Corkscrew question

Not in my experience. At least some of the time, there is a fair amount of force required on the lever to pull the cork out.

What there isn’t is any need to make twisting motions. Mr. Neville has some arthritis in his hands, and the twisting motions you use with other corkscrews are difficult for him. If that’s the same problem your mother has, a Rabbit corkscrew might help.

Waiter’s Corkcrews are the only way to go. Provided they have the necessary design, as in those linked to by Gary T, the only failure that I’ve ever had is the screw itself breaking off completely. Which is no problem, because you just screw another one in beside the first! (The blade is essential, if you want to look professional (although looking professional while cutting off a plastic seal is still tricky).) More important is the ability to judge the depth of the screw, so you don’t hit the bottom, and fill the bottle with shreds of wood.

Rabbit ears are dreadful. They inevitably go straight through the cork, and I’ve also had one of these break spectacularly.

I have one of those rabbit copycats. I believe mine was put out by Linens N Things. I used to love the thing until one day I was a tiny bit tipsy and tried using it. I didn’t place the lip of the bottle properly in the corkscrew and when I cycled it, the neck shattered. I don’t know if the real rabbit has that flaw.

Anyhoo, I went back to my old favorite: The cork puller.

I’ve never seen them called “rabbits”, but I’ve had one of those lever-action ones for five years or more. It’s this model, and I got it as a gift at a press conference from a chemical company.

It still works flawlessly after god knows how many hundreds of bottles, and I haven’t even had to break out the replacement screw yet.

I fail to see how anyone can use one of these things and not be instantly converted:

  1. Place corkscrew on bottle with lever up
  2. Quickly push lever down then pull back up
  3. Remove corkscrew from bottle. Bottle is now open.
  4. To remove cork from screw, push lever down then pull back up. Cork is caught between handles and drops off end of screw into your waiting palm.
    Total elapsed time: five seconds. Actually, I’ve timed it at three and a bit seconds from putting the corkscrew onto the bottle to holding the cork in my hand. I’m never going back to those fiddly manual ones.

I have the Oneida waiters corkscrew that GaryT linked to and love it. Personally, I’m not in some major rush to open a bottle of wine, so the Rabbit’s ability to pop a cork in 3 seconds doesn’t appeal to me. The other kinds that try to make it easy just serve to make it mindless, I feel no connection to the opening process, I’m just turning a knob.

The waiters corkscrew reminds me of this woman working in a Parisian restaurant, serving wine. Fastest corkscrew in the west - turnturntunturnturnleverPOP! I was so amazed at her display of skill that I vowed to switch over to the waiter’s corkscrew. If you do decide to go that way, watch out for some cheapo models, the hand grip needs to be solid, I bought one that had a slot in it on the side you grip, and I couldn’t lever out a cork without the metal sides digging painfully into my hand.

How the heck does a cork puller work?

Did Screwpull have a recently expired patent on the “rabbit” design? I saw no cheap imitators until recently.

The “rabbit” design has a disclaimer about avoiding plastic corks. It’s accurate. The teflon doesn’t work right, so it’s hard to get the cork off the screw without unscrewing it yourself with a lot of manual labor.

I have a waiter’s corkscrew built into a Leatherman Flair. That was a brilliant yet short-lived product. Only flaw is that I wish they had included a foil cutter. The main blade is the only one with an edge and it is too large and awkward.

My parents use a Screwpull.No pulling involved just keep turning until the cork is right out. Someone gave them that rabbit thingy and it went straight into the loft.

I just use a plain waiter-type corkscrew which I’ve always known as a Waiter’s Friend

Since it seems that the salient fact in this thread is that nearly evreyone has an opinion on the topic, I’m go to give the visitors to IMHO a chance to toss in their contributions.

[ /Moderator Mode ]

(Doesn’t anyone drink the pop-top canned wine from Hiney Winery?)

(Doesn’t anyone drink the pop-top canned wine from Hiney Winery?)
[/QUOTE]

Heh. I was going to suggest tossing the corkscrew and sticking to screwcapped, boxed wine, or other alternative packaging, but didn’t want the thread to steer more towards IMHO than it already had.

Another vote for the waiter-style corkscrew. I received one of these as a gift last year, hand-carried back from Paris.

I had no idea how expensive it was…damn, I’m gonna miss that girl…

A good waiter’s friend style cork screw is best, you can keep it in a back pocket for emergencies (though don’t try taking it on a plane these daya !) There is no flair in using a Rabit or Screwpull and you nearly always need to search arround for a knife to remove the foil from over the cork when using one. The knife is built into a waiters friend. Trader Joes even has a “waiter’s friend” with a safety foil cutter if you don’t like using a knife.

It’s pretty neat. You push the two prongs between the cork and the bottle. Once they’re down a ways, you start rocking the puller while pulling up. It drags the cork out of the bottle intact. You can also use it to re-cork the bottle.

I had never heard them called Rabbits either…got one as a promo gift from a local casino and love it. As every has said, fast and clean and no worry about ruining the cork by being off center.

Quick story - at a very fancy gala in Beverly Hills, I was a guest and happened to hear the caterer having a holy fit. They had cases and cases of wine, but do you think one person would have thought to bring a corkscrew? My trusty Swiss Army knife saved the day, although I bet those two guys who took turns opening all those bottles with that little corkscrew probably never want to see or hold a Swiss Army knife again.

Agreed. I don’t want to spend five minutes at the job, but I’m not troubled by taking 8 seconds while fancy models can do it in 3.

I’ve lost count of the number of times this has happened to me (though never in Beverly Hills).

I’m astonished that everyone doesn’t own one. The corkscrew offers no leverage, but it’s a damn sight better than nothing.

It’s a little hard to tell from the small pictures, but it looks as if the first one has a proper coil-shaped screw, while the other has one of those cheap auger-type screws that just chew up the cork and don’t hold well.