Good Beer Hunting, a company that brings you truly unique products for craft-minded drinkers, makes a pretty interesting bottle opener – the Beer Peen Hammer.
The bottle opener is cast from solid bronze – in the USA – and is specially shaped to look like a ball pein hammer, and an old-school one at that. It’s packaged in a waxed canvas tool bag that’s also made in the USA, and has a leather lace tie to hang the bottle opener from.
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This is pretty cool-looking, and Good Beer Hunting says that the oxidized finish will wear over time to gradually reveal the bare bronze metal.
Price: $55
Buy Now(via Good Beer Hunting)
This seems like the type of product that few people buy for themselves, making it a great gift idea.
Even if you’d never buy one of these, for yourself or anyone, you owe it to yourself to check out the company’s introductory post where they show a couple of steps of the manufacturing process. I scrolled through twice, looking at all the pictures, before I read a single word.
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Allen
Excellent exampe of the use of a 3-D printer.
Looking at their process it almost makes you want to buy one. Like I need another bottle opener.
Good on them.
SteveR
Forget “drinking responsibly” and other such advice for the moment. Spending $55.00 for an investment-cast bottle opener doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’m not against drinking; it’s just more likely be kept in a garage or other workshop area, a little too close to cars and high-speed cutting tools.
What was the line Josh Brolin uttered in “No Country For Old Men”, when he turned down the offer for a beer by a woman lounging by the pool? It was “Beer just leads to more beer.” And by inference, bad choices.
Brandon
If you can’t trust yourself to have a beer in your garage safely, you probably shouldn’t have beer anywhere (or cars, or power tools, for that matter)
SteveR
Perhaps you’re too young to remember this phrase, but “Drinking and driving don’t mix” has been around forever. I drink now and then; not a lot, but because I don’t care to get tanked up or suffer the consequences afterwards (hangovers, etc.). I did that when I was younger, and it was never fun. You can drink anywhere, but being around a car while doing it may lead some to mistakenly think they can drive safely or better than when they’re sober. Over 50,000 people are killed in automobile accidents every year, and a number of those deaths are caused by people driving while drunk or simply under the influence of alcohol.
I don’t know the numbers for ER visits, but a fair number of those involve people operating equipment and power tools while they were under the influence. Notice I have used the phrase “under the influence”; you don’t have to be drunk to suffer a mishap using tools. That’s the problem; people drinking don’t realize they’re impaired, when in fact they are.
Stan
I agree. However, although not primarily the case anymore, bottle openers aren’t always used to open beer bottles. Some soda/water bottles still have this design.
With common sense, you can avoid some really bad decisions. Don’t drink alcohol while operating ANY vehicle or using any power tools. If having a bottle opener that can also be used as a hammer makes drinking more of a temptation to drink alcohol, maybe some reevaluation of priorities is in order.
Now before someone potentially states they can drive perfectly well under alcohol and use power tools to the same degree, think about the consequences. You might kill someone or yourself in the process. This will likely haunt you forever and you likely will serve time in jail for this. Same with power tools potentially.
On a lighter note, at least for this price this item is USA made. Not that I’d ever buy this, but at least this supports American manufacturing.
Stuart
I don’t think the makers intend for this to actually be used as a hammer.
BikerDad
Well, my only concern with doing it would be flaws in the casting, resulting in catastrophic failure.
As far as spending $55 bucks on a bottle opener, so what? In a world overrun with twist cap bottles, unless one has problems with hand strength, spending ANYTHING on a bottle opener is “not a good idea.”
Truth is, this looks to be a perfect/near perfect gift for some folks. Too bad we’re only finding out about it a week before Christmas…
Kent
I will frequently have a beer in the garage at the end of the day. I can easily put things away, clean up, or a million other harmless activities while drinking a beer.
Perhaps your tolerance to alcohol is different than it is for other people. A beer does not make me, or most other people, dangerous.
Mac
Looks awesome. As does the site. Price, not so much.
rx9
I concur.
Kent
Low production, made in the US, using expensive materials. I think the price is fair.
It’s not cheap, and I won’t be buying a $50 opener, but for what it is, it’s fair. Would it be better if it was made in China from stamped sheetmetal and plastic and sold for $10? Craftsman sells one that fits that description.
John
My father was a sheet metal worker in the maintenance division of a factory most of his life, and bronze tooling was a part of his tool kit when working in environments where sparks were detrimental to your health. This bottle opener reminds me of some of the tools that were in the home workshop when I was a kid. As my brother and I have worked in construction most of our lives and my brother makes his own beer; I think that the opener, in his case, will be an excellent gift.
I bought two.
Thanks for posting the link Stuart.
BikerDad
It’s amusing when non-toolish folks get their mitts on uncommon tools. The conclusions they can draw…. In describing their antique inspiration, the folks over at GBH had this to say:
“Hammers like this had an opening in the head to save precious metal, and perhaps operate as a an alternative torque wrench.”
Starrett would be quite surprised to learn that they leave a big hole in their hammer in order to save on precious metals. They’ve apparently been laboring under the delusion that the hole is there as a place for a magnifying lens.
Starrett Toolmaker’s Hammer – http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=67749&cat=1,43456,43407
Allen
Learn things in the strangest places these days.