What Is It: Rillenglas Offner

I found this website which shows the same device and its box. It translated to "The practical glass groove opener - with handles. " but I think you already knew that.

No clue on how one would use it.

See Ron this was not that tough. I didn't get a chance to make up a new truth. My question now is will it open beer bottles?

"My question now is will it open beer bottles?"

None that I've ever seen. MAYBE if you had a ceramic-top Grolsch, after you swung the wire bail aside, it would work, but the size is wrong.

Can you pls post pics of it in various states of open/closed handles, so we can get an idea of the action? I can't see how it would help open any of the Rillenglas containers I've found in Google Images.

Probably, though I don't have it here. The wedge that can be seen in the end view only moves a short distance, and the two plates are spread apart when the wedge goes between them; relaxed, the two plates would be touching or nearly so, and the wedge hidden. That's it, very little to see.

Makes sense ; the wedge pushes the lid up from the jars neck via the spreading grips, without impacting the glass itself.

Honeymoon pliers?

ha ha, brilliant

I'd imagine that the horns on the handle act like a grip.

From your description, it almost sounds like a lobster bander (used to put elastic bands over the claws of lobsters) .

When the ends are lying together you put the elastic over them, compress the handles and the ends open stretching the band enabling you to slide it over the lobster claw.

Mind you the ones they use now don't look much like what you've got there. But it seems to function similarly.

or it's a bokaal opener

"Instrument om deksel los te schroeven" my german is horrible but i'm pretty sure it's used to unscrew lids.

VINTAGE RILLENGLAS PEFRA JAR OPENER MADE IN GERMANY-BOX: $11

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CR4 Admin: removed broken link and added link to picture of jar opener

Scroll down this page to Bokaalopener (voor inmaakglazen). Click on the line drawing, then find someone who speaks the language ! The site has a translation tab, but "Jar Opener" leaves me none the wiser as to how it works. Maybe the arms need bending about 180 degrees to grip the lid on the jar ? I can't really guess further without holding the thing. Cool site.

A partial Google translation (of the part that I believe applies to mine) is: Jar opener (for inmaakglazen) (m.)

Another jar opener is half circular curved iron on the two ends is bent perpendicular to the inside. The outside is in the middle of the projection. The angled ends between pot and lid down, when is the projection to move up, the lid of the jar loose.
Less than ideal, IMHO. And it says nothing of the two curved horns. I think that the two thin plates go between a flange-like rim and the lid of a jar, and when spread, lift the lid - but that's a guess, and it still doesn't explain the "horns". I know two people who speak Dutch, but it's the wrong time of day to connect easily with them. I'll see if I can get one to look at the page.

I think that the two thin plates go between a flange-like rim and the lid of a jar, and when spread, lift the lid

That sounds right to me. It looks a bit brutal, but it's certainly for getting a lid off a jar. The handles are nicely shaped to get 3 fingers one side of the projection, and index finger the other.

If by 'horns' you mean the curved arms (running vertical in your picture), the device need to pull the lid slightly away from the glass, so the horns push as the rest of the device pulls and lifts the lids rim (?), maybe to overcome a vacuum. Like a bra advert in reverse ; separate and lift.

"If by 'horns' you mean the curved arms (running vertical in your picture), the device need to pull the lid slightly away from the glass, so the horns push as the rest of the device pulls and lifts the lids rim (?), maybe to overcome a vacuum."

Problem is, that one horn (yes, running vertically) stays exactly where it is relative to the flat spring steel portion & rivet, and the other moves only a small distance, pivoting around the rivet. Note the gap between upper handle and flat spring steel; it is the limit for rotation of the handle, and the moving horn (bottom as seen) swings through same angular arc. Neither arm would come close to the jar.

BUT: suppose that the jars were used for canning / preserving, and further that they might have used a rubber ("gummi") gasket between flange & lid. This tight seal would demand that the lid be deliberately forced open. In order to get the spreader plates in between flange & lid, I can imagine someone hooking index & middle fingers of each hand over the horns, and using both thumbs to push the jar against the opener! Once inserted, squeezing the handles would lift the lid. Comments on this scenario?

The two smaller pointed features on the handles do serve nicely to locate fingers, in response to someone else's comment. The tool could be used even with slippery hands.

How about; one hand is across the jar, palm one side, fingers the other,pulling those vertical horns with index + middel finger. That gets the business end of the tool snuggly tucked under the rim of the lid. Other hand is holding the main grips on the right, just to keep it steady. Once 'docked', both hands can lever the lid off.

That's maybe a bit far out, but it's hard to judge without holding the thing. I'm going to be most disturbed if the device is for something completely different. Now, I must away.....

I agree with your assessment of how its used to break the vacuum on canning jars.

That is likely the modern version of one of the adjacent ones shown in the link from Kris (#7 of this thread). It would pry, putting force on two or 3 smallish spots, while the one I have applies force over a relatively broad span and spreads the two apart - very good for opening glass-on-glass; opening a metal lidded glass jar would be more forgiving.

I'm going to see if I can lay hands on an old canning jar with glass lid, and see how this fits. If it goes as I now think, I'll take photos. Previously, I hadn't found anything that explained what sort of item this was to open: "ridged glass" didn't mean anything to me, and I didn't get any hits when I searched. Content keeps expanding, though.

GA Ron. I have several of these old canning jars that used a red rubber O ring and a wire bail (like the Grolish top) on a heavy duty glass top. I do some canning every year, and would still be using them if I could find replacement seals. The jars are sturdy, and it was a bitch to open them. That tool looks like just the thing, instead of the butter knife I usually used to break the seal (and sometimes the glass).

<collectorsweekly.com> has a pic of a blue glass/bail type.

I bet that the tool would be hung with a couple nails from the braceing handle.

"I do some canning every year, and would still be using them if I could find replacement seals."

Have you considered making your own? There are cutters that make circles, and there is flat material such as http://www.smallparts.com/Silicone-Rubber. They offer multiple thicknesses, and I'm sure that they're not the only source. If you can find even one old one in such condition as to use it for a pattern, you should be good to go. [And there are at least a couple of these "Rillenglas Offners" for sale on eBay and through antique shops - or you might get lucky and find one cheaply, as I did, at a swap meet!]

If you give me the exact diameter, I will check here for you. They are certainly not expensive....

Also, a careful ring of silicone, onto a cleaned (with alcohol) glass jar, against a lid (lightly greased) that is not with full pressure pushed against the lower half, so that when the spring is eventually used, there is some compression of the silicone again for sealing well....

I suspect that you can wash the jars in the washing up machine and the ring will be so well stuck, it will be OK for a few more years. The trick is to clean the jar well before putting the silicone on....

Yeah, it looks like it's been assembled ar$e about face.
I'll guess it's rare because it was so useless they didn't sell many.

Or maybe it's for opening jars from the inside

Del

At last I understand the photograph: the dark crescent is not a groove or the interface between the two sides of the spring but just the sloping step in the end of this side of the spring. The other side is a mirror image.

This is a modern jam jar with a screw top:-

older ones were similar but the lid was thinner and they were just push fit, and vacuum sealed.

Put the heel of your left hand on the lid; use the left thumb and forefinger to pull the horns of the tool so that the business end is in the groove; squeeze the handles with the right hand, and off pops the top. I suspect that this would even work with a modern screw-top jar like the one shown, but you'd probably damage the threads.

"... you'd probably damage the threads ..."

I reckon you'd have glass shards in yer marmalade!

Here's a good place for bottle/jar lids.

"At last I understand the photograph: the dark crescent is not a groove or the interface between the two sides of the spring but just the sloping step in the end of this side of the spring. The other side is a mirror image."

Correct! See if this helps:

Firstly I have to say I have never seen one of these devices before......but, a possible translation for "RILLENGLAS" is "preserving jar".

German preserving jars have a rubber seal that when the preserving is done (correctly!), seals brilliantly and makes removing the glass lid difficult (because of the vacuum), so maybe this is just for "breaking the seal", so to say.

Nowadays the rubber rings have a part that is wider than the rest, that you can pull on that to break the vacuum.

This is all a wild guess on my part though........I will ask my wife to have a look at the picture to see if she has ever seen one.....

That sounds right to me ; put something hot in the jar, then let it cool and seal ?

It would be great to hear of somebody who's used one, or more likely seen one used. I don't think anyone has ventured a date yet - 40's/50's ? I recently picked up (I have absolutely no explanation why !) a 1938 German light meter;

It just whispered, "Buy me, I'm a funky bit of geekery"

I guess we should really include a link to AussieBob's picture of a RILLENGLAS jar .

http://cr4.globalspec.com/comment/386041/Re-What-s-That-Then-03