Those of us who use(ed) the Swiss Army Knife or other camp folders have long endured the snide remarks about field useless corkscrews, can and bottle openers. Well for all you aficionados of epoxy powder covered short swords I submit the following survival scenario : A party, several bottles of pink champagne and no corkscrew <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />

In best Homer Simpson voice, "D'Oh!, to the third power!" <img src="images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

<img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Ah ... so, little grasshopper, what does one do now to fix the situation? <img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

<img src="images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" /> I fail to see a problem here. Push a loop of the stainless steel wire that sits in your PSK down the bottle neck. Wiggle at bit to catch the cork and pull. Bottle is open <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />. If you don´t have the wire you might have to say "please, please, please" to someone who´s got some but doesn´t drink pink champagne.
For some strange reason nobody makes any snide remarks on any item I have in my PSK or EDC anyway <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.

With champagne there is no problem, just remove that safety wire tha holds the cork,shake the botle , POP!! FSSSSS!! there you go .

The situation gets more critic if instead of Dom Perignon you have several bottles of Sicilian" Duca di Salaparruta" or some Chilean Merlot of "Santa Rosa Del Peral".

Here even a run-of -the-mill Leatherman ( NOT the Flare) can help, by carefully using one of it's tools to carve away the cork or just to push it into the bottle ( been there...)


Cheers anyway and best wishes for 2003 A.C.

Well, you're right !!!
It's no laughing matter !

Here, in France, that's what we call a REAL EMERGENCY/SURVIVAL situation .. <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> ......
And that's why I have included a penknife WITH corkscrew in my french-EDC-urban-PSK .......

Concerning PSK and drinking matters, we do not rely on condoms (we prefer to use those for other purposes ........) <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Anyway, wine is only well kept in glass bottles ......!!.....

About champagne bottles, it's easy to open without removing the cork, if it is too hard to manually uncork :
just slide a somewhat heavy fork handle (for instance ; or the back of a heavy knife ...) along the bottle neck and hit the rim ( ?? is that the correct term ??). It should "explode" and champagne will flow freely ... that's called "sabrer la bouteille", in order to "sabler le champagne".


Alain

I've heard that you can un-cork a wine bottle with a knife blade (there was specific reference to the wave blades). any1 know how?

last edition in "trail" a walking mag in England-they showed you how to do it with shoe laces-i don't understand the diagrams-or i would explain-perhaps i'm just thick!!!!lol

Mark

As others have pointed out, you don't need (or want) a corkscrew for champagne. Doesn't matter, real men don't drink pink champagne... if, indeed, there really is such a thing.

For those who take their wine seriously, there are an assortment of traditional emergency techniques for getting into a bottle of "real" wine. One romantic one involves using the back of a sabre... probably harder to find than a corkscrew, these days, and it purportedly takes practice. Another involves a fire and a wet feather. You can, of course, always push the cork in, but that's at least inelegant.

For whatever it's worth, I always take TWO corkscrews when travelling. One has to prioritize one's survival gear, after all...

Not everyone knows it, but the Israeli Galil assault rifle has a bottlecap lifter built in, at the base of the bipod legs. Some German bayonets also had them.

In this case, I don't think it was so much an appreciation of proper priorities, as a resigned recognition that if you don't give the troops the tool, they'll use some other part of the mechanism...

>> they'll use some other part of the mechanism... <<
They discovered that the least skilled indivuals would use the clip. They usualy damaged the clip. Of course that caused "inexplicable" jams when firing the rifle.

My mother-in-law broke two corkscrews on one bottle of wine trying to extract the cork. At that point she decided that there must be something seriously wrong with the wine and tossed the bottle!

i like her style!


Mark

Hmm. I assume you really mean the "magazine". I haven't tried it, but I can't imagine the mag lips being strong enough to lift the bottle cap, damage or no. Maybe.... there's noting else on a mag that might grip it...

Some years ago I got a Swiss Champ knock-off at a gun show for $4. After carrying it in my pocket for a week, I tried to use the corkscrew on a bottle of wine. You can imagine my surprise when the corkscrew came out almost straight, and the cork stayed in the bottle. Say no to crappy tools ;-) .

Guillermo Pico-Munoz

I think "magazine" would be a proper term. The lips can be used for lifting a bottle cap, provided one is stupid enough to try. It´s just a question of technique. Believe it or not, if you know how to do it, even AOL-CDs can be used for lifting a bottle cap.
I will not describe the technique as it shouldn´t be done anyway. In the case of the CD it might cause injuries, if not done properly.

on the subject of getting into beer in an emergency, i've always found that the cheap disposable butane lighters work perfectly, and trust me when i say that i've needed to get into a beer in an emergency <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

take it easy.
stuart

Ok, so I'm dense... it's Saturday night, and (apropo of the subject at hand) I've had... er... a few glasses of wine... but someone's going to have to explain that technique to me.

>> on the subject of getting into beer in an emergency, i've always found that the cheap disposable butane lighters work perfectly, and trust me when i say that i've needed to get into a beer in an emergency<<

This is the technique:
Make sure the bottle doesn´t have a screw cap <img src="images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.
Hold the lighter in your right hand. The bottom should stick out between thumb and index finger. Grab the bottle neck with your left hand. The lighter should fit tightly between the left index finger and the cap. Put the lighter in a slight upward angle between the index finger and the cap. The upper edge MUST have good contact to the cap. Now tighten your grip on the bottle and rotate the lighter downward (it is used as a lever). The cap should pop off. It sounds more complicated than it is.
Note:
For your first attempts you should take an almost empty lighter as it´s quite easy to break into the gas tank.

well i missed the post asking me for a reply but max did a better job of explaining the technique than i could possibly have under the circumstances, it's a saturday night here too and i'm on my third lighter!! it is a hell of a lot simpler than it sounds tho, a good grip is all you really need to make it work and with practice it's just sa quick as a regular bottle opener, i'm off to try the technique some more!!

take it easy.
stuart

actually... the lips of the UZI magazines were very strong and made for an "admirable" cap lifter. Those of the M-16, OTOH being made of very thin aluminum sheet, were not up to the job.

<<Those of the M-16, OTOH being made of very thin aluminum sheet, were not up to the job.>>

Never seen an aluminum M-16 Magazine and I've seen at least thousands. In fact, the issue magazines are quite sturdy. Kind of apples-oranges comparison, as the submachine gun is not a rifle... both have applications in warfare and neither does tho other's job very well. (I do not care at all for the cut-down M16 variants; YMMV)

The Uzi feeds a short straight case directly forward and the magazines remind me of Sten magazines - they only need to hold a cartridge in the general vicinity of the path of the bolt (barrel breeches are actually coned or funneled to aid sloppy feeding). I agree that they are made of thicker metal, but that's not the whole story. The Uzi and Sten magazines are usually intentionally made from non-tempered (probably low carbon) steel that forms into the simple shape very readily - in fact, that lends itself to production in unsophisticated shops.

I believe the M-16 magazines are made from a different grade of steel. Feeding a bottle-necked case at a slight upwards angle out of the magazine into the chamber is a bit more finicky at the magazine end - bent feed lips are not good. I'd bet that it actually takes more force to permanently deform the feed lips on an issue M-16 magazine; it's just that Uzi-Sten requirements for feeding are less involved because of the path of the cartridges from magazine to chamber.

Pistol magazines (my beloved M1911A1 comes to mind) are another story - the geometry involved means that feed lips should be "perfect" or else. Eveyone with more than a couple of pistol magazines has at least one that won't reliably feed. Ironically, the ones I've run across with the best reliability have been WWII era magazines... perhaps only the "good" ones were kept? I function test ALL magazines...

None of them should be used as a bottle cap lifter, eh? I'll keep my SAK (with corkscrew, LoL!) on me...

Regards,

Tom

Tom,
Take it easy . It´s not really an apples-oranges comparison (the job in question is NOT feeding cartridges). It´s about the question if a magazine could be (ab)used as a bottle cap lifter at all. As a magazine is a single purpose precision instrument, it´s not really relevant which one is more resistant to that kind of abuse. As you correctly pointed out neither should be used for it anyway. That doesn´t keep inconsiderate people from doing it though. That´s especially true when they are thirsty and don´t see a suitable alternative.

I only use USGI magazines with my AR-15 (M-16), because of their unparalled quality. If you bend the lip on these magazines...they become useless, they will not stay in.

What kind of 1911A1 do you have Tom? I recently picked up a Kimber Custom at the local gun show. Truly a reliable and fun to shoot pistol. Now I can't put the thing down! I just wish I were allowed to carry it on duty! LOL

John McIntire

We just returned from a week's camping in the desert, so I'm a little slow in adding to this thread.

Anyway a SAK rescued us & made me a hero.

Early in our marriage, my wife & I took a impromptu camping trip at a small, remote fishing resort. My new wife packed little food, planning instead to buy our food at a local store. Naturally the lake's store had available only the rudiments: macaroni, cheese, Spam, canned asparagus, & a bottle of wine. Much to my astonishment, she showed her culinary genius & prepared a delectable casarole. But she had forgotten to pack a corkscrew. Fortunately, I had my first SAK, a Spartan with its corkscrew. I debonairly (or at least I felt that way) extracted the cork, and we feasted. <img src="images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I'll never forget that save. Thereafter, I've always remember to pack a SAK with a corkscrew, now usually a Swiss Champ or a Rucksack since I ordinarily carry a Fieldmaster which has a phillips screwdriver instead of a corkscrew; I'm not sure that a Huntsman with its corkscrew wouldn't be wiser.

I admit it. I am a SAK chauvinist!

John

SAKs forever! <img src="images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I agree. SAKs rock.
I now carry a swisschamp in addition to the wave and a small gerber LTR.

However, my gerber LTR seems to have its holding screw coming loose ever so often. And i have to keep retightening it. Is this a manufacturing defect ? Anyone with experience with this ?