Please help me find this Norwegian bottle opener!
July 15, 2013 10:31 AM Subscribe
My friend has a bottle opener from Norway that can also be used to cover/seal a bottle that's been opened but not entirely consumed - it says it's a "combination opener and closer." I must have one of my own! Unfortunately, what I thought would be a simple Amazon search turned up nothing, and even Google hasn't been very helpful.
The opener is simple in design, a single piece of metal, but it's incredibly sturdy and works really well to keep opened drinks from going flat.
I did find a photo of the opener here. The underside of the opener is made from some sort of red plastic stuff. The inscription reads:
MIKKEL
KOMBINERT ÅPNER
OG LUKKER
Searching for these terms in both English and Norwegian doesn't return useful results aside from the photo I linked to above.
I am in Oregon but would prefer to order from Amazon or its ilk.
The opener is simple in design, a single piece of metal, but it's incredibly sturdy and works really well to keep opened drinks from going flat.
I did find a photo of the opener here. The underside of the opener is made from some sort of red plastic stuff. The inscription reads:
MIKKEL
KOMBINERT ÅPNER
OG LUKKER
Searching for these terms in both English and Norwegian doesn't return useful results aside from the photo I linked to above.
I am in Oregon but would prefer to order from Amazon or its ilk.
For sale (from Norway): vintage "Mikkel" bottle opener.
posted by iviken at 11:27 AM on July 15, 2013
posted by iviken at 11:27 AM on July 15, 2013
Also not Amazon, but Kiosk in NYC will also send you one. They have a ton of other interesting foreign tools/objects as well, some highly inflated and others at a reasonable price.
posted by homesickness at 11:35 AM on July 15, 2013
posted by homesickness at 11:35 AM on July 15, 2013
Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! I'll probably go with one of the German ones - they look similar enough and "nearly free" is a good price.
Do any Norwegian mefites know if this kind of opener is common there? I'd never seen anything like it.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 9:28 PM on July 15, 2013
Do any Norwegian mefites know if this kind of opener is common there? I'd never seen anything like it.
posted by easy, lucky, free at 9:28 PM on July 15, 2013
Best answer: These bottle openers/closers (and this folding variant) were very common in Norway. It seems every single home had at least one or two.
They were also used to open and close bottled fruit drinks, that were sold in reusable glass bottles with crown caps. Unlike beer and soda, nobody finishes a bottle of concentrated saft in a single sitting, so people needed something to close the bottle after use.
In the '80s and '90s, a plastic version of these bottle openers was a popular promotional gift in banks etc. (Example: page 31 in this catalogue.)
These days, it's less common to find them. Soda bottles with screw caps, beer cans and juice cartons reduced the need for bottle openers/closers. Also, the bottle openers seem to last forever, so people rarely buy new ones.
The "Mikkel" bottle opener/closer (or a similar design) is still available, here (page 17) and here (page 234).
posted by iviken at 5:43 AM on July 16, 2013
They were also used to open and close bottled fruit drinks, that were sold in reusable glass bottles with crown caps. Unlike beer and soda, nobody finishes a bottle of concentrated saft in a single sitting, so people needed something to close the bottle after use.
In the '80s and '90s, a plastic version of these bottle openers was a popular promotional gift in banks etc. (Example: page 31 in this catalogue.)
These days, it's less common to find them. Soda bottles with screw caps, beer cans and juice cartons reduced the need for bottle openers/closers. Also, the bottle openers seem to last forever, so people rarely buy new ones.
The "Mikkel" bottle opener/closer (or a similar design) is still available, here (page 17) and here (page 234).
posted by iviken at 5:43 AM on July 16, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by paperback version at 10:37 AM on July 15, 2013 [8 favorites]