TikTokers Just Taught the Entire Internet the 5 Easiest Ways to Open Wine, Including With Hair Straighteners, Scissors, and Even a Fork and Knife

The internet loves a good hack, especially for mundane tasks. Want to make your less-than-amazing tequila taste better? Use a milk frother. Need to make your sangria more “aesthetic?” Put it in a French press. Want to open your beer without an opener? Try opening it with a table, your shoe, or heck, even a door. And now, it’s got some ideas on how to open a bottle of wine sans corkscrew too. 

While I can’t advise that you ditch your tried-and-true corkscrews just yet, I can’t help but go down the rabbit hole of TikTok’s favorite ways to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew. Here are five ways TikTok suggests opening a bottle of wine without a corkscrew that really stands out — and may just become your go-to party trick. 

How to open a bottle of wine with a fork and knife

TikTok user @ty.ree.suh took action with the simple fork and knife trick. The user begins by stabbing the wine cork with a regular table knife (don’t try a serrated or steak knife) and uses a fork to turn it around. It’s a technique that requires a little more upper body strength than with a traditional corkscrew, but it’s unlikely to cause much damage to your silverware or the cork. 

How to open a bottle of wine with a car key

You'll need a little precision if you want to use a house key to open a bottle of wine like TikTok user @doctor.cole. Be sure to insert the key at the right angle to avoid ripping apart the cork, and remember that anchoring a small key around the sides of a glass bottle is more challenging than it looks. Please note, this trick is one we’d recommend trying as more of a last resort.

How to open a bottle of wine with a hair straightener

TikTok loves a beauty hack, so it’s no surprise that users like @nursewholovestonom have been using hair straighteners to open wine bottles. “The science behind it is that the hair straightener will heat the air in the bottle,” the user explains in the quick clip. “When air is heated, it rises. As the air rises, it will push up the cork.” After about fifteen minutes, the cork will slowly make its way to the mouth of the bottle, and you should be able to pull it out. It’s an ideal trick for when you’ve got a little more time on your hands. Don’t have a hair straightener handy? Users have also found success with a lighter to mimic the same heat effect.

How to open a bottle of wine using scissors

This particular trick made me a little squeamish. There’s just so much that can go wrong if your hand or the bottle slips. Even still, if you’re going to attempt to open a bottle of wine using scissors, be sure to try to angle one of the tines of the scissor between the cork and the lip of the bottle and use the scissors as leverage while you twist the bottle. You’ll need an exceptionally resilient cork, and while we don’t necessarily condone pulling out the cork with your teeth like this user, it does add a certain amount of showmanship to the endeavor.

How to open a bottle of wine with a hammer and nail

Driving a nail into a cork is one of the safer ways to open a bottle without a corkscrew. Once you get the nail about halfway through (if you don’t get it in deep enough, you’ll risk simply pulling the nail out without the cork), use a hammer to pull out the nail and, hopefully, the cork along with it.