Friday 31 December 2010

A bit of New Year's advice



How to open a bottle of Champgne with a sabre.


Personally, I'm sticking to the old standby of bashing the neck on the mantlepiece.

3 comments:

Ironmistress said...

This trick is called "sabrage", and I've done that with my two-handed sword for years.

The secret is not to smash through the bottle neck, but to slide the blade along the seam of the bottle until it hits the thick muzzle piece of the bottle. The impact creates a stress spike, which cuts cleanly the neck of the bottle at the root of the muzzle and ejects it (along with the cork) away. No splintering whatsoever.

I first saw this thing done live in 1993, when my cousin did it with his officer's sword in his wedding. It must be the most conspicious way to open a champagne bottle.

Sergej said...

Two-handed sword? I hope you weren't planning on stopping there and leaving us hanging.

Anyway, happy New Year to y'all, and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2011!

Ironmistress said...

Sergej, I do historical re-enactment. I have a copy of 14th century longsword. It is well balanced enough to be handled with one hand.

But if something is worth of doing, it is worth of overdoing. Why settle to some pesky bread knife when you can use a two-handed longsword?