Every once in a while I buy a bottle of plum wine that I just can't
open. I've even broken the neck of the bottle trying to break the
metal sleeve in the cap.
Yesterday I tried scoring the half-scored part with a kitchen knife,
but only succeeded in hiding the fact that it ever was scored.
Is there a trick to opening plum wine bottles?
I do not drink plum wine, but I have opened half-scored metal caps on
other products that I could not open just using twisting by hand. I
don't know where you live, so you may or may not find exactly what I
mention in your local stores. However you likely can find something
about the same in most parts of the world. There is a special holder
for hacksaw blades that is about 8' long that lets the blade extend a
few inches(adjustable) at the end of the holder. This normally is used
to reach in tight places where you can not get the bow of a normal
hack saw in. The one I have is labeled 15-809 by Stanley and is made
in the USA(since it is a few years old, it might well be made in the
far east and sold by Stanley by now). Also buy a regular hacksaw
blade with fine teeth. The blade I use is a 24T x 10". An ordinary
hack saw with fine blade likely would work, but it would be rather
clumsy to use. Also a drywall (plaster board) saw should work, but the
fixed, stiff blade on it has has rather large teeth. The normal use
for it is to go in through a small hole in drywall boards and saw out
a large opening. Stanley also makes this, and it likely will be
available at building supply and home center stores. The price of
these two special saws is quite reasonable.
On 2008-01-03 19:40:05 -0800, cwdjrxyz said:
I do hope your hacksaw blade holder is 8 inches, not 8 feet! As I read
I got an image of two people holding the hacksaw blade and on holding
the wine bottle... :-)
Actually I usually have a pet gorilla do the work, and he needs a long
tool to reach from his cage to where I have the bottle. If you are
close enough for him to reach you with his hands, he may hug you and
break some of your ribs. He can twist the caps off by hand, but I am
afraid he will break the glass bottle neck and cut his hand. :-). Oh
well, this tall tale is no worse than some of the political ads I am
hearing these days. However 8 "(inches) is about right for a hacksaw
blade holder for me.
Is this a Stelvin closure, the same kind of screwtop used on some
regular wine bottles?
If so, I can tell you that a Screwpull capsule cutter works just fine
on them. I learned this by accident a few years ago, when I used one
to remove the top of the capsule from a bottle, and was shocked to
then see that the bottle had no cork underneath it! ;-)
I feel like I'm walking into a blond joke. If it's a screw-off stelvin, then
it's not necessary to engage in brute force tactics. Generally they are
perforated near the screwtop. I would conclude from the thread that it is not a
screw-off stelvin, but the question did come up.
Are there stelvin caps that don't screw off? (not counting crown caps)
Jose
--
You can choose whom to befriend, but you cannot choose whom to love.
for Email, make the obvious change in the address.
My suggestion--certainly brute force--was for someone who was having
trouble opening it. Certainly if it screws off easily, there's no need
to do what I suggested.
No, but there may be some that, for whatever reason, are difficult to
unscrew. I was trying to help someone who seemed to be in that
situation. I certainly don't recommend that method for all Stelvin
closures.
The bottles that I most often have to use the hacksaw blade on are
some small bottles of Italian vinegar. The screw cap is of
considerably smaller diameter than on most wine bottles. There is a
plastic seal under the top of the thin metal screw cap. There are
threads on the glass bottle so the screw cap can be resealed many
times, since vinegar often is stored for a long time after opening.
There is a glass ring with flat surface just below the glass threads.
Unopened, the screw cap extends over this glass ring and is pinched
down under the ring so the cap will stay very firmly attached during
shipment. The perforations in the metal are at the bottom of the glass
ring just before it curves in to a diameter less than that of the
ring. When the screw cap is twisted, the screw cap is supposed to
break at the perforations. Then the lower part of the screw cap below
the ring falls down the neck of the bottle and the screw cap can then
be unscrewed and resealed. The problem is that often much force is
required to twist the cap to break it. If one users pliers on the
upper part of the cap, the metal bends and binds on the bottle
threads. The hacksaw blade trick is the best way I have found to
overcome this problem.
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