How many ways to open a jar...

[dumplin]

My husband thinks he has to tighten jars so tight that they're almost vacuumed sealed. I mean close the jar, but once its tight you can stop twisting it! I fuss at the jar and at him if he's around. He just snickers at me and opens the jar with his huge gorilla- like hands. I'm tempted to do tests to see if banging jars on heads help open them.

As for strengthening your hands to help open jars...my hands are very strong, and I do hand exercises. If the joints hurt, hand strength has nothing to do with it.

I had one of those rubber openers. Mine was blue. It dissapeared.

[Carrot Top]

Go to your local annual street fair (in my town, it's on Labor Day) & go to the various political booths.  They always seem to be handing out those textured rubber sheet (some circular, some rectangular) jar openers.  Same as the rubbery shelf liner mentioned above, they make it easy to maintain your grip on the jar lid.

I have a drawer full of openers with the names of long forgotten candidates printed on them.  They still open jars just fine.

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Two years after your suggestion I finally got around to this. I got one from a booth that makes homemade fresh roast peanuts. Mine says "Eat Redneck Peanuts" on it.

They did charge me for it, but I thought it worth every penny.

[andiesenji]

You can make your own - by the hundreds if you wish - the thick padded, waffle-cut shelf "liner" which you can buy in a large roll at CostCo or Sam's Club - other places too. Makes a much better jar "grabber" and if it gets soiled you can throw it away, guilt-free.

in fact the name on the roll I have is "Magic Cover Grip"

[rooftop1000]

But.....

How do you get the vanilla bottle open?

tracey

[andiesenji]

But.....

How do you get the vanilla bottle open?

tracey

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I upend the bottle in a cup and add a little hot water.

I then pick up a crimp-type nut cracker (used for nothing else except opening narrow cap bottles)

I have wrapped the jaws with plain old cloth adhesive tape so the sharp teeth will not damage the caps.

This old-fashioned gadget works better than anything else I have tried. It works better than pliers for me because I have arthritis in my right hand and this is easier to hold and takes less effort.

P.S. I also use this, very gently and with some prepatory work, i.e., warming/soaking the top of the bottle as above, to gently work corks out of bottle in which they have become cemented.

This works particularly well with the artificial corks that seem to become glued into bottles that contain liquids with high sugar content.

Edited March 20, 2007 by andiesenji (log)