or–more accurately, and pedantically, 1/2 rotation–as the “blade” is pointed towards the thrower upon release, and rotates 180 degrees before reaching its target. 
Or, we’ll know as soon as it’s invented, because suddenly the world will be full of time travellers and time refugees.
There’s a theory that you can only time travel as far back as when time travel is first invented ( ie, when a wormhole was first opened that allowed time travel ).
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I want so badly to be able to do this deliberately. How much can I expect to spend on “practice” bottles until I get good?
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Start with something cheaper?
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Get a batch of wine gone bad? Or, if the bottles can be reused, pressurize them with a mix of water and CO2, perhaps by adding a carefully weighed piece of dry ice before adding the cork?
Are you referring to sabre-ing the champagne bottle?
It took me one try. I’ve done it about a dozen times. One time the upper half of the bottle went to pieces.
Follow the steps very carefully.
- Get a large kitchen knife with a full tang. It needs heft, and the spine of the blade needs a square profile. Don’t even bother if you don’t have the right knife at hand!
- Clear a safe lane for the cork and glass to fly. Nobody should be surprised. You’re not a showoff, this is basic safety!
- Get your prepped bottle. This means it’s chilled, the foil and basket are removed, you’re holding it in your non-dominant hand with a towel loosely in front of you in a safe direction, and the glass seam of the bottle is oriented upward.
- Put the square spine of the knife on the bottle, with the square edge directly in contact with the bottle seam.
- Swiftly and confidently run the spine of the knife forward along the bottle seam, and push right through the top of the neck. Follow through as if you were throwing a frisbee at the ground, but don’t let go of the knife!
- Watch that sucker fly. In a safe direction, right? Sometimes a sabred bottle won’t fizz over like a popped one. They almost always fizz less, anyway.
You should pour the drinks from that bottle, because it has a very sharp top of neck. The champagne cork in the neck of the bottle makes a nice souvenir for someone, but it’s also sharp.
What? Sabre-ing? No, throwing it and turning it into a rocket.
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Well, now you know.
You’re Hattori Hanzoing a champagne bottle open. You’re a showoff.
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Yes, I know I am. But you don’t necessarily have to be. Did the text not back that up?
Not you you, the collective “you” that’s doing this incredibly showoffy thing. Step two is way too late to try and deny its obvious showoffiness, if that was a problem “you” should not have started at all. I think.
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Ah, I have a sabre. Thanks!
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode of “Ow My Balls!”
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Turnabout is fair play.
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I am a Time Traveller, traversing the span of Existence, forever in search of the Great Crotch Hit.
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Under no circumstances ever, ever do this. The joint between the lip and bottle is so comicly weak regarding shear, if that little piece of dry ice bubbled up you could be in for a hefty hospital bill.
I seriously can’t believe more weren’t hurt.
On another note, I can saber a bottle of champers with basicly a pen knife. Cleavers are more dramatic though.
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Hence the “carefully”. The amount is the difference between a sparkly water and a dry ice bomb. It is also fairly small. (Todo: calculate. Too tired for even the back-of-the-envelope now.)
I am now sitting just about two meters from the place where my uncle, as a kid, learned this the hard way. No major injuries, but a lasting story.
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Been putting bubbles in liquids for almost twenty years now. Only one accident.
A bottle went off in my fridge, destroyed every shelf and caused the inside to collapse. The glass was reduced to gravelly sand. I only use steel with pressure valves now.
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A humble coke bottle can have up to ten atmospheres of pressure inside. Quite staggering, almost 5 times more than common car tire pressure (2.2 atm).
Bottles (and cans) exploding are a pretty common thing. With cans, this can lead to a slow chain reaction - the content is corrosive. The inside of the can is protected with epoxy resin, the outside is not, and especially the cut line in the pop tab is highly vulnerable to weakening by corrosion. Certain way to make your soda pop.
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Once I made a batch of ginger ale that I let sit too long.
It was in capped Coke bottles and the pressure was so great I had to open them outside, with gloves on, and there was only 1/4 left in the bottle after. They hurt to open. I’m lucky none of them broke.
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