Paint can key mystery

[RedShirtGuy]

Alright. I've had it. The torment has been far too great for far too long...

What the heck is the looped end of a paint can key for!?!?!
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...an_key_001.jpg)

Yeh, sure...a bottle opener...but what are painters using that comes in capped bottles (besides the obvious home brews that defy the Geneva Convention)?

Put me out of my misery

[rwbuild]

Easy to hang up so you can easily find it to open a bottle

um.... put on a key ring

Real reason is to provide a decent grip and leverage by hand when in use. Try and use one without and you will soon find out its a PITA

[RedShirtGuy]

I figured leverage was probably the key (*boom-tish*) to the loop itself, but it seems like unnecessary processing to pinch out the tabs inside it just so you can sink a sly one (or twenty) on the job.

[rwbuild]

I figured leverage was probably the key (*boom-tish*) to the loop itself, but it seems like unnecessary processing to pinch out the tabs inside it just so you can sink a sly one (or twenty) on the job.

Maybe the industrial designer had an ulterior motive and the paint tin application was an after thought

[A Duke]

May be the home brew has to be opened to use as paint stripper.

[rsser]

FWIW if you have pushbikes in the house and do the tyres, you prob have a lever with a cupped end. Just as good.

[Master Splinter]

My paint can opener (one of them, at least) lives in the kitchen drawer for both opening milo lids as well as bottle opening functions.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I was using one the other day after reading this post. I hadn't previously noticed the bottle opener on the end but I was thinking it would have been handy if they didn't fully close the loop so you could store the opener on the paint tin handle.

I tend to open the tin and then loose the opener before I need to use it again on the same tin.

[Chesand]

FWIW if you have pushbikes in the house and do the tyres, you prob have a lever with a cupped end. Just as good.

Exactly what I have used for many years. It lives on the magnetic bar on the end of the bench.

[Sturdee]

Exactly what I have used for many years.

I think I've been missing out and feel deprived. Never knew that there was a special tool for opening paint cans.

All my life I've been making do with old screwdrivers.


Peter.

[Chesand]

I think I've been missing out and feel deprived. Never knew that there was a special tool for opening paint cans.

All my life I've been making do with old screwdrivers.


Peter.

At least screwdrivers are better than using chisels. You now have an excuse for an extra tool in the shed.

[Cliff Rogers]

There is only one way you could get me interested in painting.... that is it.

[chambezio]

Here is my take on the subject;
The scoopy bit that does the actual "Opening" of the can is shaped to put the end of the scoop *right under the corner of the lip pressed into the lid. Repeated use of a screwdriver instead of the opener, will make resealing the lid very hard due to bending out shape of the lid.
*the round loop at the other end is there to make it easier to find in the confusion mess that goes with a painting job
*painters are known for their large appetites for the amber stuff so why not make your paint tin lid opener have a "duel" function

I had never figured that you could hang it on the wire handle of the can. I like that idea.
I have a few kicking around that you can never locate when you want to use it, so I put a piece of string on it to leave a trail to locate the sucker

[NCArcher]

Many years ago, before they invented those new fangled, plastic, screw top bottles, paint additives came in a small glass bottle that needed a bottle opener.








































OK, I totally made that up but it's might be true.

[RedShirtGuy]

Hah. While NCA's theory is entirely plausible, I'm going to stick with the "painters are giant lushes" one. It's much more likely