Talk:Can opener

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This description, writ before i looked for the article [blush] may have an element or two that should be folded in:

[Cans are] opened by a cutting the metal, usually with a can opener where a toothed wheel, driven either by hand (often through at least one gear) or by a small electric motor, turns the can relative to the sharp edge of either a point or a wheel.

Tho IMO the P-38 supports its separate article, it deserves a little more than a see-also ref in this one.

More pix of can openers would be good, especially these kinds:

• the six-inches long one (in the armor cartoon; maybe the cartoon would be an ideal illustration! Do we have a cartoonist willing to do the hand and opener in the foreground, and the armored knight, even if not with his helm open and a look of fear, in the back ground? It would promote the profession by showing what illustrations can do better than photos.) with no moving parts,
• the can-and-bottle opener on your jackknife, and
• the kind mounted on the edge of a counter in commercial kitchens (does its design eliminate crevices near the food, like the bearing of the sharp-edged wheel, for the sake of public health?):
  • it's "hand operated", but (in contrast with the "pliers" one shown presently) i mean arm, not fingers: it has a 6-12 inch crank, not an oblong knob that you grasp at both ends and turn like a jar top; you hold a 1- or 2-inch-diameter wheel at one end, and make this wheel revolve around the other end of the crank, flexing your elbow and shoulder joints;
  • instead of often hanging from the can opener, the can sits flat on the counter;
  • the can opener itself is free to slide up and down in a track or bracket mounted on the edge of the counter, and thus to handle cans of any height from a few inches to a foot or so;
  • the sharp edge is just a one edge of a triangular tooth: you have enough leverage that you don't need the rolling of a sharp wheel to reduce the friction.

The gear-and-tooth pliers style would also be worth the space IMO. --Jerzy (t) 03:16, 2005 May 5 (UTC)

[edit] Article does not mention bayonet tin openers or top down openers.

A bayonet tin opener is the one where you stab the tin lid near the edge and work around - they are not very common, but they are very robust and do not break. On the other hand they leave an ugly irregular opening. They have no moving parts.

All-metal 'top-down' openers are also common where I live. They cut down into the lid, rather than into the side of the can near the lids. I do not know what name they have. Instead of having a rotating circular blade like more recent openers, they just have a non-moving small 'plough' that splits the metal.

I am aggrevied that I have to keep buying a new can opener every few weeks. In particular, they are often damaged when I try to open those small oblong sardine cans. Reasons why they stop working:

1) The serated wheel wears down (rapidly) and loses its grip.

2) If the wheels are held in plastic, the plastic breaks.

3) For the all-metal top-down openers, the metal things that positions the opener on the side of the lid gets bent when I try to open sardine tins. They also suffer from (1).

4) The spindle holding the wheels in place comes apart.

5) Things that should not rotate around the spindles rotate around the spindles.

6) Things that should rotate around the spindles do not rotate around the spindles.

Even my reliable bayonet opener is starting to get blunt, so stabbing the can has become more difficult.

This is a list of all the different types of tin opener I can remember ever seeing or using:

a) The most recent type with two spindles, one of which has a gripping wheel and the other a cutting wheel. Usually cuts side of can near the lid.

b) Older type with only one spindle which has a gripping wheel, with the opening being done by a small 'plough'. Cuts lid of can, as do all those below. Still very common in UK.

c) Bayonette type - no moving parts. Rarely on sale.

d) Small folding, referred to in article as the P 81 I think.

e) Lever type which makes a triangular hole in the lid of the can, suitable for pouring liquids. If many such holes are made around edge of lid, then the lid could be opened. I have not seen one of these in decades.

f) Flat type apparantly supplied in some penknives. I cannot remember ever opening a tin with one of these, and I am not sure if they actually work.

I would be willing to pay a lot for an opener that lasted for years, not weeks. 81.104.12.10 01:24, 30 November 2006 (UTC)