Before there were knives, how were there spoons?

[Atellus]

Question: before there were conveniently shaped metal knives, how did people make cups and spoons?

 

[Whittler Kev]

Either stole one from a visiting spaceship
or they used a stone or a shell as the bowl tied to a stick or used them to scrape out a hollow in wood
or burnt the bowl out
IMHO

 

[gregorach]

You don't need a hook knife to make a spoon, it just makes the job easier. I've carved spoons with an ordinary pocket knife before, so it must be do-able with a flint flake. It just takes longer.

 

[JonathanD]

No doubt most sharp stones could be used, or bone, antler etc.

 

[FGYT]

did people need or use cups and bowls back then ????

 

[JonathanD]

did people need or use cups and bowls back then ????

Depends on how far we go back. No doubt bowls and cups would have preceeded metal knives though, which is what Atellus was originally pondering over.

 

[Asa Samuel]

If you are talking purely about the bowl of the spoon I'm sure any rock could be used as a scraper or you could burn the bowl out using an ember.

 

[Matt.S]

Folded bark works also.

 

[JonathanD]

Folded bark works also.

And turtle shells, cow horn, leather etc.

 

[robin wood]

Well in the bronze age they used bronze and in the stone age they used flint. There are some wonderful objects from early periods. Here's a nice one from Heathrow.

 

[Atellus]

Folded bark works also.

I remember that Northern Wilderness episode in which RM described how, before the trade posts brought metal pots to the tribes, Indian women would heat water by dropping hot rocks into birch bark containers.

But how small can one make a bark container? Is there a minimum size below which it's either too fiddly or you can no longer work the bark properly?

And don't you need a decent knife technology (whether flint or metal) to work with bark, anyway?

 

[Large Sack]

er...set fire to a decent sized piece of wood, then scrape it out into a vessel...some of you even practice this I believe...

Sack

 

[JonathanD]

But how small can one make a bark container? Is there a minimum size below which it's either too fiddly or you can no longer work the bark properly?

You can make cone birch bark cups as small as thimbles.