Canned food is one of the key ingredients to any successful preparedness strategy. Many survival situations include individuals and families using cans in cases like natural or man-made emergencies. But, while there is no denying the usefulness of canned goods, they come with one major potential issue. All cans are made from sturdy metal and are designed to keep its content in good shape in almost any environment.
Also, most cans are meant to be open only using the proper tool like a can opener or an equivalent inside of a multi-tool. While these objects are regularly found in almost any home, an emergency situation might leave an individual or a group of people without any of them. In this setup, it is very important for a prepper to know how to open a can without the proper tool. After all, getting to their content might be a question of life and death. Here are three proven ways to open food cans without a can opener.
A Concrete Surface
Food cans are made out of metal, which is usually steel or in some cases, aluminum. However, they are mostly made through the use of the very durable steel. Good news is that any metal can be worn down through simple repetitive effort. This means that a concrete surface is enough to open a food can with nothing more than plenty of elbow grease. The process is simple – a can is taken and its top is pressed against a concrete surface, like a floor or a wall. Then, by holding it securely on its bottom, the can’s top should be dragged repeatedly against the same concrete. Slowly, the metal will be worn down and the seam that holds the lid connected to the rest of the can will begin to vanish. Once its crack begins to show, a thin object like a fork can slowly be inserted in the opening and the lid pushed up and away from the can.
Pliers
A pair of pliers can also be used to open a can, even though this process is a bit messy. For starts, a single puncture should be created on the can’s top lid. This can be achieved with any pointy and sturdy object, even an edge of a metal frame. The puncture should be used to drain any fluid from the can and after that, the top of the pliers should be inserted into it. Slowly and carefully, the pliers should be used to get to the edges of the puncture. Once a firm grip is established, the edge should be pulled out, essentially ripping the lid apart. This will result in a bit of lost food and a messy can, but it will open it nonetheless.
A Spoon
Probably the most elegant way of opening a can without an opener, using a spoon is a process for those who are meticulous and patient. For it, no force is needed. Instead, the top of the spoon is first pressed against the seam of the top of the can. The same seam surrounds the lid, but it can be gradually unwrapped with the tip of the spoon. The process takes a lot of time and during it, a person has to gradually insert the spoon’s top between the seam and the can’s side and then pull the edge of the seam outwards. Eventually, the process will unwrap the whole seam and allow the lid to loosen up completely.
With these sure ways to open food cans without a can opener, anyone will be able to gain access to their cans no matter what tools they have at their disposal.
