I tried some copper to see how it would turn out. It's hard to shine up after heating, and doesn't provide a lot of contrast. Nevertheless, the 1/8" brass turned out pretty good. 

 

I recently was surfing the net and Rafael Griaudo from Argentina made a similar opener, but I have a client that loves owls so I made this one as a test piece. I started with 1/2" square stock. Half round chisel is shown in pic below for trimming after hot punching, then shaped over the horn of the anvil. 2/20/10 JFK

Geeze Jeremy, do you ever make a test piece that doesn't exceed my skill level by 1000%?

ship it to me, I'll gladly "test" it thoroughly for you.

I think it's a winner. 

 

+1 to what Das said. lol

+2 to Das' s comment. I've tried a few owl openers but that one is in a class of its own. Those eyes are perfect. May we see the tooling used?

Wow - really impressed with that opener Jeremy - great job!

 

Rafael Griaudo from Argentina made a similar opener that I had seen before I made the one I made for a sample piece.

Here are the tools (nothing fancy) I used for the Owl bottle opener,  L to R :

Chisel

Flat round punch

Flat slot punch

Large curved chisel

Eye punch

Small curved chisel

Piece of 1/2" x 1/2" square stock

Thanks, Jeremy.  I have most of those, except the large curved chisel.

Speaking of bottle opener tools, I use a small ball peen hammer to make the lifting tab in a loop opener. After a while they get a bit flat, so I thought the ball on the end of an old socket wrench might work. Welded on a handle and gave it a go for today's ram demo piece. Gives a smaller tab, but neater. I guess it is some kind of high carbon steel so perhaps it will keep its shape longer. Not very neat welding, but does the job:

 

Tried something a little new for me. Supposed to resemble branches.

 

Nice Billy, good to try new things. Tried a few myself. I saw a picture similar to the opener on the top, so I thought I'd try it out and see how it works. The tang is a bit weak, but does the job. I started thinking and came up with the bottom one which I like better. I used 3/8" (9.5mm) round stock, but I think 1/4" would also work just fine.

Love the owl Mr. K, I love a good owl.

Nice use of an old tool Aus but I think it would've been more multi purpose if you'd rotated the ratchet 90* so you could still turn sockets. Hmmm?

Nice opener by the way.

Frosty The Lucky.

Nah. The ratchet in the socket wrench was seized up and unserviceable. Frosty, you know I would not sacrifice a perfectly usable tool for such a purpose!

Here's a couple of openers I made with 1/4" (6.3mm) rod. The braiding is all torch work. I welded the three ends together and drew them out into a hook. The tang is bevelled on the underside to catch the lip of the cap. Something a little different anyway...

Nice, Ted! I had considered doing something similar,  but would probably just make a loop on the other end instead of a hook- the hook seems to put asymmetry into a design that seems to call for symmetry.

Thanks, I thought of a loop too. I'll try it if I build another one. 

On 2/24/2019 at 1:05 AM, ausfire said:

Nah. The ratchet in the socket wrench was seized up and unserviceable. Frosty, you know I would not sacrifice a perfectly usable tool for such a purpose!

I know you wouldn't destroy a good tool. I just saw a missed potential, even seized up it'll turn a socket.

I can't help changing things around in my mind, here I get to air ideas to my friends. You were it is all.

Frosty The Lucky.

Been catching up on a few bottle openers while it's been a bit quiet round the forge. People only need a sniff of a cyclone to put them off coming north.

Made a few longhorn and ram openers and then messed around with some 5/8" rebar scrap. It's tough stuff but I kind of like it because it has a great pattern/grip and there's plenty of mass for the loop. It also polishes up quite well. The two on the top are twisted, the other two are left plain.

Any ideas of how to make a rebar handle more interesting? (Without losing the texture).

Nice openers Aus. Maybe you could add a concrete handle to the rebar. Put a couple of brass rivits through it for decoration. 

Rebar bottle openers are great Thank-Yous for mechanics and construction folk who let you pick through their scrap bins. 

I like the twisted rebar ones a lot Aus. I'll have to give that a go on some. 

Love how the rebar looks twisted Aus. More interesting? Offer them as an option for cast concrete counter tops? I'm thinking cast the end into the edge of the counter top but that's be a good way to bruise folks so maybe make a recess so it doesn't protrude beyond the counter top edge. Good man cave bar top openers. Hmmmm?

Frosty The Lucky.

Here's one of mine. I got the inspiration for them while enjoying a Bass Ale, and I tell buyers that even if they drink like a fish, they won't wear one out. I usually start off with 4 or 5 inches of 1/4 x 1, and I like to drill them at the nose so they can be used as a key fob. The tip of the tail works well to pop the tabs on aluminum cans, too.

Thats an excellent fish opener! 

Thanks for the comments.

Ted, I'm not sure how a concrete handle would go. Might be a bit unstable. (Not for want of reinforcing steel!) Brass rivets could be a good way of brightening up the handles. Forge a couple of depressions in the steel and add rivets for decoration. Hmmmm...

John, there's certainly no shortage of raw material for these. Off cuts from starter bars, trench mesh corners, slab cut -outs for plumbing etc. Our council rubbish tip is full of this stuff.

Das, the twist does work well provided you don't overdo it.

Frosty, you are right … great man cave items. I often wonder how many of these just get hung up in the bar and never used. Most caps now are twist tops.

And MMM, that fish is just great. Straight to the inspirations file. Thanks.

Aus, I went ahead and built an opener with a "ceement" handle. It's in the curing stage so I'll post a pic in a day or so. I used mortar since the aggregate in concrete is too big.