Beautiful simplicity of a bottle opener

In Africa (and many other places in the world, I imagine) bottle openers are made of simply a stick with a screw in it. Simple and — when beaded — quite lovely.

Togolese Bottle Opener Simplicity [Afrigadget.com via Treehugger]

[#1 posted by guy_jin , November 11, 2008 9:49 AM]

I didn't see the screw for a second - I thought that loop on the bead end was the business part. I thought, 'that'll never last'. Nice to be wrong.

[#2 posted by hemidemisemiquaver , November 11, 2008 10:59 AM]

Any disposable lighter works perfectly well as far as I'm concerned.

[#3 posted by scaught , November 11, 2008 11:03 AM]

The edge of a table you don't care about, or strangely enough (I can do it and I don't understand how it works), the unremoved cap end of another beer works too.

[#4 posted by mdh , November 11, 2008 12:08 PM]

Any disposable lighter works perfectly well as far as I'm concerned.

Another UMass graduate?

[#5 posted by winstonsmith85 , November 11, 2008 12:30 PM]

I use a disposable lighter as an opener as well. My dad shows it off at family reunions, "Hey, look what my kid can do!" and then I have to open everyone's beer for the rest of the night.

Once the skill is acquired, the world is filled with bottle openers. I used an Altoids tin last night. a remote control. a stick without a screw in it. a stapler.

I ruined the finish on a perfectly good black matte Zippo that way, too.

[#6 posted by yasth , November 11, 2008 1:55 PM]

This is the way I do it when I want to show off.

I mean really just about anything will work.

[#7 posted by Itsumishi , November 11, 2008 4:00 PM]

Real men use their teeth!

But honestly any hard corner that's not too rounded will do perfectly. Cap on edge, whack on top. Fresh beer.

---

Impressive video though Yasth. Is that you in the video or just a trick you share?

[#8 posted by The Lizardman , November 11, 2008 4:20 PM]

I never quite got the hang of it with a lighter, still awkward for me, but using another beer has become second nature and I think warants more style points. I also find my pocket knife (closed) to be quite effective.

[#9 posted by coldspell , November 11, 2008 4:46 PM]

@#6 yasth: How do we know that butter knife video is real? The guy did not demonstrate that the beer bottle cap was securely fastened. If he turned the bottle upside down before opening it with the butter knife, then I would be (a little) more impressed.

[#10 posted by stuckinkiel , November 11, 2008 5:08 PM]

When first I moved to Germany from the States I was surprised at how difficult it is to open beer bottles here. My German friends were equally amused at my attempts to open the bottles with my bare hands.

Here's a website (in German, but with lots of photos) of 1000 ways to open a beer bottle.

http://stuff.twoday.net/

Note: numbers 1001 and 1000 are kind of lame, skip those.

[#11 posted by dman , November 11, 2008 5:19 PM]

coldspell #9
No need to be so suspicious. Bottle Sabering is very real, and you should be able to master it at least once within a 6-pack.
The pop in the video was a clear indicator the cap was not loosened previously. Turning it upside down would have agitated the beer enough for some spillage (less cool), as the action also triggers a little foam.

I use (the back of) a medium-weight chopping knife for beers, but a well-built butter knife would be fine.

However, beautiful idea in the OP. I'll be tying one of those to the tree outside my beach hut one day...

[#12 posted by igzabier , November 11, 2008 9:21 PM]

in africa put a little soul into everything, just look at this north american passion for liquor.do what you do well.
sabering looked neat but fact is you will probably end up with glass in your gut even if careful. I have seen it .fool about with drink in glass bottles glass in gut very bad.

[#13 posted by lerevdr , November 12, 2008 3:56 AM]

Regarding The Butter Knife Method;

we students, Gentlefolk and Brewers,

utilised a metal kitchen spatula.

The ritual tapping of the bottle
before *thwapping* the cap off (750 mL bottles of Home Brew in our case) seems to persist across various cultures...

We always ran it as a Magic Show -

how do you Release Beer with an egg-flipper?

The Real Joi

comes

when you rip the entire neck off a bottle -

much laughter ensues!

Blessings,

Le Rev Dr

[#14 posted by CJ , November 12, 2008 5:22 AM]

Well, in some places in Africa... we do have normal bottle openers and things in most places, even though we are in Africa :)

[#15 posted by col_pogo , November 12, 2008 3:09 PM]

Amen to that, CJ. Let's stop pretending Africa is one place where everyone is the same. It's a big place: almost a billion people, 50 countries, perhaps 1500 languages. Some people use sticks with nails in them, some people use "normal" bottle openers. It'd be far more interesting to know where the bottle opener is actually from than to just hear that it's "African".

[#16 posted by hynoticfrog , November 16, 2008 10:05 PM]

Heres a good one, but organic beer that comes with a champagne style cork, this way you can buy a champagne sabre from any good wine store, Although any Military sabre will do, and with a flourish of the blade excite and fascinate all onlookers. Obviously it may be a bit sad to do that every day. But Hey winterval is nearly upon us.