DoomMeister LOVES beer and his teeth, that why I'm never without a bottle opener.

On the sad demise of my last keychain beer opener I was looking around for something cool to replace it with and came across this

Being of the opinion that the best stuff is hand made, and too cheap to buy one I decided to make my own.

Step 1: You Will Need

So if you share my morbid fear of being confronted by a beer you can't open (hasn't happened yet) you will need.

1 or more sacrificial keys (please don't use your actual doorkey, use somebody else's)

A set of files, I used an 8 inch bastard, a 6 inch fine half round and a selection of needle files.

A black marker or some engineers blue.

Some wet and dry paper, 240 through 1500 grit.

Optionally a Dremel for all of the above.

Step 2: Measure Twice

Colour in the front face of your sacrificial key with either black marker pen (or whatever colour you have) or engineers blue.

For my opener I scribed around the profile of the one I had been using previously, essentially you want to mark a slot that looks something like the profile of a bottle top.

Step 3: Cut Loads of Times

If you are of a certain bent skip all of the below and reach straight for your Dremel, grind that SOAB right out with stone point. (If you do it this way, please wear safety glasses)

However for those of you who like to invest a little sweat into your projects, you can do what I did.

Secure your now marked up key in a vice or clamp (I used a toolmakers parallel clamp), and start cutting away with the edge of a file. I would suggest using something like a 8 inch or smaller medium pitch file.

Graduate to a fine file when you are close to the profile you marked out. Use a selection of needle files to finish off.

Just to reiterate what your apprentice master should have taught you, break all the sharp edges with 45 degree angles. This is going in your pocket after all.

Step 4: Its All in the Polish

To finish off polish your new bottle opener with progressively finer grades of wet and dry paper, for that near mirror finish you can use a soft stone and some brasso.

Now all that is left is to go away and drink some beer, having first used your fine new opener to get at that sweet brew.