# I'm McGuyvering a bottle open
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [February 12, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854 "2007-02-12T15:29:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/1 "2007-02-12T15:29:09Z")
Right, so I’m in a hotel room. I’ve got a wine bottle I want to open. I do not want to go anywhere, nor do I want to call the front desk seeing as how it’s outside room service hours. I do not have a corkscrew.
I have, in my possession:
Chopsticks, wooden, disposable
Nailclippers
A stell bottle opener of the “completely flat” type
A torch lighter (the hotel room is no smoking and fire alarmed though)
A sewing kit
A plastic fork
Various electronic equipment
A hairdryer
An electric kettle
A bathrobe
Some thick wire coat hangers
Keys
A couple disposable razors, hair combs and toothbrushes
and whatever other crap there’s in a hotel room.
I’ll check back in ten minutes to see if anybody has any brilliant suggestions, or if I open it before then.
I prefer not to push the cork in since that’s
a) Not the boy scout way
b) I don’t want to add any more corkiness to my cheap wine from… [checks] Chile! _sigh_
🆒
---
### Author:  [@Paul\_The\_Younger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_The_Younger)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/2 "2007-02-12T15:36:01Z")
[QUOTE=groman]
Right, so I’m in a hotel room. I’ve got a wine bottle I want to open. I do not want to go anywhere, nor do I want to call the front desk seeing as how it’s outside room service hours. I do not have a corkscrew.
I have, in my possession:
Chopsticks, wooden, disposable
Nailclippers
A stell bottle opener of the “completely flat” type
A torch lighter (the hotel room is no smoking and fire alarmed though)
A sewing kit
A plastic fork
Various electronic equipment
A hairdryer
An electric kettle
A bathrobe
Some thick wire coat hangers
Keys
A couple disposable razors, hair combs and toothbrushes
and whatever other crap there’s in a hotel room.
I’ll check back in ten minutes to see if anybody has any brilliant suggestions, or if I open it before then.
I prefer not to push the cork in since that’s
a) Not the boy scout way
b) I don’t want to add any more corkiness to my cheap wine from… [checks] Chile! _sigh_
🆒
[/QUOTE]
Have you a diamond ring?
---
### Author:  [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/3 "2007-02-12T15:36:06Z")
Good luck!
MacGyver would have his trusty swiss army knife with him, so this wouldn’t be a problem!
---
### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/4 "2007-02-12T15:45:48Z")
I think I would put a slight bend in one of the coat hangers, push it through the cork, and then try to extract the cork by pulling tangentially.
---
### Author:  [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/5 "2007-02-12T15:53:00Z")
The coat hangers turned out to be too pliable, the cork shifted down and lost some men, but now it has a pin stuck in it that is too deep down the bottle to remove. The cork won’t go down further because of pressure issues. _scratches head_
All solutions I can come up with involve using fire.
---
### Author:  [@Nanoda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanoda)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/6 "2007-02-12T16:00:22Z")
My Google-fu fails me today, but I’ve heard that it’s not unknown to actually break the top off of a wine bottle to open it.
How you do this without introducing new and undesired liquids in to the equation, or prevent glass bits in your vino, I have no idea.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/7 "2007-02-12T16:01:33Z")
If you can just remove all the air in the room, the normal pressure inside the bottle should force the cork out.
If that sounds too easy, my best suggestion would be to break the long horizontal wire of a coat hanger in half (jut bend it back and forth). Then rotate the two broken pieces in opposite directions to unwind the part at the top where the two ends are twisted together; the part that doesn’t have the hook on it should be pretty much a ready-made corkscrew. I’m sure you can figure the rest out.
---
### Author:  [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/8 "2007-02-12T16:04:04Z")
Am I the only person whose luggage _always_ contains a corkscrew?
---
### Author:  [@Winston\_Smith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Smith)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/9 "2007-02-12T16:04:36Z")
1. Remove any plastic or foil wrapping from the bottle top.
2. Hold the chopsticks together and place the “fat” ends against the cork, holding them vertical.
3. Using the Bible/Book of Mormon/Teachings of Budda as a hammer, bang those chopsticks till the cork is floating around inside.
I know you said you didn’t want this solution (cork inside bottle), but you _do_ want to drink the wine, right? Good luck.
---
### Author:  [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/10 "2007-02-12T16:07:36Z")
Using The Book of Mormon to open a bottle of wine? That’s all kinda wrong somehow.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/11 "2007-02-12T16:10:26Z")
Alternatively, find something in the room that is held together with large screws and use one of the components of your arsenal to remove one of them temporarily - screw this into the cork and then twist a bit of wire around the head to aid your grip (unless the bottle opener, or something else, can be made to grip the screw).
---
### Author:  [@Sofaspud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofaspud)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/12 "2007-02-12T16:12:30Z")
Are these the metal coat hangers where the hook part is twisted around the main body?
Un-twist the hook portion, then rapidly bend the hanger just below the twisted part back and forth until it breaks off. Voila! You now have a do-it-yourself corkscrew. Use as normal.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/13 "2007-02-12T16:14:08Z")
[QUOTE=Sofaspud]
Are these the metal coat hangers where the hook part is twisted around the main body?
Un-twist the hook portion, then rapidly bend the hanger just below the twisted part back and forth until it breaks off. Voila! You now have a do-it-yourself corkscrew. Use as normal.
[/QUOTE]
Brilliant idea! I’m surprised nobody else [s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=8250962&postcount=7)uggested it
---
### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/14 "2007-02-12T16:14:51Z")
Break the nail clippers in half, or just twist them so you can use the clipping edge on something thicker than a fingernail.
Whittle away on the cork on opposite sides. (Hard to describe, but think of it as the opposite of the head of a screw. Instead of a slot, you want a ridge as tall as possible.)
Unbend the coathanger. Use one end to make a hook. Press the hook through the ridge in the top of the cork.
Wrap the coathanger around the chopsticks for a better grip, and pull.
I just had to use the chopsticks in there somewhere.
---
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/15 "2007-02-12T16:19:48Z")
Discover a fourth spatial dimension and just reach around to push the cork out from the inside.
---
### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/16 "2007-02-12T16:26:06Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I have, in my possession:
>
> Chopsticks, wooden, disposable
> Nailclippers
> A stell bottle opener of the “completely flat” type
> A torch lighter (the hotel room is no smoking and fire alarmed though)
> A sewing kit
> A plastic fork
> Various electronic equipment
> A hairdryer
> An electric kettle
> A bathrobe
> Some thick wire coat hangers
> Keys
> A couple disposable razors, hair combs and toothbrushes
You’re missing an item. After all, there’s 14 kinds of gadgets in a freestyle port decorker.
---
### Author:  [@Silence\_of\_the\_clams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silence_of_the_clams)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/17 "2007-02-12T16:47:42Z")
Get the electric kettle, boil water and put the bottle in boiling water until the cork pops out. Leave the bottle under the tap with running cold water until the wine cools down. Meanwhile, play with the hairdryer, chopsticks, various electronic equipment and plastic fork until you get that frizzzy hairstyle only worthy of a true MacGiver.
---
### Author:  [@Tomcat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tomcat)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/18 "2007-02-12T17:18:51Z")
Just call the front desk…even if it is outside room service hours, they will have one.
Or just push the cork in. It works.
-Tcat
---
### Author:  [@psycat90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psycat90)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/19 "2007-02-12T17:56:16Z")
[QUOTE=ScareyFaerie]
Am I the only person whose luggage _always_ contains a corkscrew?
[/QUOTE]
No. I have one in my car, two in my purse, my travel bag, my desk, and half a dozen other places.
Just push the cork into the bottle with the end of a toothbrush. One thing I can pretty much guarantee you is the cork floating in the wine is not going to add any ‘corkiness’ to it.
---
### Author:  [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2007, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/im-mcguyvering-a-bottle-open/391854/20 "2007-02-12T18:01:59Z")
[QUOTE=ScareyFaerie]
Am I the only person whose luggage _always_ contains a corkscrew?
[/QUOTE]
You don’t have the NSA to tangle with.
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