All three of these openers are quite easy to make. In fact, the most time-consuming version – with veneered faces – only took about 90 minutes in total, and it can easily be made without veneer, which cuts about an hour off the build. All of these openers can be made in about an hour, though once you start making one you might want to go that extra mile and add a certain detail, or personal touch, to customize yours.

At its simplest form, you can grab a cold one and place it on your patio table, break out a small piece of wood, drive a panhead screw into one face, adjust its depth to work properly and use it to open your beer on the patio five minutes later.

For two of these openers I used pocket-hole screws as the edge that removes the bottle cap. For the last one I used a washer that is sold with rare earth magnets. You could also use any pan-head screw; as long as the surface on the underside of the head is flat it will grip the edge of the cap.

The openers I made are all on the large side. I’m not usually a “bigger is better” kind of guy, but I liked the look of the larger versions. You could probably make any of these models about half the size if you wanted to. The important dimension is the thickness of the opener, as you don’t want your screw to protrude through the opposite side. And as long as there is enough material on the far side of the screw or washer, the opener should, at the very least, do its job. The rest is strictly “wow” factor.

Use a fairly dense wood for these openers, as a softer wood will compress slightly with repeated use.

Also, if you wanted to embed a magnet into the side of one of these openers so it could be stored on the side of the fridge, go for it. Another option is to drill a small hole in the end and use a piece of string or rope to hang the opener from a hook.

When it comes time to finish your opener, select a durable finish that won’t be damaged by alcohol. Shellac is out, but an oil- or water-based polyurethane will work well. Your opener will likely get lots of use over the years, and also spend a decent amount of time banging around in a drawer. Even a wipe-on finish that could be reapplied every few years would be fine. For small projects like this I like using a small spray bomb.

Simple opener

As long as you already have a washer, and a long enough #4 screw on hand, this is the simplest of the three versions in this article. Start by breaking out the blank to about 7/8″ × 1″ × 7″. Mark a line on the 3/4″ wide face that’s 1-1/2″ from the end of the blank. With a Forstner bit, drill a hole centered on the line, to accept the washer, and allow it to finish flush with the underside of the blank. I used a 5/8″ diameter washer and a #4 × 1″ flat-head screw.

Mark a line on the underside of the opener located 1/8″ inside the front quadrant of the newly bored hole. Extend this line about 3/8″ up either side of the blank. Mark another line, perpendicular to the first one, 3/8″ from the bottom surface of the opener. The second line should extend from the end of the blank to the first line. Use a handsaw to remove the rectangular piece of waste. Don’t remove too much material at this stage. You can always trim a bit more off down the road.

Position the washer in place with finger pressure and see how it fits on a bottle of beer. If the washer doesn’t protrude down far enough to hook onto the bottle cap, use a rabbet plane or chisel to remove a bit more material until you have a good fit.

Add any cosmetic details to the opener at this stage. I just added a facet to each corner and ensured there were no sharp edges. A final sand and I was ready to apply a finish to the opener. While it dried I removed some material from the one edge of the washer, so it would fit under the bottle cap a bit easier. With the washer held in my needle-nose pliers I held it against my belt sander at about a 45° angle while I rotated the washer slightly.

Veneered opener

Break out the base wood for the opener to 3/4″ × 1′ × 7″. Select veneer to cover all four sides, and both ends, and cut out oversized pieces. I used tightly figured wood, as more loosely figured wood will not show well at this small size. Use cauls and clamps to glue pieces of veneer to opposing faces on the blank. When dry, trim the edges flush and glue the other two longer pieces of veneer to the blank.

You can trim the veneer flush with the ends of the blank, but I chose to cross-cut the blank on my mitre saw. To protect against chipping on the backside of the workpiece I set the workpiece against another piece of solid wood during the cut to support the wood fibres. Cross-cut both ends flush, then apply a very light “glue-sizing” layer of glue on the end grain, let it dry for a few minutes, then apply a regular coat of glue to either end of the workpiece and clamp the veneer in place. When dry, trim the veneer flush and sand the piece smooth.

Drill a pilot hole in the 3/4″ wide face, about 1-1/2″ from the end of the workpiece. On the opposite face of the workpiece, about 3-1/2″ from the end of the workpiece, use your belt or drum sander to create a medium sized depression in the edge. This depression will locate your thumb during use.

Grasp the opener as if you were going to use it. Notice where your four fingers cross one of the lower, outer corners, and mark some lines where your fingers meet. Using a smaller diameter drum sander than for your thumb, create four small depressions to comfortably locate your fingers during use.

Ease the sharp edges, and final sand the opener, before applying a finish and driving the screw into place.

Shaped opener

This is much more of a free-form approach than the veneered version. Which details to use, and how to use them, can be up to you. If you want to practice first, grab a bit of softwood and shape a prototype before starting on the real thing.

When viewed from the side, this opener tapers from about 1-1/2″ at the business end to about 1/2″ at the handle end, but feel free to adjust as you wish. Looking at the opener from above it tapers from 7/8″ to 1/2″. Once two arcs are drawn onto the rough stock you can use a bandsaw or jigsaw to cut the workpiece out. Don’t worry too much about accuracy at this stage, as there’s some flexibility with the design of this opener.

With the blank laid out you can either bandsaw or jigsaw the workpiece from the board. On the upper, curved edge, draw a rough line that marks how much the opener tapers along its width. Though you can use a handsaw or hand plane to remove this material, I chose to use a bandsaw. I then used a block plane to smooth the two surfaces.

With an assortment of hand tools, as well as my belt sander on edge, I gave shape to the opener and smoothed all its surfaces. Because this opener has a lot of curved surfaces, and it will be handled a lot, do your best to ensure the curves are fair so it feels good in the hand. At this point I drilled the pilot hole for the pocket screw, finish-sanded the project and applied a few coats of finish.

Whichever opener you decided to make, even if it was completely different from one of these versions, send me a photo of your finished project with a few details about it. You can also share it with us at the end of this article.