Can & bottle openers on knives in 2020, purposeless

H

Houlahound

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Aug 2, 2017
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Had to use the word "purposeless" because "pointless" on a blade forum...

Anyhoo I do not eat a lot of food out of a can but I feed my dogs a can of sardines each twice per week (BCAA source). I honestly mostly see canned food having pull open lids.

Every drink I buy in a sealed container has a screw cap or a pull cap.

This brings me to the question of why waste space on a knife or multi tool with can and bottle openers. Seems the most obsolete thing in all of knifedom. A complete waste of space & materials.

Even when can & bottle openers were a thing my peers always showed off by not using them, eg to open a beer you would show your arrogance and dominance by using the spine of your knife. If you couldn't do it you didn't rate as a human. Same with opening a can, you used a fix blade intentionally just because you could.

So who actually uses a can or bottle opener in 2020 and who thinks it's an obsolete waste of space on a knife?
 
I carry SAKs a lot and most have a can opener on them. Never used one in 30 years and it is very possible I would not know how. I don't open many cans of beans out in the woods anymore and heat them on a fire. That used to be something I did deer hunting a fair amount and looked forward to it.

I still like having the can opener on my Tinker or similar SAKs.

Could I live without the can opener? Yep. I want the bottle opener.
 
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I've used both and been happy I had them. Bottle caps are easy enough to pop with whatever might be handy, but it's nice to have the proper tool for situations in which it may be gauche to send the cap flying with a lighter. And I can vividly remember using the main blade on one of my knives to open cans when the family went on vacation and the cabin lacked a proper can opener. I've carried a P-38 or SAK with a can opener ever since, as dipping your knife into tomato sauce doesn't do much damage, but it makes you wince.
 
I was just thinking about the can opener on a knife.
Canned veggies and tuna still need an opener as do some broths and soups.
Worst case you can use your blade to do the dirty work or just toss a P38 into your bugout.
I still kinda like the can opener.
Bottle opener you can use just about anything including another bottle.
 
I too EDC a SAK daily, but find those tool implements indispensable. Some implements I may need on only monthly (or even yearly) basis, but it's absolutely life/party saving when I have them on me. YMMV.

One may not need to open can with the can opener on SAK, but it does come in handy as a impromptu phillips driver.
 
I use the bottle opener quite often as most of the bottled beer I buy require an opener vs. twist-off. I've used the can opener as a ferro rod scraper but it's far from ideal for that.

I use the scissors and nail file a lot on other models and for me, a good SAK would have those to the exclusion of bottle and can openers. It's the main reason I EDC an Ambassador. But I've got a couple Executives showing up tomorrow which could become a replacement for the Ambassador. I also want the tweezers and toothpick which is why I rarely carry any of my Alox scaled SAKs.
 
Where to start? I edc a SAK . I use the can opener often as some places I buy soups don't have the pull tops .(probably batch to batch of cans from diff suppliers) I also use the can opener to scratch lotto scratchers when I buy them or the back of a gift card so it can be loaded into the phone app..
Re: beer bottle caps? When did they start putting twisttops on them? I always have opened the bottles w the SAK..
Be adventurous ! Let your mind run with odd ideas for the implements.
 
I can open a bottle with a knife blade, fork, spoon, lighter etc. So I agree with you 100%
 
Houlahound said:
So who actually uses a can or bottle opener in 2020 and who thinks it's an obsolete waste of space on a knife?
Click to expand...

Thanks to Covid-19 and stocking up on supplies to avoid stupid exposure, there's been more canned food eaten by me lately.
About a week and a half ago, the can opener (manual, rotary) broke halfway through my wife opening a can.
I grabbed my Swisschamp, and used the can opener to finish opening the can. :cool:

So obsolete?
Not if you want to eat. ;)
 
I just do not like idea of every damn thing possible having a cap lifter incorporated because I do not drink.
On a multitool, or scout style slipjoint it folds away and often affords me the flat blade driver so I can live with it, but if a genie granted me 3 knife wishes one of them would be that no knife , keychain tool, or multitool had a cap lifter incorporated into it.

I think they are still useful to people who do drink, but I think a dedicated cap lifter is best so a cap lifter is not forced on those who don't want them.


Can openers on the other hand can be useful for many things, and I have actually needed to open cans with them too.

A few months back at work they were celebrating a birthday and my leatherman PST was the only can opener available to open the large can of cheese sauce.
 
Houlahound said:
Had to use the word "purposeless" because "pointless" on a blade forum...

Anyhoo I do not eat a lot of food out of a can but I feed my dogs a can of sardines each twice per week (BCAA source). I honestly mostly see canned food having pull open lids.

Every drink I buy in a sealed container has a screw cap or a pull cap.

This brings me to the question of why waste space on a knife or multi tool with can and bottle openers. Seems the most obsolete thing in all of knifedom. A complete waste of space & materials.

Even when can & bottle openers were a thing my peers always showed off by not using them, eg to open a beer you would show your arrogance and dominance by using the spine of your knife. If you couldn't do it you didn't rate as a human. Same with opening a can, you used a fix blade intentionally just because you could.

So who actually uses a can or bottle opener in 2020 and who thinks it's an obsolete waste of space on a knife?
Click to expand...
Ha! You are funny! Is this a joke thread like the last one where you got upset at having to enter your credit/debit card information to make purchases from online knife dealers? That was a good one!

But seriously, I use the bottle can opener on my SAK all the time. They double as a great little prybars too. You know, the multi in multitool!
 
craytab said:
Ha! You are funny! Is this a joke thread like the last one where you got upset at having to enter your credit/debit card information to make purchases from online knife dealers? That was a good one!

But seriously, I use the bottle can opener on my SAK all the time. They double as a great little prybars too. You know, the multi in multitool!
Click to expand...

This is my thing. My "knives" don't have tools. My multi-tools have knives.
 
craytab said:
They double as a great little prybars too.
Click to expand...

This is the main reason I love them on my SAKs, they're perfect for light prying. I also have several fancy bottle openers for my home bar, but more often than not, when I'm at someone else's house, my SAK or Leatherman (whichever I'm carrying that day) is the only proper bottle opener there. It's a lot easier than using another beer or the edge of a countertop to pop a cap off.

I've moved a few times over the past year, and the can openers on my SAKs have come in handy more than a few nights when heating up dinner, and the real can opener was packed away somewhere.
 
I'm always happy I have one on my leatherman when I go to open a nice glass bottle of ice cold Coke. :thumbsup:
 
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