The lowly P38 (or P51 depending on the size), I would say that all military folk and most preppers know what these are. This is a very simple can opener for those of you who don’t know. It is small, portable, and people powered (ie not electric). It has 2 parts that hinge together, they are great if you are opening a small to medium can, raise your hand if you have ever opened a #10 can with one, LOL, my hand is raised.
You can keep them in your pocket or like me, on your key ring, the problem comes in with the sharp pointy end that loves opening up at inopportune times, either tearing a hole in your pocket, your pants or whatever it has decided to catch upon. Years ago I decided that it was only an emergency backup tool, not something I would use on a daily basis so I taped it closed, each time I wanted to use it, I would remove the tape, clean off the tape residue, use it then tape it back up again. If I didn’t use it for a long enough time, the tape would deteriorate, I would often notice when it snagged my pants or shirt. I knew there had to be a better way.
Enter the era of the earbuds, everyone had them, everyone used them, everyone threw them away when they failed working. I had my fair share of them. One day, as is typical of me, I decided to take one apart to see how it worked. Low and behold, I found a little, tiny, magnet inside of it. I should have known, speakers have magnets, earbuds are merely tiny speakers that go in your ears.
The magnet is very small, the flat ones shaped like a washer with a hole in the center are my favorite, but you might find a solid magnet, it will work too. It didn’t take long to decide it would be perfect for my P38, the magnet fit perfectly between the two parts, it wasn’t strong enough to catch other items, it would be reusable and wouldn’t wear out.
All you have to do is find a broken pair of earbuds, if you don’t have any yourself, ask around. Disassemble the earbud, you are likely to find what appears to be 2 magnets per earbud, but only one of them is actually a magnet, the other is a duplicate shaped piece of metal, it’s easy enough to figure out which is which. Then place the magnet between the moving parts and viola, your P38 (or P51) is now safe to carry around.
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