field finds : british object to ID

**Zeller** · 04-03-2009, 06:31 PM

There's not much left, and it reminds me the german "spork". The main body looks like zink made and it's gone for the most. The inox steel part is perfect and it has the arrow and the date (1945). what is it?

**Adrian Stevenson** · 04-03-2009, 09:42 PM

Hi Matt, it is part of the clip together British Army issue knife, fork, spoon set. These are only found 1944 or 1945 dated. They come in two different sizes, one being a little smaller in overall size than the other. There is no significance to the size BTW.

Here is a mint set from my collection.

Cheers, Ade.

**Steve T** · 04-03-2009, 09:55 PM

AS per usual.....put a pic of anything rusty and knackered and I'll guarentee Ade will know what it is AND have one to show you

You shud get a medal Ade

<-----goes rummaging in his box of rusty hunks of unidentified stuff to find something suitable.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 04-03-2009, 10:03 PM

Hi Steve, I can tell you I once went field walking with my late Para Veteran friend Mike in the South of France and it really amused him that I could id what he kept saying was "just rust". It really tickled him and we had a lot of laughs that day.

Cheers, Ade.

**Patgore** · 04-03-2009, 10:09 PM

I was once told that the short version was airborne issue.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 04-03-2009, 10:16 PM

Hi and welcome to the forum!

I am a British A/B collector myself but I honestly would not believe that theory. I have heard it myself too. I would, without hard evidence, simply call it a sales pitch

As we all know anything remotely "Airborne" = higher price

The size difference is not that great and the weight saving would be tiny.

Cheers, Ade.

**Zeller** · 04-04-2009, 06:26 AM

Thank you Ade ! There is not much left on mine though!
I will go digging now, when I am home I will take some shot of my boxes for Phil

**Zeller** · 04-12-2009, 07:09 PM

Sorry Stuka, at the moment I don't have any SS buckle to let go

**Patgore** · 04-12-2009, 08:36 PM

You're so right, Ade.

I bought my shorty Army Surplus in Oxford in the early 1960s, about the time I got my wings down the road at Abingdon. I always liked it because it would fit in an army mess tin. Never much liked the holdall for KFS.

Actually, when I wanted to save weight, to add another clip of two of ammo to the load, I would just carry a spoon, dispensing with fork and mess-hall knife. Most of us carried a clasp knife and/or a fighting knife so the extra knife was wasted weight.

BTW, thenks for the welcome.