no way of knowing in advance. Such a shame and loss.
The Crack Fox said:
Aaaah, the great Zbynek Kráslavský. Last seen labouring in a plastic stirrer factory. A sad fate.
The NKVD cutlery purges were brutal times. There were many worse fates for creators of reactionary tableware. Tea services, with their bourgeois overtones, were a particular focus. Kráslavský was reputedly only saved by Stalin's personal intervention.
The Crack Fox said:
AstonZagato said:
The Crack Fox said:
Aaaah, the great Zbynek Kráslavský. Last seen labouring in a plastic stirrer factory. A sad fate.
The NKVD cutlery purges were brutal times. There were many worse fates for creators of reactionary tableware. Tea services, with their bourgeois overtones, were a particular focus. Kráslavský was reputedly only saved by Stalin's personal intervention.A+
Similar spoons were deemed to be adorned with bourgeois frippery and unworthy of being lifted to good Communist lips
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/mOYq3xXQ.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/mOYq3xXQ" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/mOYq3xXQ.jpg)
Just picked up a Norwegian masterpiece, a timeless masterpiece at that, from an antiques specialist - the famous Hørny + Hørny in Faenshølet, it's a 1939 Laksekjønn "Kløende skjeden", build number #001.
Only 100 of these masterpieces were made.
Crafted out of pure titanium, it was carved over hundreds of man hours without any mechanical aides. No spoon servos, no carbon kevlar, no noveau riche design, just a solid, beautiful titanium shape.
It's currently undergoing a full restoration at the Spoon Sports (no, not the Japanese Honda tuners) facilities in a remote location, guarded 24/7.
You might want to translate the model name from Norwegian for the beauty of it all.
Only 100 of these masterpieces were made.
Crafted out of pure titanium, it was carved over hundreds of man hours without any mechanical aides. No spoon servos, no carbon kevlar, no noveau riche design, just a solid, beautiful titanium shape.
It's currently undergoing a full restoration at the Spoon Sports (no, not the Japanese Honda tuners) facilities in a remote location, guarded 24/7.
You might want to translate the model name from Norwegian for the beauty of it all.
Edited by anonymous-user on Monday 31st July 13:44
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