Tin openers

I remember about 50 years ago my boss telling us a story about one meal time during his apprenticeship. He usually made the evening meal, but he was late this particular evening, so his flat mate decided to do it, can't be too hard to heat a can of spaghetti, so put the tin in a pot, put pot on stove, go into the next room, sometime later "BOOM", it opened the can, it split the aluminium pot flat, Spaghetti in places you wouldn't think, like inside the three pin plugs among other things.

ps You should put some water in the pot if your going to use that method.

Ian S C

The Swiss Army, Victorinox or Wenger, pocket knife openers are my fall-back solution when others fail.

I slightly prefer the Wenger design because it's just a can opener but both are quick and effective. I find them almost as quick as the turn handle type.

Only downside is perhaps that the hygeine might not be 100% since you don't quite know what the pocket knife's been

Jon

If you have no clean pans then boil your tin of beans un-opened. Should be OK because the tins are sealed at boiling point ? A standard Scottish sweety is made by boiling a sealed tin of condensed milk for a long time. Note- do not blame me if it goes wrong.

Going back to the original question - I'm curious if anyone agrees with my suggestion that the reduced thickness of tinplate is the issue?

Neil

I do think the reduced can wall thickness & seam thickness is the primary factor for making the openers so rubbish at working. I also think the strength of the tan opener lug is lower too. I think it's just lower strength steel, not any difference in thickness.

Regards,

Richard.

I think the 'real' problem is that items like this are always now made in the far east by people who know that here in the west we are basically a bunch of wealthy fat morons with money to burn and who are too blase to even care about 'quality control'... and will just chuck the thing after a couple of trys and buy another one.....

....This reminds me of a continuing disagreement with my nearest and dearest a few years back about salt mills...basically we went thru about four that did not work until I got a bit annoyed and pointed out that they were all from the far east and were going up in cost each time! Eventually, it was down to me to take one back for a refund at Robert Dyas, where they were completely unsurprised that it did'nt work but amazed that I was asking for money back!

LOL, I don't qualify on any of those counts but I still buy the cheapies and chuck 'em; experience tells me that spending more on a 'better' one is not likely to be worthwhile. That said, there are enough posters in this thread who are obviously delighted with their openers. I suppose the moral is, just because you pay top dollar doesn't mean you're getting the best product.

What sort of steel to use for the business end of a P38-style opener?

Agree the steel is thinner and makes the opener not grip. Our old ,all steel, one stopped working and wife bought a new one. Very bonney looking with plastic handles etc. This stopped working very quickly. Examined the old one , "adjusted" the frame using vice and hammer. It now works well, it just fits the new tins better.

My first operational aircraft was the Valetta and we had no means of heating food apart from the type 52 resistance for the 54/55 radios. This lived below the Signaller's desk and glowed red hot in use!! Tins of soup had to be distorted slightly to fit on top of this and it took up to 3/4 of an hour to heat through. Inevitably, they would be forgotten occasionally, at which point it was wise to hand the can (suitably wrapped!) to the Nav and head out of the cockpit. On return, the Nav (not best pleased!) would be trying to remove surplus soup from his charts. The standard tin opener then was a metal strip with a triangular tip, bent at an angle, and referred to as a 'can spanner'. Possibly the prime example of the late Sam Goldwyn's mangled edict - "Simplicate and add lightness"

rgds

Bill

I like that but never heard it before, so had to look it up:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bushnell_Stout

Definitely, they always stop part way through opening now.

Michael W

I don't think it really matters where you come from, if it doesn't work, of course you wont like it!

The west has some of the strictest of standards for products in the world (but only if it's made to that).

Funnily enough I think I've seen a program before about salt/pepper mills and i'm sure the company was European based, not far eastern.

Michael W

Edited By Michael-w on 27/02/2017 14:04:08

PaulR - "so had to look it up" - I'm sure Wiki has improved its reliability since its early days and the attribution is correct (although one might suppose a literate engineer would have used simplify, rather than simplicate) My source (from memory) was one of David Niven's autobiographical tales of Hollywood (Bring on the empty horses)? or The Moon's a Balloon, citing Sam Goldwyn's talent for mangling spoken English.

rgds

Bill

.

Bill,

[hope you don't mind me mentioning it]

I think that both 'simplicate' and 'add lightness' were used deliberately; and were intended to be memorable for their knowing nod to the more commonly-used opposites ['complicate' and 'add weight'].

MichaelG.

You can mount the can in a 3 jaw and part the lid off or an angle grinder works well.

You just end up with a face full of food instead at 500rpm!

Michael W

Do it with your mouth open.

"Simplify and add lightness" Wasn't that Colin Chapman's mantra?

Rod

Power hacksaw and lick up the dribbled contents might be less messy than parting off - you might get extra iron in your diet too!

If You like a P-38, You will like it's big brother, a P-51.