A bottle-opener is a cleverly designed tool which can be used to open up a sealed bottle. According to this general definition a cork-screw would also be a kind of bottle-opener. The most common usage of the concept of a bottle-opener however is directly linked to the opening of crown-capped bottles. Crown-caps were invented by an american guy named William Painter back in 1892. For that reason it is assumed that bottle-openers are at least as old.

The most common reason why people want to open bottles is to gain access to liquids kept inside the vessel. The fact that an extra device is necessary to open the bottle, may in some cases be considered as dumb, since the bottle-opener has an ability to be missing when its needed the most (a discomforting property shared by remote controls', matches, knives, keys and important documents). For this reason the crown-cap technology is continuously being replaced by the modern screw-cap technique. Interestingly, as happened with cork sealed wine-bottles, the crown-cap technology will most probably survive in the beer-bottle sealing niche. For this reason bottle-openers are not facing extinction.

How to Use a Bottle-Opener

The first thing to do is to check if the bottle is sealed by a crown-cap. Some bottles are sealed by screw-caps that have a stupefying resemblance to crown-caps. If this is the case, then proceed to open the vessel according to the method found in 'opening bottles and jars'.

The designs of a bottle-opener head can be found in a bewildering lot of variations. The common trait of all bottle-opener heads is that they have a protuberance on one end designed to grip the crown-cap from the bottom edge, and another surface that uses the top of the crown-cap as a pivotal point. All bottle openers have a lever. Some are on the same side as the gripping protuberance some are oppostite. For this reason some bottle openers work by lifting the lever (when the pivotal point lies behind the gripping protuberance and the lever) and forcing the gripping protuberance to deform the crown-cap loosening it from the bottle. This is the most common formn of bottle-openers. Other bottle-openers work the other way round the lever is pressed down to lift the protuberance.

Make Your Own Bottle-opener

An astonishingly easy way to construct a working bottle-opener is as follows: A wooden bar of about 10 centimetres length and 1 centimetre thickness will act as a lever. On one end of the rod a pan head screw is screwed into the wood, so that the head protrudes some 5 to 10 millimetres off the wooden bar (cf. The Gentle Art of Screwing for further and more detailed instructions). The Head of the screw will act as the gripping protuberance and the wooden bar itself as the pivotal point and lever.

Alternative bottle-openers

The aforementioned property bottle-openers share with remote controls and important documents, namely the vanishing in the most inappropriate moments, has boosted the imagination of many clever people to brew up ways to open bottles with objects that were originally designed for other purposes. In theory anything more consistent than a pencil eraser and with a slight resemblance to a lever can be used to open crown-capped bottles. Suggestions from various experienced researchers include:


- Brass ends of shotgun shells (not recommended unless in lack of any other lever-resembling objects)

- Lighters (some training required)

- Assorted edges, like table edges and toolbox edges (note: the table might not look exactly the same after using it to open a bottle)

- Dull sides of knives

- Teeth (strongly inappropriate unless out of utmost despair)

- Pliers, wrenches, screwdrivers and other tools

- Even bottles can be used to open bottles

Note: Researchers are encouraged to post more alternative ways to open crown-capped bottles under this entry

Bottle-opener nicknames

Since the bottle-opener has always been one of the most popular instruments for all social classes and age groups, there are many nicknames for this tool. Some reserchers' input:


English (US): Church-keys¹


German: Siebzehner²; Hebamme³



Danish: Øljern⁴; Samfundshjælper⁵



Norwegian: Oppdrager⁶

Note: Researchers are encouraged to post more nicknames under this entry