Wine Opener?

[aero_student]

I work at a wine shop part time to help pay the bills while I'm going to school and I open a lot of wine and cut a lot of boxes. Among my many spydies I use two there, a SPOT and a ss cricket. I need one more spydie though,... a wine opener. I'd absolutely love a spydies with a GOOD foil knife and a mechanically efficient cork puller. I've done a very small amount of knife making but I have some ideas as to how I'd make a Spyderco style wine opener. I'm thinking ss liners with burgundy micarta handles and ss bolsters as well as a low cost version with lined frn handles like the new delica/endura. The blade would be a small hawkbill with a 1/4 wharncliffe tip. The tip would be a PE and the hawkbill would be SE. I like the new two step levers, the metal part that flips out and sits on the top of the boddle has a shoulder in the middle of it, so you screw the cork screw in and flip out the arm and set the middle shoulder on the bottle and lift and then the tip of the arm and finish lifting it out.

[Senate]

it goes without saying that I'm IN! :D

[The Deacon]

Never can tell, the C06 Europa may become a reality yet. :D

[druid]

ware would the hole go :mad: :rolleyes:

[uhiforgot]

Never can tell, the C06 Europa may become a reality yet. :D

WHAAAAAT? :eek:

You know of this creature? Have you seen it with your own eyes? Please do tell!!!

-Jeff

[smcfalls13]

WHAAAAAT? :eek:

You know of this creature? Have you seen it with your own eyes? Please do tell!!!

-Jeff

I think he was joking Jeff :p Stay focused, Lava, Lava, Lava...

[uhiforgot]

I think he was joking Jeff :p Stay focused, Lava, Lava, Lava...

Wait, that's right!

LAVA! LAVA! LAVA!

-Jeff

[aero_student]

I'm not interested in the europa at all. A 4inch blade just isn't appropriate for cutting foil in a wine shop or a nice restraunt. I want a high quality dedicated wine tool. Most of the good wine tools out there are quite expensive and really aren't very good, the steel is junk and unless you spend multiple hundreds of dollars the quality is junk.

[hrdwrguy]

There might be room in the Byrd line up for a decent wine opener. It seems to be the place for interesting tool ideas like the harp (a very old multi-tool design actually) and the Fire Byrd. I can picture something with a blade of similar size to the firebyrd but made to be a foil cutter. The materials would be cheaper than what you are picturing aero_student but it might be more of a reality as a Byrd than a Sypderco.

There are a lot of cool cork pullers out there but most are quite expensive, a good non-gimicky mid-priced one would be very neat.

Imagine it, Sharper Image could sell it for $20 over msrp, or include one with every air filter you buy from them :p

Mike

[aero_student]

anyone know if spyderco uses solidworks?

I might have to fire it up and at least attempt to start a model of what I'm thinking about. I firmly believe something like this would sell. The wine market is positively blooming and there are a lot of people getting into some of the more affordable wines that really are amazingly good.

I'm also thinking about doing up a spyderco style cigar cutter as I also work in a cigar shop.

[Mr Blonde]

I'm also thinking about doing up a spyderco style cigar cutter as I also work in a cigar shop.

You work with fine wine and cigars? You must be quite the dinner host! :D

I agree, it is surprisingly hard to find a decent quality wine opener tool. I think having one in the byrd line, will be the most realistic.

Though, you'd be the toughest 'sommelier' on the block with a corkscrew made from VG-10 in a Ti handle with a ZDP 189 blade for cutting the foil (hey you're cutting against glass!) held open by an integral ti compression lock! :D

Wouter

[greencobra]

Most of the good wine tools out there are quite expensive and really aren't very good, the steel is junk and unless you spend multiple hundreds of dollars the quality is junk.

I'd buy into this one, you're right on here. I've always said put a corkscrew on the Salsa.......and they all laughed :) :)

[psimonl]

Though, you'd be the toughest 'sommelier' on the block with a corkscrew made from VG-10 in a Ti handle with a ZDP 189 blade for cutting the foil (hey you're cutting against glass!) held open by an integral ti compression lock! :D

Wouter

Hi,

And don't forget it has to be a small SE hawkbill to be efficient around the bottleneck :D

Simon

[The Deacon]

Well, guess I didn't do enough research. Not only got the model number for the Europa wrong, but did not realize the blade was "Endura size". Probably because both my interest in, and knowledge of, wine and wine related gadgetry and rituals is minimal. Guess the question would be, is there a genuine market for something like you are describing and can that market be penetrated? Based on the cost of the Generation 4 Delica, and factoring in the additional complexity a "ratchet" style cork screw would add, I'd peg the street price at somewhere in excess of $70.

Who purchases these tools? My "uneducated guess" would be that there are two separate and distinct markets, individual wine drinkers, and places which serve wine.

In the case of the bars and restaraunts, who normally supplies the tools? Are the individual wait staff members expected to have their own, or does management hand them out? I am guessing the later, if for no other reason than consistency. But either way, would something in the price range I mentioned be attractive to them? I'm guessing that if management supplies them, the loss rate is probably fairly high in many establishments.

As for individual wine buffs, are they likely to be familiar enough with knives to know and appreciate the Spyderco name? The bigot in me tends to assume the majority of those who love fine wines are ultra liberal and thus either ignorant of, or downright hostile towards knives other than those used in the kitchen and dining room.

Equally important, do the stores from which either of these groups currently purchase such items carry any Spyderco products now? It's generally easier to get existing dealers to add another product than to convince one who does not already know your products to add another brand.

[aero_student]

Well, guess I didn't do enough research. Not only got the model number for the Europa wrong, but did not realize the blade was "Endura size". Probably because both my interest in, and knowledge of, wine and wine related gadgetry and rituals is minimal. Guess the question would be, is there a genuine market for something like you are describing and can that market be penetrated? Based on the cost of the Generation 4 Delica, and factoring in the additional complexity a "ratchet" style cork screw would add, I'd peg the street price at somewhere in excess of $70.

Who purchases these tools? My "uneducated guess" would be that there are two separate and distinct markets, individual wine drinkers, and places which serve wine.

In the case of the bars and restaraunts, who normally supplies the tools? Are the individual wait staff members expected to have their own, or does management hand them out? I am guessing the later, if for no other reason than consistency. But either way, would something in the price range I mentioned be attractive to them? I'm guessing that if management supplies them, the loss rate is probably fairly high in many establishments.

As for individual wine buffs, are they likely to be familiar enough with knives to know and appreciate the Spyderco name? The bigot in me tends to assume the majority of those who love fine wines are ultra liberal and thus either ignorant of, or downright hostile towards knives other than those used in the kitchen and dining room.

Equally important, do the stores from which either of these groups currently purchase such items carry any Spyderco products now? It's generally easier to get existing dealers to add another product than to convince one who does not already know your products to add another brand.

People are willing to spend $150-200 on a nice regular production wine opener.

Wine drinkers and bars/eateries purchase the same equipment.

At the wine shop we use the freebie openers that are given to us by the wine reps and that is also what I have at home. I feel that the typical Laguiole openers are nice looking until you look at the details like bolster fitment and blade steel and overall strength.

Wine buffs tend to have a decent amount of money and usually go for the "best". If Spyderco can create high quality wineopener that is attractive to look at I know it will sell. Everyone I work with carries a pocket knife and I've shown them the wonder of spyderco, they all will be ordereing crickets very shortly. The demographic of people that purchase wine is changing greatly, it's no longer reserved for the welathy liberal you speak of. Actually the entire staff is Libertarian. Our customers range through the entire politcal spectrum as well as the financial spectrum. We have a great Spanish blend named Borsao that retails for $6.50 a bottle all the way up to Sea Smoke at around $60/bottle.

The places people tend to look for good openers are at two locations; wine shops and knife shops. I know we could sell at least one a week at the wine shop steadily and that we could sell quite a few during the holidays. The wine shop also has a unique retail advantage for something like this. We would use it at the bar and show people all day how well it works. If we could do a low end version at $75 and a high end version at around $100 it would be perfect.

I almost think the Kiwi would be an interesting platfor to start with. I think that blade shape for the first half and the back half of the blade gets shaped more like a hawkbill and serrated.

[psimonl]

The bigot in me tends to assume the majority of those who love fine wines are ultra liberal and thus either ignorant of, or downright hostile towards knives other than those used in the kitchen and dining room.

You are unfortunately right....

Although here, in the "Ultra Liberal" city of Montreal (You wouldn't believe it...) well, there is no knife shop except for Baron sport and Le Baron.

But you have High end Cheese shops where you can buy Canadian or European cheese (Think 60.00$ plus a pound) and they usually have a corner of a counter where they sell knives(Obviously for cheese cutting).

They have the obvious Laguioles but also some other custom Quebec's or Europe's name (Wich I forgot but could look up). And let me say they are quite impressive and very expensice (could go as high as 250.00$ for a semi-production wooden handle non-lock model :eek: ).

But you said it, if it's on a kitchen table, there is no offense... :rolleyes:

Gee Deacon, come to think of it, you are again right...

Simon

[aero_student]

Out here on the Central Coast of California we are having a major explosion of wine making and are producing some of the best wine in the world. What is truly amazing is that they are making wine across the price spectrum. EVERYONE out here is buying and drinking wine. I'm sorry that you guys are having such negative experiences with your local wine drinking community.

[dialex]

...a corkscrew made from VG-10 in a Ti handle with a ZDP 189 blade for cutting the foil (hey you're cutting against glass!) held open by an integral ti compression lock! :D

Wouter

I'd get myself (at least) one

[Senate]

it could become the FRench PK! :)
something shaped like a UKPK, with a similar blade with maybe a little less curve and on it's spine a corkscrew. another little blade to cut the foil could be a nice addition too.

[aero_student]

I'm not interested in a hack job modification of an existing model like that. Those end up doing all sorts of thing, but very poorly.

I want to create a specific wine opener, not a knife with a corkscrew attached.

I talked with the owners of the wine shop and they think there is definitely a market for it and you could demand a pretty steep price if you so desired.


I will start designing one this weekend, my issue is that I don't have any tools to do any prototype work and I'm not familiar with the engineering of locking devices.