Manual can openers working poorly

I didn't even think about the number of handles. Even after reading your reply it never hit me my Fissler only has a single stainless steel covered handle. Turning the crank applies pressure with a sort of threaded part. Turning the crank backwards releases the can. It's been a while since I've taken it apart.

This is the one which I just got -- and what happens is that when you turn the knob, the feed gear advances into contact with the rim, and is held there by friction until you reverse the knob, which releases it. If there is no can in place, the knob just advances the gear and then it retracts.

Anyway -- it worked well on the can I tried it on -- once I figured out not to grip the cut lid too far down to extract it. (This one has a built in set of "pliers" oprerated by a button on the side of the handle to grip the lid. My ifrst try had the grip too far down, and was trying to lift the remaining can rim, too. A close look at the grip told me what I was doing wrong, and hen the lid popped up nicely.

Enjoy, DoN.

For those milk cans, it's the cans (as others have opined in greater detail.)

From 1932 to circa 63, my parents used a du Blake bayonet can opener exclusively (and they like canned good). In the mid fifties the blade was worn down but my father repositioned it and it soldiered on. It's like the lower one in this pic:

but without the bottle opener hook and a slightly different style of hand grip. Is that similar to your Russian one?

But around 1964 my parents went for electric rotary openers. When I closed up their house circa 1994, there were half a dozen defunct electric openers in the cellar but the du Blake was still in good shape in the kitchen drawer.

My folks had one because some distant relative was trying to make a living selling them door to door around 1930. He failed and his stock ended up in some other distant relative's attic. When I married in '64, I asked about these can openers. My mother contacted the distant relative, three were found still in the attic and I now have them.

Light, easy to pack, opens anything deeper than the blade length. Forget anchovies but tuna cans are fine. Estimated 18,000 cans MTBF. Doesn't leave a totally risk-free smooth edge but neither does it leave a seriously jagged one and it works quickly, easily & smoothly. More than can be said of manual rotary openers.

Well it should. :-)

Horrible! Hard to use, jagged cut. You need a du Blake (see previous post).

Yeah, I've seen those in kitchens (rarely if ever used) and junk shops all my septuagenarian life, none of which has been in Russia. Wooden handle is an up-scale variation, though.

I understand, don't think my solution will help much with that model ;-)

That was the other model I saw via Amazon. It was the much more expensive model. I didn't read any of the reviews for that model...

Wild ass guess but I would suspect that if that thread part gets a little sticky, hard to move it might tension the rim area a little too much. I know backing off on how hard you squeeze the handles with my version does wonders for the ragged edge with sliver problem you described earlier.

DoN's new OXO seems to work like yours from his description.

You did get me to look at mine and clean up the cutter area. The little cutter wheel was kind of hard to turn and had some light rust. Not bad after probably 20 years of service and it still works about the same as it always did.

I actually bought it for my Mom who could never get the hang of the pop top cans. They used to give her fits trying to open them. A special tool I also bought for leveraging the tops off didn't work for her either. If the pop top wasn't too deep she could still use the old Swing-Away opener on them though. After I retired and was around the house she would just get me to open them, problem solved :)