For the past ten weeks, I have been using the same P-38 can opener on a daily basis. It opens approximately two cans a day (some days none, some days one, some days four or five). It also does general odds and ends duty- tightening a light screw, opening bottles, ripping into food packaging, that kind of thing. It gets cleaned with the two-lick method.

It has a slight curve to the blade now, outward, but nothing that doesn't improve it some microscopic amount. The very tip is a little bent, but I've not noticed it having any effect. It also has some discoloration, but nothing that is grungy looking- it is just darker, like a cast iron pan that has been used is compaired to a new one. The main part has some discoloration, but nothing else.

I honestly didn't expect it to last this long. I mean, it is a 50 cent steel stamping that was made to be fairly disposable, I figured it would have packed up after a month, and it is begging to open stuff. Weren't these things issued in every k-ration pack, one a day, during WWII? I've had electric can openers that didn't last this long.

*raising a P-38 to the sky in both palms, like a gift to the winds* I give you, the greatest piece of military equipment, for it's weight and cost, EVER!

More posts on the abuse of the P-38 to come in coming months.

I've had one on a keychain for fifteen+ years, and it performs as well today as it did when I got it.

I, like many here, have a P-38 stashed just about everywhere. But I have tried and tried to get the thing to strike sparks on my ferro rod. The back of the saw on my Leatherman (Wave or Juice) will just kick the P-38's butt when it comes to spark-making. I tried stoning the back of the P-38 square but that made no difference at all.

If the P-38 could be modified to create a manly shower of sparks then I would agree it's the best thing since cold beer. But until then it's just another can opener. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Consider that a challenge..........

Regards, Vince

Still ahve mine from 1978, still works. Keep them stashed all over.

Dave

I still have my first P-38, marked 1961 and I have had it since basic training in 1966. Carry it on my keychain, never fails to open cans and works as a screwdriver and small prybar. They do not wear out! I use another as an everyday can opener, opens every can I ever use. I guess I am too cheap to invest in an electric for the kitchen! Never had a woman that liked my P-38 though....I was always the official operator <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

An AMAZING bit of kit. Amazing.

My Dad gave me a P-38 back in 1973, and I put it on my keyring because I thought it was way cool. (Hey, I was a 14 year-old geek. Sue me.) That SAME P-38 is still on my keyring because, well, it is just so darn useful (that’s a form of cool, right?) It has been with me almost everywhere. (The only place, ironically, that I did not get to carry it was at Basic Training.) It had a date and some lettering on it, but they have long since worn off. It is almost all raw, silver metal. But it still works. It has been used as a can opener, tape ripper (for packages), staple puller, keyboard cleaner, screwdriver, pry bar, used to bend wire, as a scraper for making sparks, and as an ad-hoc measuring device.

Yes, my Squirt and my Wave have a can/bottle openers. But……

Sometimes, you just gotta stick with the classics.

…..CLIFF

What about the slightly lager p-51 ( I think that's the designation)?

I find that these open cans much more easily and quickly, and their size (only slightly larger) makes them even more useful.

I would be curious to know what result such a test would have on the Coghlan's version of the p-38. I don't know where I can find genuine p-38. Since my father did his military service for the US during the Berlin wall (before the Vietnam war) he still have a p-38 still working but I'm looking for a source of new ones in my vicinity and I'm afraid Coghlan is the only one available. I'll visit military surplus but most of the time they don't have genuine gear.

Good post. I was at the local surplus store here in Arizona, and the p-38s were some cheapo junk!! Where can I get the military ones that are good???

Despite having used many a "real" P-38 provided by Uncle Sam, can't say that I know how to distinguish genuine from a wannabe. Google came up with this page, with patent info (scroll down) and this page has more info on its history than you'd ever want to know.