5 Handy Uses For Your Swiss Army Knife's Can Opener

The point of having a Swiss Army Knife on your person is having a tool available for mundane situations. You've got a hook for carrying small loads, a screwdriver for driving and removing small fasteners, knives for whittling and cutting, and a toothpick slot for storing small external implements.

However, one common tool included in a Swiss Army Knife that might not seem so useful is the can opener. This odd gadget, often in the shape of a little shark head, is intended for opening up a can on the camping trail or in an emergency shelter. Outside of opening cans, though, a can opener doesn't seem to have a lot of overt purpose. 

That may be true on the surface level, but if you approach your Swiss Army Knife's can opener with a little open-ended creativity, you might find it to be a more multifaceted tool than you expected. Like we said, a Swiss Army Knife's tools are meant to help you with all kinds of situations, but the ultimate tool is your imagination.

If you fancy yourself a tinkerer, you're probably familiar with the following scenario: you're trying to put together some manner of gadget, when you put a part in the wrong place. This should be easy enough to remedy on your own, but the part is so small and connected so flush with the rest of the gadget, you can't get your fingers around it.

If you've got small parts that you need to pry apart, some Swiss Army Knife owners recommend using the can opener as a pint-sized pry bar. Just stick the edge into whatever small gap you can find, give the tool a little jostle, and the component should come loose. This is especially helpful for situations like 3D prints that are stuck to the bed, as well as that classic nemesis of your fingernails, stuck LEGO panels. In a similar vein, the can opener also makes a great staple remover. The hook shape allows you to snake it under a staple and pry the whole thing off in a quick motion.

There are few things as frustrating as a plastic blister pack that absolutely refuses to open up, whether it contains tools, toys, or some other manner of goodie that you need. The first solution you might think of for opening these packs with a Swiss Army Knife is to use the actual knife. While the knife will probably open up the pack, though, there's a risk the pointed edge may damage whatever's inside. Plus, if the pack is particularly stubborn and forces you to push hard, there's a greater risk of self-injury.

To reduce the chances of property damage and injury, fold the knife away and bust out the can opener. While the can opener isn't nearly sharp enough to cause lasting damage to you or the contents of the blister pack, the internal point is just sharp enough to make an incision into the pack with a little force. Much like how you'd use the opener to open a can, you can use it to make a convenient little access point into the blister pack, then easily get at whatever's inside.

Here's another annoyingly common scenario: you're about to get into your car to drive to work and you take out your keys. Suddenly, your grip slips, and your keys fall into that dreaded no-man's land between the seats. If you've got a Swiss Army Knife handy, either in your pocket or your car's glove box, there are a few tools on it that could facilitate a retrieval, such as the hook. If the hook's too thick to slip into the gap, though, give the can opener a try.

Some Swiss Army Knife owners have used their tool's can opener as a smaller supplementary hook. It's typically thinner than the actual hook, so it can slide into more cramped nooks. The natural curve of the can opener allows you to hook onto your key ring and drag the keys out. On the subject of key rings, some Swiss Army Knife owners also like to use the can opener to facilitate the attachment of key ring tags. The thin edge can be used to slide into a small key ring's point of entry, allowing you to slide in a tracking or identification tag. If you have a habit of dropping your keys, you'll be glad you did this.

The actual knife on your Swiss Army Knife is helpful for a lot of things, whether you're tinkering in a home workshop or surviving out in the wilderness. However, for some edge-centric purposes, a full-on sharpened edge may be a bit too excessive. Say, for instance, you've got some old paint on a wall or the side of a car you want to scrape off. If you go at that with the knife, you're just going to replace that chipped paint with unsightly scratch marks. If you use the can opener instead, you'll get enough edge to scrape the paint off without leaving marks.

On a related note, if you like to work with electronics, you'll need a tool to strip and cut lengths of wire down to size. If you try to do this with the knife, you're just going to cut your fingers up. The curved catch of the can opener allows you to make clean incisions into a length of wire without putting your fingers at risk, as well as strip a wire's entire circumference in a single clean motion.

If you're out on a lengthy nature trek, you need to make sure you get your proper nutrition, including vitamin C. An orange makes a great power snack to get you through the day, though dealing with its thick peel can be a bit of a pain with just your hands. If you've got a Swiss Army Knife, you can use the can opener to help you cleanly remove the peel. Just use the front edge to cut into the peel and drag the tool down in a straight line. Repeat that a few times, and the whole peel will fall off in nice, clean layers. It's also a safer way to do it than with the knife.

If you're still hungry, the can opener is also a great tool for popping open those stubborn shells on small nuts like pistachios. Just like prying components apart, you can stick the front of the can opener into the gap of the pistachio's shell, jostle it a little, and it'll pop right open. You get a tasty snack, and don't have to deal with achy fingernails afterward. Just make sure you wash the can opener thoroughly before and after using it for any food-related purposes.