Only once have a tugged at the correct string and had the bag come open. I usually resort to ripping the bag open or slashing it open if I have my pocket knife with me.
What’s the secret, Oh Grilling 'Dopers?
That is what separates the true Masters of the Grill from riff-raff like you and me. Personally, I switched to propane. 
Haven’t you and I had this argu…discussion before? 
Good gad.
I have to go out there in the 90F AR heat with a bag of 10 Lb Kroger charcoal. Help me, please…
Explosives.
Barring that, just take a pair of kitchen shears to the sucker. Life is hectic enough without having to add “mucking with the charcoal bag” to it. Pop a beer, cut open the bag, light the fire, pop another beer, and leave the mystical mystery of bag-opening (which also applies to the large bags of dry cat food, btw) to others. Then pop another beer, just for good measure.
eta: It’s 96º here right now. Kwitcherbitchin.
You don’t have these damn mosquitoes. They’re the size of hummingbirds, and we hunt them with .410s. Hard to open the bag anyway at all, even if you can work the slide like the terminator movies.
Ooh…I remember Arkansas mosquitoes. Ugly suckers. I have relations all around Little Rock. Made summer family get-togethers resemble a flagellent’s convention.
Fine. I’m going out there to blow the bag open with the .410 and start the grill. If I’m not back in half an hour, send them after me.
Ha! I did it!
I’m not quite sure, but now we know it’s not the end with loose strings on it, though, it’s the knotted end with no slack. The loose strings are a clever ruse by those evil bastards who designed this awfull trap.
Huzzah! More beer!
It’s wine, but well, yes.
That’s the thing: when you DO get the damn thing to unravel the right way, it’s one of life’s small pleasures.
I have a pair of scissors nearby to do the job.
I’m sure you do, but one must Have Some Class with these things.
Starting the fire with a chimney starter and a single match.
Grilling vegetables.
Shooting mosquitoes and keeping stray animals away from the marinade.
Best item I ever bought for the grill was our steel wok. Does wonders with marinated veggies. The oil marinade drips through the holes and causes flare-ups, which add a nice char to the peppers, et al.
Well, of course you do.
I just bought one of these things, skeptically, and I LOVE IT!! No more pre-soaked briquettes or liquid starter for me.
As for the sewn bags - I’ve discovered that whichever end I pick first, the easy end is always the other. And I’m guessing it’s not a super-easy thing to figure out to prevent passing idiots from pulling the starter end in the store as they walk by…
Just give it a slight tear in the corner. Grip the stitch tail firmly, and tug like you’re splitting Frankenstein’s Flat Top Brain Cap, hemispherically. Ideally, you will have a zig zag perforation left in the paper.
Well, I haven’t had to do this in years. But like you, I usually just slash it open with a knife or razor blade.
You do realize that they are one way rip? Switch to the other corner and try if the first corner doesn’t work.
Yes, but as I posted, I’ve thought the end with loose threads was the one to go for. Sneaky so-in-sos!