On Fish Corkscrews

I've had the Original "Lazy" Fish model for a number of years and its my favorite cork screw. Not only does it easily open wine bottle but it looks cool, makes for a dramatic show and creates a nice pop sound which makes every bottle even more of a little celebration. Closed this corkscrew looks like a fish. It's mouth holds the business end, a cork screw that you twist into a wine cork. You then simply firmly grasp the wine bottle in one hand and with the other pull on the fishes tail. The fish expands accordian like with a multitude of levers and sooner than you can say "cabernet sauvignon", the cork pops out with a nice, well "pop" sound and your guests all applaud.

The Original Fish is based on the "Lazy Fish" corkscrew design that was patented over 100 years ago and is currently sold as the "Original Fish Corkscrew". This modern version was designed in 1993 by H2 Product Development and introduced to the market in 1994. Interesting note - America's Test Kitchen rated the Original Lazy Fish corkscrew as "Moderate" in easy of use (Level of effort required to uncork a bottle). It does take a bit of effort but certainly not as much as pulling the cork out with your bare hands - ha ha! And its much less complicated than other designs such as those so called "waiter's friend" pocket wine openers. The levers in the design transform the small amount of force needed by the operator into larger force needed to remove the cork from the bottle. The lever mechanism multiplies force in a pricipal is called "lazy tongs" (or hinged lattice" or "compound levers") and been proven in corkscrews since the 1920's Zig Zag corkscrew.

Note: There is also on the market a copy of the original Zig Zag corkscrew for those who dislike fish for some reason. It works the same just with out the fishhead and tail. I have the chrome plated model but you can also get the Original Fish corkscrew in blue, stain, red, pink, pale blue, black or acid yellow. Just the head and tail are colored. The rest is chrome plated steel and a plastic flange that holds the cork. I've had so many people ask me where to buy a corkscrew like this that we are adding it to our product line on fishboy.com