The spoon busk was a specialised kind of busk

Busk

A busk is the rigid element of a corset placed at the centre front.In stays, the corsets worn between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, the busk was intended to keep the front of the corset straight and upright. It was made of wood, ivory, or bone slipped into a pocket and tied in place with...

 -- the rigid element of a corset

Corset

A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...

 placed at the centre front. As its name implies, it was shaped like a spoon, with the bottom part of the busk widening and taking a dished form. It was invented in 1879 by Joseph Beckel of New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

.

The spoon busk allowed a greater reduction in waist size without producing a bulge of flesh at the bottom edge of the corset. This was a problem experienced when corsets with straight busks of even width were tightly laced: as the flesh of the abdomen was, essentially, squeezed out of place and appeared where there was no pressure. The wide, dished part of a spoon busk accommodated the abdomen, and at the same time compressed and controlled it. Corsets with spoon busks usually descended to a point lower than the level of the hips at the front.

Despite the extra control given by spoon busks, they are not favoured by modern tightlacers

Tightlacing

Tightlacing is the practice of wearing a tightly-laced corset to achieve extreme modifications to the figure and posture and experience the sensations of a very tight corset. Those who practice tightlacing are called tightlacers...

 as the bottom point of a spoon busk will dig in when a corset is very tight. If a spoon busk is used, it is in a modified version with no dished shape.

Steel spoon busks

Galvanized steel spoon busks are not suited for tight lacing because the steel becomes brittle during the manufacturing process. Stainless steel

Stainless steel

In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....

 spoon busks, on the other hand, are suitable if reinforced with a layer of flat steel behind the busk. Wissner, a busk and boning manufacturer in Germany makes stainless steel busks. They stopped making galvanized spoon busks because they were breaking under the pressure of tight lacing. If a person buys a spoon busk, they should make sure it is stainless steel and reinforce it with flat boning behind the busk.

There is still no guarantee that the spoon busk will stand up to tight lacing.

External links

• Gallery of Victorian
  Victorian fashion
  Victorian fashion comprises the various fashions and trends in British culture that emerged and grew in province throughout the Victorian era and the reign of Queen Victoria, a period which would last from June 1837 to January 1901. Covering nearly two thirds of the 19th century, the 63 year reign...
  
  spoon busk corsets at Staylace.com
• Information on stainless steel spoon busks
• Original Victorian spoon busk corsets shown in the Late Victorian category of the Antique Corset Gallery.