This page has two pictures, the first one is the type we call a church key (I’ve heard it called a “loop opener”) and the second type I always called a punch opener, or can punch. I am 40. I voted with the over 40’s since it’s past my birthday. But to be technical, there is no “I am 40” option.
I’m 42 and grew up in rural Western Ohio. Church key is the term for bottle/can opener, heard the term since I learned language, I suppose.
This. SoCal, age 51.
Yup. I’m 53 and have used them since I was about 6. They were absolutely necessary, as pop cans didn’t have pull tabs on them. And you also needed one to open large cans of juice. And the adults also used them to open their beer bottles and cans. I have one in my kitchen drawer even now and I use it to open my beer because, like norinew, it hurts my hands trying to open a so-called “twist off” cap. Which don’t always twist off as easily as advertised.
I don’t remember when I first heard it called a “church key.” It sort of sunk in by osmosis.
I remember now my dad calling it that, but almost everyone else I know just called it a bottle opener. So I didn’t think of it until after I you guys said what it meant.
I always thought the term came from the juxtaposition of “getting into heaven” being thwarted by the use of alcohol, at least in some sects. So it was a delicious irony, and a way of thumbing your nose at the bluenoses to use something called a “church” key to open an evil liquor bottle.
49 years old, grew up in Northeastern Ohio. Heard the term all my life.
In fact I used it just 2 weeks ago!
I was at a BBQ and grabbed a bottle of beer from the cooler, no opener in sight, so I walked over to a table where a bunch of guys who looked over 70 were sitting, I said “anybody got a church key?”
3 or 4 guys pulled out openers from their pockets.
I have seen, nay used, such a device (I may even have one lying around somewhere), but I’ve never heard it called a church key.
Grew up in urban Springfield, IL in the 70’s and 80’s.
Forgot to add that have one magnetized to my refrigerator door. It’s used daily. No home should be without one.
29, from Michigan. My parents may have used it a few times or something, because I know what one is, but have only heard the term used extremely sparingly.
Never heard it used in the UK. I can’t even imagine how you would use the flat ones (picture in post 15) to open a bottle…
I’m guessing that to open a can, you use the sharp end to cut most of the way around the rim, leaving a little “hinge”, and then peel the lid back?
No, you push in the sharp end making a triangular hole in the lid. Then, you make a second hole to let air in to displace the liquid as you pour.
Heard the term a few times over the years, but it took me a moment to remember what the term referred to. I’m 49.
FWIW, I would have said any bottle opener was a church key, and Google Images seems to agree. I just thought it was alcohol talk – y’know, it provides access to heaven on earth. But reading this thread, I see now that the loop style opener resembles the handle of a large key, of the type that might have been used in a church.
Never heard the term until this thread. I can see how the looped implements linked to above resemble keys, but the other ones with the bent pointed nose are just standard bottle openers.
- I learned it from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, as in:
“I’m empty of answers
Don’t nobody search me
The long neck’s a twist off
You don’t need a church key
I’m still full of questions
But can’t quite see clear
Twist off another
And bring on next year”