New Teaspoon Advice Please
Discussion
Mark-C said:
Blib said:
Mark-C said:
Blib said:
55palfers said:
Just wondering if anyone made it to the Classic Spoon Show at the NEC this weekend?
Place was packed as usual. Prices going through the roof. The bubble must burst soon.
Met a few old chums over a refreshing beverage in the begeisternde Liebhaber members lounge and may have made a (dealer) contact from Sofia who reckons he has a few unmarked Louis Quinze dispositif de tornade de thé Mk1s. I have much experience dealers promising the earth and failing to deliver so I am not holding my breath.
Here's a few quick snaps of a few interesting exhibits that caught my eye.
No, I couldn't make it to Birmingham this year. Though, seeing those Berridge & Bargh 49s Goldstars just dumped into a tea cup fair turned my stomach. TBH, im pkeased i didnt witness that first hand.Place was packed as usual. Prices going through the roof. The bubble must burst soon.
Met a few old chums over a refreshing beverage in the begeisternde Liebhaber members lounge and may have made a (dealer) contact from Sofia who reckons he has a few unmarked Louis Quinze dispositif de tornade de thé Mk1s. I have much experience dealers promising the earth and failing to deliver so I am not holding my breath.
Here's a few quick snaps of a few interesting exhibits that caught my eye.
Let's meet up at next year's Brighton Spoonfest and I'll fill you in with all the grisly details.
Blib said:
That's ok. You couldn't possibly had known. But, I was in Bratislava that fateful May morn in '57. Things like that leave a lasting impression.
Let's meet up at next year's Brighton Spoonfest and I'll fill you in with all the grisly details.
That's a lovely idea but I've vowed never to go back to Brighton after '93 (shudders)... maybe MünchenLöffelFest?Let's meet up at next year's Brighton Spoonfest and I'll fill you in with all the grisly details.
SCEtoAUX said:
I see the Kilmarnock event sold out in a matter of minutes again. Distance clearly no object on such occasions.
No doubt that the ticket touts will soon be plying their wares on a well-known auction site.
I can't be the only one who, whilst a bit sad not to be going to Kilmarnock next season, rather believes its got just a bit too flash for its own good?No doubt that the ticket touts will soon be plying their wares on a well-known auction site.
Too many people who just block all the space with their unruly kids, drinking from god-knows-when in the morning and trying to get too close to all the spoons for a "selfie", all the while walking around with one of those little in-ear radios to hear the action from the "Top Table" but not really appreciating the craftmanship in some of the lower halls, particularly The Scullery which is now getting so quiet that I know of at least two spooneurs choosing not to represent themselves.
As much as I will miss going, I think that we will all be served better at one of the newer shows that has realised what it was that made Kilmarnock great to begin with - which was the greeting you got, and the location.
I suggest you consider purchasing tickets for Newcastle-under-Lyme, on sale from next Thursday but advance purchase can be made with the voucher enclosed within this month's edition of Stirred.
As I mentioned a few pages back I belong to a superspoon club, and this weekend I decided to see what they had on offer.
Unfortunately the '36 Dietrich has a crazy waiting list all the way past Christmas so I had to settle for a '52 Palizotti.
Yes, I know, it's a bit fancy with the filligree around the handle. But it's still a piece of art and it still stirs surprisingly well even by modern standards. It's amazing to think that there were underground spoonmakers in Argentina way back in the 50s, when you could have been shopped to the secret police for even daring to suggest, quietly, in passing, that you might prefer tea to coffee.
Unfortunately the '36 Dietrich has a crazy waiting list all the way past Christmas so I had to settle for a '52 Palizotti.
Yes, I know, it's a bit fancy with the filligree around the handle. But it's still a piece of art and it still stirs surprisingly well even by modern standards. It's amazing to think that there were underground spoonmakers in Argentina way back in the 50s, when you could have been shopped to the secret police for even daring to suggest, quietly, in passing, that you might prefer tea to coffee.
OpulentBob said:
crankedup said:
As a complete newbie onto the World of spoons and such like, I seek the wisdom of the fold.
We are to purchase a cutlery set for our lad and partner, a boxed set which they can add to as and when. Budget is not large, around £300, picked out a set from Robert Welch the radford bright 56 piece set. Nice design of classic proportion? Are we missing out a better purchase??
Advise and comment welcomed as always.
As an aside, I still enjoy listening to ‘The loving spoonful’ occasionally !
S'ok for cutlery I suppose. I'd buy them a set of knives and forks from ikea and spend the balance on a his'n'hers Krupp Classic pack. Ignite the (very slow burning) spooning fuse within the young couple. We are to purchase a cutlery set for our lad and partner, a boxed set which they can add to as and when. Budget is not large, around £300, picked out a set from Robert Welch the radford bright 56 piece set. Nice design of classic proportion? Are we missing out a better purchase??
Advise and comment welcomed as always.
As an aside, I still enjoy listening to ‘The loving spoonful’ occasionally !
But then I would say that...
Wouldn’t be bold enough to hint with a krupp classic pack. Never know they may buy that for themselves, hope is eternal.
Mark-C said:
Blib said:
That's ok. You couldn't possibly had known. But, I was in Bratislava that fateful May morn in '57. Things like that leave a lasting impression.
Let's meet up at next year's Brighton Spoonfest and I'll fill you in with all the grisly details.
That's a lovely idea but I've vowed never to go back to Brighton after '93 (shudders)... maybe MünchenLöffelFest?Let's meet up at next year's Brighton Spoonfest and I'll fill you in with all the grisly details.
Shakermaker said:
I can't be the only one who, whilst a bit sad not to be going to Kilmarnock next season, rather believes its got just a bit too flash for its own good?
Too many people who just block all the space with their unruly kids, drinking from god-knows-when in the morning and trying to get too close to all the spoons for a "selfie", all the while walking around with one of those little in-ear radios to hear the action from the "Top Table" but not really appreciating the craftmanship in some of the lower halls, particularly The Scullery which is now getting so quiet that I know of at least two spooneurs choosing not to represent themselves.
As much as I will miss going, I think that we will all be served better at one of the newer shows that has realised what it was that made Kilmarnock great to begin with - which was the greeting you got, and the location.
I suggest you consider purchasing tickets for Newcastle-under-Lyme, on sale from next Thursday but advance purchase can be made with the voucher enclosed within this month's edition of Stirred.
Well that's a great recommendation and only a 400 mile round trip rather than the 700 for Kilmarnock.Too many people who just block all the space with their unruly kids, drinking from god-knows-when in the morning and trying to get too close to all the spoons for a "selfie", all the while walking around with one of those little in-ear radios to hear the action from the "Top Table" but not really appreciating the craftmanship in some of the lower halls, particularly The Scullery which is now getting so quiet that I know of at least two spooneurs choosing not to represent themselves.
As much as I will miss going, I think that we will all be served better at one of the newer shows that has realised what it was that made Kilmarnock great to begin with - which was the greeting you got, and the location.
I suggest you consider purchasing tickets for Newcastle-under-Lyme, on sale from next Thursday but advance purchase can be made with the voucher enclosed within this month's edition of Stirred.
Sadly I no longer subscribe to Stirred. The character assassination of Venkl de Grut in February's edition was the last straw for me.
SCEtoAUX said:
Well that's a great recommendation and only a 400 mile round trip rather than the 700 for Kilmarnock.
Sadly I no longer subscribe to Stirred. The character assassination of Venkl de Grut in February's edition was the last straw for me.
One man's character assassination is another's honest reappraisal. I'll just leave that there........Sadly I no longer subscribe to Stirred. The character assassination of Venkl de Grut in February's edition was the last straw for me.
Don't start me off on the topic of Herr Grut!
The rules clearly state "A spoon must be re-examined by scrutineers if any significant changes are made to it by the team or if it is involved in an accident"
During the 100g semis at Strombolicchio, Grut, using an Italian Favignana 8, definitely had a major rim contact (at speed) and, from personal experience, such contact inevitably results in flange deformation. Often to the advantage of the stirrer.
For this infraction to have been "overlooked" can only add weight to the theory that some stirrers get an easier ride from the governing body.
Had this been a British stirrer I am sure that a 10 second vortex penalty would have been imposed.
The rules clearly state "A spoon must be re-examined by scrutineers if any significant changes are made to it by the team or if it is involved in an accident"
During the 100g semis at Strombolicchio, Grut, using an Italian Favignana 8, definitely had a major rim contact (at speed) and, from personal experience, such contact inevitably results in flange deformation. Often to the advantage of the stirrer.
For this infraction to have been "overlooked" can only add weight to the theory that some stirrers get an easier ride from the governing body.
Had this been a British stirrer I am sure that a 10 second vortex penalty would have been imposed.
I spoke to ‘Das Venk’ just a few years back at the Hockenheim open, he was there just as a spectator but was lording it up (as he does). There was a great moment when he stumbled into Randy Smallman Junior (US stirring champion 1975-78) and it was tense!
Some words were exchanged, Venkl talked down Smallmans flange trim and Smallman lashed back with a scathing insult on Venkls plunge angles
The whole room was quiet, Venkl just walks out and Smallman tipped his (quite famous) ten gallon hat and went back to stirring his bourbon with a 1947 Gracé De Fleur
One of my favourite experiences for sure.
Some words were exchanged, Venkl talked down Smallmans flange trim and Smallman lashed back with a scathing insult on Venkls plunge angles
The whole room was quiet, Venkl just walks out and Smallman tipped his (quite famous) ten gallon hat and went back to stirring his bourbon with a 1947 Gracé De Fleur
One of my favourite experiences for sure.
Usget said:
SCEtoAUX said:
Blib said:
Exactly! Grut is a charlatan and a unconscionable chancer. As is anyone who supports him.
No offence intended.
One man's charlatan is another man's hero. I'll just leave that there...No offence intended.
Hugo a Gogo said:
Grut may be a blackguard, a miscreant and an uncivilised b
d, but he can't half whirl a spoon
several gentlemen who were old enough to know better were swooning like teenagers at the Ljubljana open in '99
Mr de Grut certainly polarises opinions. d, but he can't half whirl a spoonseveral gentlemen who were old enough to know better were swooning like teenagers at the Ljubljana open in '99
Allow me to share a story I was told in strictest confidence back in the early ‘70s by a well placed, (but slightly inebriated) senior member of the much admired Commanderie de Boisson. The tales I could tell of the exploits of Claude Villeurbanne and his fearless band of Maquis stirrers’ heroic deeds of daring-do in confounding the Nazis frantic 1945 last gasp search for Wotan’s legendary Löffel der Wunder in a subjugated Nancy would make your hair stand on end.
However, back in the dark days of the cold war, Herr Grut was, for a short time, attached to the Greek embassy in the old East Berlin under the unlikely cover of a continuity announcer on Radio Free Europe. That gave him a certain amount of freedom to “ply his trade” as it were.
To him, stirring had become an all consuming passion and he would stop at nothing to acquire the latest communist implements in the hope that brutal but effective Soviet technology would give him the competitive edge he lusted after when his posting was completed and he returned to the West with (hopefully) a place in the Dutch Olympic team.
To finance his quest for perfection, he had smuggled in (via the diplomatic bag) a sizeable collection of fairly agricultural but efficient Dutch and Walloon spoons that he was selling to beleaguered enthusiasts of the fledgling sport in the old GDR. At vastly inflated prices too I should add. But I guess you knew that would be the case with Grut.
Sadly, the "Coffee Crisis" of 1976 to 1979 and subsequent collapse in the need to stir refreshing beverages so regularly meant the market was flooded with redundant spoons and income from his nice little earner disintegrated almost overnight. Unfortunately, like any independent business venture in the GDR in those days, an entrepreneur like Grut needed to pay for “Government blessings” to ensure his business flourished unhindered by stifling bureaucracy. He quickly found himself immersed in debt to the tune of millions of Marks with the humourless Staatssicherheitsdienst hot on his heels.
He had to escape to the West quickly and he needed to travel light.
In a massive gamble a few years earlier, he had, by nefarious means taken into his keeping a historically significant, solid silver absinthe spoon once the “property” of one Colonel Heinz Volpert.
The spoon was a one-off. The last cast of the long gone Dabermannsdorf works in Bad Staffelstein, high in the mountains of Bavaria. It was rumoured that Volpert had kept the spoon as a souvenir from the Führerbunker. Traudel Junge makes a passing reference in her book “Hitler’s last secretary” that just days before the end of the war, Volpert and Frau Goebbels took an uplifting glass of Absinthe together after he had personally delivered a small package marked “Vorsicht gefährliche Arzneimittel (Caution Hazardous Pharmaceuticals)” to her husband.
Typically, Grut bribed an American PX Lootenant with a matched pair of, frankly inferior quality Goethe 20s, and crossed safely into West Germany hidden in the back of an M35 deuce and a half during the small hours of 3 April when the guards were drunk from celebrating Uncle Joes birthday.
The subsequent sale of this unique spoon - with such an impeccable provenance - has financed his hobby and questionable lifestyle ever since.
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