Care

Care for these bottle openers as you would for any fine wood product. Keep them away from prolonged contact with moisture, use bee's wax or any furniture polish such as Howards Feed-N-Wax to keep the protection and shine. I use a variety of finishes, always looking for the perfect finish: A natural wood look, but one that holds up wet conditions. I started with Watco Danish Oil Natural as a base finish, which is protection in the wood, not just on the wood. But it did not hold up too well to water. I experimented with polyurathanes, lacquers, and wax. One of my customers who also works with wood, making banjos, suggested I try Tru Oil gun stock finish. That's what I'm using now, and I like the hand rubbed look and the ware properties. But this is a work in progress. Feel free to use your favorite wood finish. The goal is to keep it looking natural but seal it so it holds up to being around beer and water.

Wood loves oil. Rub some on from time to time. In case you do get any watermarks, try using a scrubbing pad or some fine steel wool with wax. For persistant stains tryHoward's Restore-A-Finish and fine steel wool. Then recoat with wax or oil. Carnuba car wax or even mineral oil works well also. Experiment, you can't hurt it!

Repairs

So, what if the bottle opener breaks? Let's face it, nothing is indistructable. And wood has its own natural imperfections, grain, knots, stress points. But, these solid hardwood openers should hold up to many years and many bottles. However, if the opener breaks under normal use es happen you can always send it back for a replacement. If you want to first try repairing it yourself, use any good yellow wood glue. If clamped, they claim the glued joint is "stronger than wood". Or just send it back to us. Postage to us is on you, postage to you is on us. No charge for the replacement bottle opener. It actually helps us learn about what works and what does not.

We've only had one or two returns. The good folks at New Belgium Brewing in Fort Collins, Colorado sent this redwood opener back . It had broken immediately on first use. The problem is that Redwood is too soft a wood for the type of leverage needed to open a bottle. It splinters easily and the grain runs along the stress line. Hardwoods and short grain woods are much stronger. Lesson learned? We donj't use soft woods like redwood anymore. Our friends at New Belgium Brewing received a stronger hardwood opener by return mail. We learn from our failures so send back any opener that breaks in normal use for a free replacement.

Send to:

Jeff Miner
Elegant Bottle Openers
PO Box 2576
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158