I had one of the Fort Rangers who is a beer history buff tell me when. But I have since forgotten. I think it was a bit after 1845 when I started researching a little on my own. Maybe this'll help as a start point.

The bottle cap was patented by William Painter of Baltimore in 1892.

"June of 1890, and the third (and most important) was filed just shy of one year later. All three shared a similar core design: a sealing medium in the form of a thin disk or plug, affixed firmly to the top of a bottle via a crimped metallic disk. " From All about Beer magazin in a quote about William Painter.

"Technically, Alfred L. Bernardin (who history has shown was decidedly not Painter’s BFF) beat him to the patent office by about three months, receiving a patent for his counter-mounted “bottle-uncapping tool” in July 1893."

I believe Painters went more widespread use a year later 1894. As Bernadin's was unpopular.

According to collectors weekly Painter invented the crown top in 1892. ...........Yada yada yada, followed by the patents.

 

 

Edited January 15, 201610 yr by Rashelle
more info.

Oh I LOVE this group. What did that take less than an hour? I probably would've been right with the replies but I had to load some stuff in the truck for a hinge workshop tonight. Well, there was some honey do involved too.

Any pictures of the "period" openers?

Frosty The Lucky.

My posts keep disappearing.

Internet picture:

This design comes closest to William Painters patented design of June 5, 1893.

Yeah I was going to post the same picture as coldiron. Frosty I know that you said you don't forge much anymore, but if if anyone is gonna make a replica of these time period openers, I think it should be you. You have helped us all out so much, but I have never seen anything you have forged. I hope you try it out!

Painters company was Crown Cork and Seal in Baltimore Md. My Grandfather worked in the research division of Crown during and after the 2nd World War ( not sure when exactly he started). Some where around here we have a rubber mat that was used as part of the printing process for making bottle caps he got from work when it was discarded some time back in the late 50's early 60's. We used it as a mat for working on the ground under the car since you could simply wipe off stuff like oil and grease.

Oh that's pretty interesting

The top one in the patent drawing appears to have a built in bottle stopper-the round part in the cutaway looks to have an added layer, possibly rubber. Open it, then use the opener to reseal it. 

A couple more openers from today's efforts. I thought I would try making a leaf-handled opener. I think I left too much mass on the middle one and the leaf turned out too big in comparison to the opener. The wrapped one is more the right size.

I was doing a third one while a visitor was looking at some letter openers I had done. She said why don't you put a letter opener on the other end of a bottle opener. So I did. That's the lower one in the picture. You can have a beer while you open the mail.

Those are some nice openers! The leaves were brushed with a brass brush?

ausfire, you just flat out make some beautiful stuff...

FG: Yes, brass brush on hot.

arkie: You are too kind. Did you see the ones I posted in 'Problem Solving'? They don't always work out as planned!

I saw those, but they were from wrought iron which can be pretty difficult to forge with. Personally, I think you make some fantastic openers too!

This is really my first real project that wasn't a tool and I thought, "never have enough bottle openers". Started with 1/2" square stock. 

So I started out wanting to make a Rams head and ended up leaving it a bull Horn. 

First one of its kind I've tried. 

 

Das went I 1st looked at your 1st pict the bottom 1/2 was still covered. All I could see was the opener where a pommel should be, what looked like a hilt and cross guard and the start of what looked like a straight bladed dagger. Just the thing you need to open a cold one after defending your honor in a duel, or fighting off the enemy with dagger and rapier.

6 hours ago, DSW said:

Das went I 1st looked at your 1st pict the bottom 1/2 was still covered. All I could see was the opener where a pommel should be, what looked like a hilt and cross guard and the start of what looked like a straight bladed dagger. Just the thing you need to open a cold one after defending your honor in a duel, or fighting off the enemy with dagger and rapier.

Sounds like a plan  sword bottle opener. Reminds me of the kid posting on here wanting to make a sword just to open a wine bottle to impress his friends lol. 

Might be an interesting add on to the end of a grilling fork thinking about it. Cold beer and steaks on the grill go well together.

48 minutes ago, DSW said:

Might be an interesting add on to the end of a grilling fork thinking about it. Cold beer and steaks on the grill go well together.

Make a matched set. 

Here's one I did today out of a peice of cable i kinda like it. 

Nice job. did you use borax for the welded ends?

 

21 minutes ago, Daswulf said:

Nice job. did you use borax for the welded ends?

 

Yup, generous with the borax