Possible to open a bottle of wine with pocket knife?

chickenfried

chickenfried

Joined
Feb 27, 2003
Messages
1,065
Hi guys. The only thing that makes me want a swiss army knife is the corkscrew. Is there a technique to open a bottle of wine with a pocket knife? Thanks for the info.
 
Well, there's the non-SAK method, which entails cutting up the cork while it's still in the bottle, and having most of the cork (now crumbled into bits) fall into the bottle, thereby basically ruining the wine, unless you really want to filter it or something. Did it once in desperation. Once was enough.

The SAK cork screw works great.
 
Much easier with a corkscrew. A year or two ago I saw a beautiful pocket knife with corkscrew on the internet all done by the maker, damascus etc etc only $3'500 .
 
Easily, have done it with a screwless SAK lots of times. goes as follows:

Let the cork get wet (bottle on side), push the larger blade into the cork so that it does not touch glass. Turn the blade so that the cork starts to rotate, pull it slowly out at the same time as you turn the blade.

Works about 80% of the time.

TLM
 
TLM said:
Easily, have done it with a screwless SAK lots of times. goes as follows:

Let the cork get wet (bottle on side), push the larger blade into the cork so that it does not touch glass. Turn the blade so that the cork starts to rotate, pull it slowly out at the same time as you turn the blade.

Works about 80% of the time.

TLM
Click to expand...
And what happens the other 20% of the time? :D :)
 
Do you guys remember the movie "Big Trouble in Little China"? I could try and chop the bottle in half with a chinese cleaver.
 
Opening a bottle of wine with a SAK: Twist the corkscrew down into the cork. Sit down. Set base of bottle on the ground and steady the bottle with your feet and your left hand. With right hand, pull that sucker hard until it comes out. Close corkscrew, and open large blade to slice up some nice cheese and maybe some fresh bread and an apple. Your date is sure to dig you. :D
 
Leatherman Juice

Some come with the corkscrew and it's a handy pocketable EDC multi-tool.
 
Don't know if my spelling is correct,but a French pocket knife called a Lagioule,comes in different sizes some with a corkscrew.Seems like a nice traditional type of folder,some with large main blades.Pricing from like 40.00 on up,and up :)
 
Must agree with Keith on this one... corkscrews are much preferred. It is possible to cut the cork away, though, & with a really sharp blade the crumbs will be kept to a minimum. I've done this but it is labor intensive.

FWIW we received one of the Screwpull "rabbit" type devices for a gift a few years ago & swear by it. We do a fair amount of entertaining at home and these things can open a lot of bottles really fast, with no strain. It doesn't have the traditional handcrafted elegance of a good Laguiole, though... would like to have one of those some day.

Sante!

Andrew
 
20% of the time the cork splits and you are no worse, you can still push it inside. :D :D

I originally did not mention that I have broken one blade doing that, not a SAK though. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

TLM
 
I don't if you have "Sharon Luggage" in your area. But if so lately they have have some that I think are nice. It has a cork screw and a cheese knife all in one package. It's made by either Camillus or Linder I think. I'm not in to Whine & Cheese(except for BF) so I haven't tried one.
 
I've opened bottles of wine with a leatherman without a corkscrew in a pinch. All you really need is a phillips screwdriver and a pair of pliers. First find a phillips screw somewhere and use the phillips screwdriver to remove it. They're everywhere, if you're in doors you can pull em out of doors, hinges, furnature, etc. If you're out doors and theres a vehicle near by you can use a sheet metal screw pulled from a door panel, dashboard, etc.
Then just drive the screw into the cork with the screwdriver and pull it out with the pliers. Don't forget to replace the screw when you're done.
 
the French cavalry used to open bottles of champange by lopping off the tip with their sabers... don't ask me how they did this cause this is probably a lost art (seeing as the last time the french celebrated something military)

In any case, the French still sell short swords for this, and I would suspect that a similar light bladed fast-moving foot long blade would do the trick. It's very dashing and debonaire, but I think a little too theatrical for the home, especially when you have to explain to people why you lopped off someone's head or your own arm...
 
Affected K9 said:

the French cavalry used to open bottles of champange by lopping off the tip with their sabers... don't ask me how they did this cause this is probably a lost art (seeing as the last time the french celebrated something military)
Click to expand...

I just saw on TV it done, that was on a champagne bottle where the cork bulges out. The program mentioned something about the cold on russian steppes making it impossible to open the bottle the normal way. Go figure.

TLM
 
If you're getting a knife mainly for the corkscrew, you'd be better off with a waiter's friend/sommelier's tool (the kind with a lever and a little blade). The Laguioles here: http://www.cutlerytogo.com/lagcor.html are very nice, but you're better off with a $5 one from the liquor store and spend the good $$'s on a nice knife. Just make sure the screw isn't one with a solid shaft, they split the corks. I've worked in many bars, some serving very expensive wines that you don't want to screw up and a lot of the guys I worked with would spend £50-£60 on nice waiter's friends, but the best I ever used was a £4 branded plastic job from Oddbins. - just make sure you get one with a nice comfy surface to pull up on. The only reasons I'd spend a little more are for a teflon coated screw, which makes it a lot less work to get the new plastic corks off after you've pulled them, and these Pulltaps have two step levers that can help with long and/or weak corks and also have pretty decent blades. I have one of these, but prefer the oddbins cheapie in a busy bar - it has a trick foil cutter which saves time.

I have a Laguiole with a 4" blade and corkscrew, but the screw is short and narrow and you don't want to use your main blade to cut foil against glass coz you'll blunt it. The SAK screw is a bit better but still needs muscle. Short screws tend to leave a bottom portion of the cork in the bottle, and narrow ones are more likely to pull out a 'core' of cork or split it.

If you use one without a lever (eg. SAK), put the corkscrew in as straight and central as possible (see below). Hold the bottle by the neck in your weak hand and clamp it between your thighs. You can also kneel down. Get your shoulder right over the cork and use your shoulder and arm to pull straight up, without levering against the sides of the neck. It takes a big pull, but then it pops out easy.

Now for the classy way:

If you use one with a lever, cut around the foil using the blunt little blade by resting the edge toward you on the little step that most bottles have, pressing your thumb opposite the blade on the other side of the neck and turning the bottle. screw it into the cork, straight and centered (to do this, I start with the opener tilted over so that the tip of the screw points straight down - then after its in 1/4" I tilt it upright and turn it with my hand placed right behind the screw so it doesn't wobble). In theory, you want the screw to go as far down the cork as possible without penetrating the bottom (aviods bits falling in). Next, put the edge of the lever against the lip of the bottle (I'm just going to do one now to make sure I describe it right :D ) the tip of it should fit under the base of your index finger while you hold the neck of the bottle in a natural grip, the lever should be at the 12 o'clock position and the other end should be tilted downward slightly at the 6 o'clock. Lift the other end while keeping pressure on the lever with your weak hand. If you just push naturallly, you will tilt the cork away from you, bending it against the neck and risking breakage, so LIFT up with slight backward (ie. toward you) presuure to lift the cork straight out with a pop. It amazes me how few people know how to do this properly, but it works most of the time even with dry, crumbly corks. I reckon I only mess up somewhere around 1 in 1000.

Here's how to salvage when you mess up, or impress/embarass someone else who has:

Usual scenario: you're at a party and someone hand you a bottle they just tried to open with a spoon. You're thirsty and so is the beauty you just met, but you're stuck with a bottle with a 1/4 to 1/2 a dry, crumbly cork and you can't get the screw into the cork without pushing it into the wine, which makes it a PITA to pour, never mind picking cork out of your teeth.

Worst case scenario, you're standing at the table of Lord whatdymacallit who's really picky and has just ordered a £400 bottle of wine that's so old its probably off already, not that he'd be able to tell but he won't be happy if he gets a bit of cork in it and you boss won't be happy if you put it on wastage.

What do you do?

Easy. blow out the loose bits of cork from the top of what remains, and intstead of turning the screw straight into the cork (hich will push it down) slip it down the side, between the glass and cork so that you're not pushing the cork down into the wine, until it pops out the bottom, then *slowly* and *gently* pull the cork up through the neck (should be easier due to less friction). Voila!
 
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