Most tin openers work the same way they did fifty years ago. A wheel bites down through the top of the can, you wind it round, and you end up with a lid that has a razor edge all the way round, floating in the beans. Then you fish it out with your fingers. Pretty much everyone has a small scar from doing exactly that.
Smooth-edge openers work differently, and once you know how, the name makes sense.
How is a smooth-edge opener different?
Instead of cutting down through the lid, it clamps onto the side of the can and cuts through the seam just under the rim, where the lid is folded onto the can. The whole top lifts off in one piece, rim and all. Neither the lid nor the tin is left with a sharp cut edge, because nothing has been sliced through the flat metal.
A nice side effect is that the lid sits back on top afterwards, so a half-used tin of tomatoes in the fridge has a cover. And the cutting wheel never touches the food, which is more hygienic than a wheel that dips into the contents every time.
The OXO one
OXO’s Good Grips Smooth Edge opener is the obvious pick. It’s a side-wind design with an oversized knob, and the handles are the chunky, soft, non-slip grip OXO is known for. That makes a real difference if your hands aren’t as strong as they used to be, or if you have arthritis. You aren’t squeezing hard to pierce the lid, you’re just turning a big knob. There’s also a small pair of pliers built into the side, so you can grip the loose lid and lift it off without touching it.
The downsides
There are two. The first is the learning curve. It clips on at a different angle from the opener you grew up with, and the first couple of goes can feel wrong because you don’t see it cut. Keep turning. Once you’ve gone all the way round, the lid lifts.
The second is that smooth-edge openers don’t get on with every can. Very small tins, oddly shaped ones and cans with a pull ring are better done another way. For the normal round tins that make up most of a cupboard, it does the job.
If you’ve got kids who help in the kitchen, or you’re just fed up of fishing lids out of soup, this is the opener to get.
