“Church key” is a specific type of bottle opener--one with a pointy bit at one end for poking holes in the tops of cans from the days when oil, beer, etc came in cans that didn’t have pull tabs but you didn’t want to take the whole top off of. The pointy end differentiates a church key from your garden variety bottle opener.
I think I read that what made a church key was the triangular open part used to pull off a bottle cap. Because old timey church keys had that open triangular bit on them. But I also read your version about the pointy bit. Might be worth further digging on my part because now I'm curious. I was rather surprised that there wasn't much out there about this aside from the farmer's almanac, a questionable etymological dictionary, good ol' Wikipedia, and a few old newspaper columns. Also, thanks for reading, Randal!
“Church key” is a specific type of bottle opener--one with a pointy bit at one end for poking holes in the tops of cans from the days when oil, beer, etc came in cans that didn’t have pull tabs but you didn’t want to take the whole top off of. The pointy end differentiates a church key from your garden variety bottle opener.
I think I read that what made a church key was the triangular open part used to pull off a bottle cap. Because old timey church keys had that open triangular bit on them. But I also read your version about the pointy bit. Might be worth further digging on my part because now I'm curious. I was rather surprised that there wasn't much out there about this aside from the farmer's almanac, a questionable etymological dictionary, good ol' Wikipedia, and a few old newspaper columns. Also, thanks for reading, Randal!