Made the cork screw a few weeks ago, but trying make a matching bottle opener was a bit difficult. It was a good thing I was low on supply of stock for making hooks, my bin is now we'll supplied! These will be items for sale in a state Auctioneer association contest in a few weeks paired with a bottle of wine and a six pack of local craft beer.

I like that handle on the bottle opener. Gives me some ideas to play with. 

$1 swap meet wrench and version 2.0 pendant opener. Both as forged and need cleaned up

The twisted wrench was one of my first projects. The small opener was a first attempt at splitting and drifting, it won't win any prizes but it does get the top off the beer! The other pair are a more recent effort, I think there's some progression but still not 100% happy with them.

 

Had to give the wood handle a try. I think there's gonna be more coming

i made these 8 openers over the last 2 weeks and i was reasonable pleased, what i found the most frustrating is when i was punshing the holes and drifting them the rag would curl up on itself and embed itself in the material ( i probably should hot rasp it before i enlarge the hole) and after drifting the hole when i wanted to enlarge the holes over the horn of the  anvil i noticed the the material would try  twist over itself which is a pain in the a"". probably do to lack of proper technique, butt where learning. it was fun and frustrating 

Bryson489,

Im absolutely hooked on putting handles on my openers .

I first saw a few doing a google search for new ideas and then some on here.

Love making them as I need the practice from start to finish moving & shaping metal as well as polishing and adding handles.

I found I have no problems with finding folks to give these to.

Maybe one day I’ll sell some but for now I just give them away till I feel I’m at a level where I want to put my mark on them & begin selling.

Until then Im going to have fun playing with different ideas.

 

BTW, I like the shape of that opener you posted !

 

Thanks grump, 

They're definitely a great gift for all occasions. That one was a last minute addition to a gift box and now i need about a dozen more now haha. 

Hi every one,  this is my first post and also my first attempt at decorating a bottle opener with a skull design.  I have made a few bottle openers before this one but this is by far the best one i have done.

Welcome to IFI! If you haven’t yet, please READ THIS FIRST!!!

Update to my post from 12/15/18:

Paired the bottle opener and corkscrew with a bottle of JW Cabernet Sauvignon and a six pack of Summit beer. (I guess the wine is like $65US per bottle in my area, but we acquired it randomly and prefer sweet whites like Riesling and Moscato.) Sold the complete package at Auction for $95US. 

After the contest I overheard a gentleman offer the new owner $25US for just the Corkscrew. The new owner said, "For $25 I'll sell you the bottle of wine, but I just paid $95 for that Corkscrew." 

Can't believe I made a $95 Corkscrew. Thanks to all of you on IFI that have contributed to my learning of this craft. Now if I can figure out a way to make, market and sell about a dozen per week for the next 50 yrs, I could quit my day job!

Glenn II

Here's a couple of openers I made recently. The one on the left was a bit of an experiment. It started out like the one on the right and then I twisted it to see what happened. 

I like the simple design on the right better.

Nice clean forgings Ted. 

Thanks, these are the first openers I've done in a while and I sort of forgot how fun it is.

Agreed on the quality of your forge work. Very nice. I'm still new to the practice and aspire to create pieces half as precise and yours.

I favor the one on the right as well. I do like the twisted piece and standalone it's very nice, but when paired, the one on the right steals a bit of it's thunder. Nice work all around.

Thanks Pete, it's nice to get some positive feedback. I've finally built enough jigs and tools that my range of creativity has expanded. I also spend a fair amount of time finishing my work on the wire wheel, grinder, filing and cleaning up the surface. Nobody says that you have to be done after the anvil work.

Ok, so my openers used to be just a twisted bar with the flat in the front. This is my first of this style. I was going for a fish tail look but my chisel skills are a little off. So i just made due. 

Half round twist, brass highlights. The middle, cant really see in photo, is darker. I burnt beeswax on to the piece. Then waxed after a few more minutes of cooling.

 

Nice twist Billy, those can be tough to get even.

I wanted to try some wood handles. I had some old exotic hardwood from my woodworking days, so I put a couple of 1/4" pieces on this opener. I forgot to darken the steel before I glued it up, but it didn't turn out too bad.

I was also goofing around with some brass rod and made a simple design on a basic opener. I like the contrast of the brass with the dark steel.

I'm working on another one with a little more interesting design.

Ted, those are really classy openers. The lifting tabs are so neat. Would you care to show us the punch you use to achieve that?

And if that is 'goofing around' your serious work must be awesome!

Thanks Ausfire, I'm glad you like 'em. The punch is made from an old grounding rod, which happened to be made from some mystery steel. I turned it down on the lathe to a .5" end, rounded it off, then heat treated it. Nothing special really.

I start the punch back on the handle and angle it towards the ring to move the metal in that direction. It makes a cleaner groove and adds a little metal to the tab. Once I get the tab punched out, I clean it up a bit with a Dremel tool to remove the ridges. I found a little beveled grinding bit which fits nicely into the groove.

Ted

Ted, thanks for the pic of the punch and the info on its use. I use the ball end of a small ball peen hammer, applied straight down. I can see how your angled approach adds a bit more mass.

Ted, nice work. Love the brass in lays.

Thanks, those inlays are real easy. Just drill a hole the size of your brass rod and pound in a piece of rod about 1/16th longer than the width of your material. Sand or grind the excess off and you're done. The brass expands into the steel and locks itself in.

Cube twist!