This Old Key

[testerl]

I hope it's alright to post this old picture of a key that I found in my grandmother's house. No one can seem to remember what it is for. Would you have any idea? I haven't seen a key with a slot in the shaft/stem.




thanks

[bitbuster]

It's a container key. Used to open metal coffee, sardines, grease (Crisco) containers, etc. Mrs. Olson used one to open her Folgers.

[Squelchtone]

oh man, I remember these from childhood. bitbuster is dead on.

Here's a pic I found online of one in action on a can of meat:



now I want some meat in a can.

Squelchtone

[Gantry]

Ouch!!! I remember these too. The "key" would be attached to the top of the can and you would bend the key up then rock back and forth to break it off. Next put the tab into the slot and crank the key to remove the strip of metal thus opening the can.

[Safecrackin Sammy]

Wow does that bring back some memories!

Keep it handy, it may come in use in these times!

Peace

Sammmy

[testerl]

OF COURSE! I was thinking too hard. I thought it might been for a bedside diary even though I couldn't figure out how the slot would be utilized.

Is that how they still open a can of Spam?

[bitbuster]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5SsRF90yfw

[GWiens2001]

I remember when my mother got a bad cut when she tried to pull off the peeled metal strip after using one of those to open a can. Ahh, the memories.

Gordon

[sign216]

Wow, I remember those too. Didn't they come free when you purchased cans of sardines? They would be under the paper wrapper.

Keep it, probably hard to get now.

Joe

[nothumbs]

These days you do this

[cledry]

Used one today on a tin of corned beef.

[rphillips52]

Tins with their own key opener first went on sale in 1866 and have been lacerating the fingers of infuriated (and hungry) corned-beef fans ever since.

In 2003 the dangers were even raised in Britain's House of Lords, when the government of the day was asked to encourage the food industry to redesign them. Their noble lords thoroughly chewed over the dangers posed by both the traditional key-opener cans and the more recent but almost equally lethal ring-pull variety. During the debate it emerged officials had done ‘much work’ on the cans, encouraging manufacturers to adopt a special coating to make it easier to extract the contents. As a result, they noted triumphantly, the number of accidents caused by corned beef cans had fallen dramatically to just over three thousand a year. Three thousand? Three thousand? Surely, if any other foodstuff were responsible for carnage on that scale it would have been outlawed years ago.
And that's only the number in Britain.

[demux]

It would be entirely too easy at this point to insert a joke about the ability of political leaders to open tin cans. I'll leave the honor to someone else.

[GWiens2001]

It would be entirely too easy at this point to insert a joke about the ability of political leaders to open tin cans. I'll leave the honor to someone else.

Political leaders are a joke all their own.

Gordon