Bottle opener - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A bottle opener is a device that enables the removal of metal bottle cap

Bottle cap

Bottle caps are a type of closure used to seal the openings of bottles of many types. They can be small circular pieces of metal, usually steel, with plastic backings, and for plastic bottles a plastic cap is used instead. A bottle cap is typically colorfully decorated with the logo of the brand...

s from bottle

Bottle

A bottle is a rigid container with a neck that is narrower than the body and a "mouth". By contrast, a jar has a relatively large mouth or opening. Bottles are often made of glass, clay, plastic, aluminum or other impervious materials, and typically used to store liquids such as water, milk, soft...

s. More generally, it might be thought to include corkscrews used to remove cork or plastic stoppers from wine bottles.

A metal bottle cap is affixed to the rim of the neck of a bottle by being pleated or ruffled around the rim. A bottle opener is a specialized lever

Lever

In physics, a lever is a rigid object that is used with an appropriate fulcrum or pivot point to either multiply the mechanical force that can be applied to another object or resistance force , or multiply the distance and speed at which the opposite end of the rigid object travels.This leverage...

inserted beneath the pleated metalwork, which uses a point on the bottle cap as a fulcrum on which to pivot.

Varieties

There are several distinct designs of such bottle openers. Wall mounted openers are typically found behind bar

Bar (establishment)

A bar is a business establishment that serves alcoholic drinks — beer, wine, liquor, and cocktails — for consumption on the premises.Bars provide stools or chairs that are placed at tables or counters for their patrons. Some bars have entertainment on a stage, such as a live band, comedians, go-go...

s in pub

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

s, whilst hand-tool bottle openers tend to be found and used in domestic environments. Whereas the functional elements of bottle openers (a tooth or lip to catch the underside of the cap, a fulcrum across which to exert the force that will remove the cap, and usually a lever for mechanical advantage) tend to be consistent (sometimes the lever is the bottle itself), their aesthetic design is subject to very great variety, and a great many decorative types are available.

The following varieties of bottle opener are used around the world used in a professional capacity.

The Crown Cork Opener

A specific style of bottle opener is known as a churchkey.

Invented at the same time as the crown cork, it is the original "bar blade". But as well as being portable it also comes as a fixed device to be attached to vertical surfaces, often with a tray to catch the bottle tops. It does not open wine bottles. It is class 2 fulcrum type.

Simple Bottle Opener

A simple opener is just a piece of metal with a rectangular or rounded opening in one end and a solid handle large enough to be gripped between the thumb and forefingers on the other. The opening contains a lip that is placed under the edge of the bottle top, pulling it off when upward force is applied to the handle end of the opener. This type of opener is small and durable, so it is frequently used as a key fob.

Speed Opener

The speed opener is a flat blade of steel approximately 4 cm wide and 16 cm long with a thumb hole at one end and a letterbox cut at the other to remove the crown seals from a bottle. The thumb hole is used to pull bottles out of ice, by placing the hole over bottle neck, then lifting it. The speed opener is widely used by professional bartender

Bartender

A bartender is a person who serves beverages behind a counter in a bar, pub, tavern, or similar establishment. A bartender, in short, "tends the bar". The term barkeeper may carry a connotation of being the bar's owner...

s in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, the USA, and the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. Carried in the pocket or against the body or on a zip string, it is both convenient and fast for the modern bartender.

The speed opener is a first-class lever (instead of a second-class lever), as discussed in technique, below.

Wall-Mounted

Works the same as the lever variation, except that it is attached to the wall, to allow for simpler bottle-opening, which can be done with one hand. The bottle cap can fall into a bottle cap catcher mounted below the opener, or you can retrieve it after removal from the bottle.

Multi-Opener

Also known as a Beverage Opener

Beverage Opener

A beverage opener is a device used to open beverage cans, plastic bottles or glass bottles, which are the three most common beverage containers.- Types :...

, these usually includes a bottle opener of the Simple Bottle Opener Style but includes various other openers such as for plastic bottle

Plastic bottle

A plastic bottle is a bottle constructed of plastic, with a neck that is narrower than its real body and an opening at the top. The mouth of the bottle is normally sealed with a plastic bottle cap. Plastic bottles are typically used to store liquids such as water, soft drinks, motor oil, cooking...

s or metal beverage can

Beverage can

A beverage can is a tin can designed to hold a specific portion of a beverage. Beverage cans are made of tin-plated steel or aluminium.- History :...

Novelty/designer

In recent years the bottle opener has taken many forms to appeal to young professionals. A few examples of the designer bottle opener include a surfboard shaped bottle opener, baseball cap with bottle opener in the visor, the inclusion of a bottle opener in the sole of a flip flop,in the form of a ring that can be worn, as part of a belt buckle, or in the different shapes for sports, a guitar, cowboy boot or car key. Recent improvements come with the invent of High Definition graphics with epoxy dome on chrome plated versions of the bottle opener. Novelty bottle openers became a popular promotional product for many beer brands with the advent of the surfboard bottle opener by Jim Wysopal from Openers Plus in California 1990.

Technique

Under most use, a bottle opener functions as a second-class lever: the fulcrum is the far end of the bottle opener, placed on the top of the crown, with the output at the near end of the bottle opener, on the crown edge, between the fulcrum and the hand: in these cases, one pushes up on the lever.

However, one may instead use it as a first-class lever, by placing the near end on the top of the crown, and the far end under the crown edge, then pushing down on the lever (thus the output is on the opposite side of the fulcrum from the hand). This is particularly used with bar blades, which form an obtuse angle. Mechanically, this is a marginally less effective lever, as the effort arm is shorter, but the action of pushing down is marginally anatomically easier.

While most lever-type bottle openers can be used in either configuration, the designed use can be determined if one of the edges is curved, in which case this edge is designed to sit in the middle of the crown, as the curve concentrates pressure, deforming the crown, and a curved edge does not connect with as much of the crown edge, hence being suboptimal and slipping more frequently if used to connect with the crown edge. This difference can be seen in comparing the traditional opener and contemporary bar blade at right.

Waiter's Friend or Wine Key

This common wine opener consists of a flat housing (often plastic covered) similar to a Swiss army knife

Swiss Army knife

The Swiss Army knife is a brand of pocket knife or multi-tool manufactured by Victorinox AG and Wenger SA. The term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by US soldiers after World War II due to the difficulty they had in pronouncing the German name....

with a corkscrew and lever (which doubles as crown cork opener) with either a knife or auto-foiler to remove the foil top of wine bottles and then the cork. Designed to be screwed in to within 1 full rotation before the end of the screw (more will pierce the bottom of the cork and result in extra flotsam on the surface of your wine) before levering out the cork.

The Cork Master

This tool is used by businesses that need to open a large volume of wine efficiently and without waste or breakage. It is a large brass tubular device, fixed at a 45° angle to the bar, with a lever pivoted halfway and extending towards the user. The bottle's neck is inserted firmly in the lower aperture of the tube and the lever pulled down firmly and steadily to the bottom. This drives a corkscrew into the cork at a regular depth each time. When the lever is returned to its original position it extracts the cork. When the bottle is removed pull the lever to expose the cork at the bottom, it loosens the cork and returns the lever firmly to its starting position, whereupon the cork will then fall out.

Twin prong cork puller

The twin prong cork puller, also called the Butler's Friend or Ah-So, is shaped like a large key with a squared oval handle about 5 cm × 8 cm, and two thin metal strips, approximately 10 cm long, 5 mm wide, and 0.5 mm thick, descending in tandem from the center of the handle. The two strips are spread open and then wiggled into the space between the cork and the bottle on either side. Once fully in place, a turn and pull of the handle causes friction to turn the cork and pull it out of the bottle.

"Ah-so" is a translation of the German title, "Ach so!", an expression meaning roughly "Ah, I see." It is named so because its appearance often baffles people, but when its use is demonstrated, they often exclaim "Ah! So that's how it works". The ah-so is useful in opening old bottles with brittle corks, because it does not puncture the cork, limiting the likelihood of a brittle cork crumbling into the wine. However, the Ah-So can inadvertently push the cork further into the bottle instead of extracting it.