Corkscrews

Or just google with "Laguiole" and "3004".

That's the one I use, and it's the best tool I have ever experienced.

M.

Cheers - I'll give that a go.

I agree that the Laguiole is wonderful but for significantly less money the Pulltap from Franmara works beautifully. It is sharp and narrow, Teflon-coated and the two-step opening process will accommodate very long corks with ease:

BTW have you tried sharpening your corkscrew? I simply rub the tip of the worm against a sharpening steel, after you get the knack it is fun and can be an amusing parlor trick to boot.

pavane

Funny, having used both extensively, I find the Laguiole geometry significantly better. Although only single-levered, it gets out very long corks better than the double-levered pull-tap. But the difference is not *that* dramatical, of course.

M.

I am using a Pulltap at the moment - it is a cheap one (£4 in the UK) - so may not have the teflon coating etc. The problem I have with it is the gauage (thickness?) of the wire that the worm is made out of. When screwing into dense corks, there just doesn't seem to be enough "give" in the cork to accomodate the worm, and it starts to push the cork down into the bottle. I am going to try sharpening it as per pavane's suggestion, but also get a Laguoile to compare.

Many thaks for your suggestions.

Chaz.

I agree with all you say, and would add that the Laguiole is a true work of art and an aesthetic pleasure to use. I simply did not want the only answer to be one in the hundred-dollar range and have found the Pulltap at around six dollars to be quite usable. The Laguiole, also, can be sharpened as noted above.

Prices quoted are in US dollars; divide by 1.12 for euro or by 1.6 for pounds sterling.

pavane