Which you can use to your advantage: by getting the thick spots hotter and keeping the thin spots cooler, you can drift and even out the thickness at the same time. 

Which can be tricky.  I prefer to use a vertically mounted bullpin I made for my hardy hole and lightly hammer on the thicker sections till they look good.  Of course there is only 1 right way to do something blacksmithing and that is "ANY WAY THAT WORKS!"

I use the horn on my small Railroad track anvil.

This & many other reasons is why I'll never get rid of it.

 

 

 

Been messing around with some different ideas.

                                                                                                                                          Littleblacksmith

 

 

 

Dang Mark, those all look awesome except that first one. That one is stellar. Really great work on that one. 

Thank you!

                                                                                                                                             Littleblacksmith

Nice openers. Could you please explain the one with the three buttons/rivets?  Are they, in fact, rivets?  I like the seahorse too. 

Hawk

Thanks. Yeah that one was completely thought up while the steel was heating in the fire, just a random idea. Those are actual rivets, made from 3/8" round. 

                     Littleblacksmith

Been cool seeing all the openers... Here are a few more I've made. Going through my phone (my camera) I realize I haven't made an opener in quite a while... may need to remedy that... It's finally cooling down here so maybe worth firing up the forge this weekend.

Made from a chunk of 4140 shown to the left.

Here are a couple made from some cool rebar that was in my shop when we bought the house in 2002.

Some twisted variations...

Some I have made from files. My first is still my favorite. (the shorter one in the middle of the group photo)

And some weirder ones....

 

 

 

I gotta make a couple with wood handles.

Ive have seen a few on here & in Google searches & really like their look.

I was inspired by this thread, and decided to try my hand at making an opener. I was going for the swaged hoop end but it split off while I was punching it. (my wife asked if it was getting to cool and I said we'll take one more swing.....) so I cleaned up the end and bent a hook instead. It turned out well, and I learned a few lessons from my first opener! 

LBS, those openers with the wooden handles are absolutely beautiful...great work.  The others are first class too, but the two-toned wooden handle blew me away!!

oly, those file openers are great. I like the way you can read the makers' names.

The opener in Pic 9 could be a troll cross opener. Nice design.

Finally got to give the wood handle thing a try today with some scrap I had.

gun blued metal, white oak & copper pins aren't the best visual combination but everything went together easy enough.

I made up 3 more openers to practice putting wood handles on.

thank you Forum for the inspiration!

 

 

Tried a different design last night starting with a piece of pipe.

 

Finished my second attempt at a wood handled opener.

 I gotta admit I really like making these.

 

 

 

This is my latest bottle opener it is out of 12mm coil spring the corkscrew was a real pain.

I kept losing it to the fire gods.

I made the bottle opener end a bit wider to make it easier for the hand to fit and turn.

Thanks,

Luke

Grumpy, that is one cool opener. Nice finish - mild steel or high carbon? I like the tab idea. The dimple is different from the usual style. Inspirational. What was the starting stock?

The wood handled openers are gorgeous!  I haven't made a bottle opener in ages, now I'm inspired to try my hand at one of these. 

 

The wood ones look like they should go with an old school wooden bar.  I'd have to use corian as the folks I know keep dropping them in the washtub full of ice!

20 hours ago, ausfire said:

Grumpy, that is one cool opener. Nice finish - mild steel or high carbon? I like the tab idea. The dimple is different from the usual style. Inspirational. What was the starting stock?

Started with 3/16 x 3/4 flat stock 5.5"-6" long

17 hours ago, ThomasPowers said:

The wood ones look like they should go with an old school wooden bar.  I'd have to use corian as the folks I know keep dropping them in the washtub full of ice!

I had a guy send me a set of Colt 1911 grips. Said he wanted to see if I could do something with them .

So I guess that's my next project.

They're the polymer ones instead of wood.

 

Corian is a nice material. It would make a nice opener handle. 

I call this one my Pair 'O Dice opener. 

Made a mini opener.

glad some folks here posted their wood handled openers.

I’ve been having a blast making them.

 

 

 

 

Very classy!