A Splayd is a brand of single eating utensil combining the functions of spoon

Spoon

A spoon is a utensil consisting of a small shallow bowl, oval or round, at the end of a handle. A type of cutlery , especially as part of a place setting, it is used primarily for serving. Spoons are also used in food preparation to measure, mix, stir and toss ingredients...

, fork

Fork

As a piece of cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a tool consisting of a handle with several narrow tines on one end. The fork, as an eating utensil, has been a feature primarily of the West, whereas in East Asia chopsticks have been more prevalent...

, and knife

Knife

A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...

, sometimes called a sporf

Sporf

A sporf is a generic term for a single eating utensil combining the properties of a spoon, fork, and knife. One popular brand was invented by William McArthur in the 1940s in Australia and sold with the brand name Splayd, another brand with a serrated edge is the Eazi-Eater-Shape:A sporf typically...

, spife, spadorkife or spork

Spork

A spork or a foon is a hybrid form of cutlery taking the form of a spoon-like shallow scoop with three or four fork tines. Spork-like utensils, such as the terrapin fork or ice cream fork, have been manufactured since the late 19th century; patents for spork-like designs date back to at least 1874,...

 (even though a spork is not the same as a splayd). It was invented by William McArthur in the 1940s in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

.

In addition to an overall spoon shape with four fork tines, it has two hard, flat edges on either side, suitable for cutting through soft food.

The UK Licensee for manufacturing and distribution of "Splayds" was held by Viners

Viners

Viners is a UK brand of cutlery, kitchenware and dinnerware products, founded in 1901 in Sheffield.-History:The company, which grew to be the biggest cutlery manufacturer in England after World War II, was started around 1901 by Adolphe Viener, and his sons...

 of Sheffield

Sheffield

Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...

 during the 1970s. At that time they were one of the biggest cutlery

Cutlery

Cutlery refers to any hand implement used in preparing, serving, and especially eating food in the Western world. It is more usually known as silverware or flatware in the United States, where cutlery can have the more specific meaning of knives and other cutting instruments. This is probably the...

 manufacturers in Great Britain

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

.

The Splayd is exclusively distributed worldwide by Cambur Industries Pty Ltd (Australia).

Name

Splayd may seem to be an unusually-spelled portmanteau of "spoon" and "blade", but according to the Splayd website, the name is "after the verb to splay - to slant, slope or spread outwards".

External links

• Splayd Utensils
• Splayds cutlery at the Powerhouse Museum
  Powerhouse Museum
  The Powerhouse Museum is the major branch of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney, the other being the historic Sydney Observatory...