For some reason I don't expect an opinel to overcome the 110 in an abuse test. Please prove me wrong.
Maybe Pinnah can send an opinel to round out the test. If not no worries. I'm all for testing.
Sosa,
I've owned my 110 since the mid 70s, have had many different Buck lockbacks and still regularly carry a 70s vintage Buck 500. I've also been carrying Opinels for over 10 years. So, my opinions have been formed by literally decades of side by side use.
My experience: The Buck 110 (or 112 or 500) are better hunting knives due to their hollow grind and ability to be cleaned. The Opinels are better hard use, wood working, woods, EDC and food prep knives due to their convex grinds and their much, much stronger joint.
I really must emphasize... The Opinel lock ring will
NOT protect against accidental closure. You need to think of the Opinel like a slip joint and really, the better comparison may be to the large Sod Buster, not the 110.
But where the Opinel pulls away from the 110 is when subjecting it to hard lateral and hard cutting/opening forces. This isn't a matter of materials or build quality. It is a straight forward matter of design.
With respect to lateral forces, Jill is entirely correct in my opinion. The Buck 110 (and the Schrades) use flat peened construction just like traditional slip joints and this type of construction is well known for opening up under hard lateral force. There really is very little metal to hold the pin in place relative to the bolsters.
Instead of 2 bolsters sandwiched around the blade, the Opinel has a round inner ring and this ring is held in place with a large, non flat peened pin. You can see it in this picture.
It is possible for the Opinel joint to open up and get loose but it is easily adjusted with pliers and a small tap with a hammer. Adjusting the pivot friction on a friction folder is a part of the expected routine maintenance. And I must emphasize that the only thing I've found that will cause an Opinel joint to loosen (a very small amount) is battoning wood with them. You read that right. Battoning.
I'll try to post pictures of an Opinel 8 that I gave buddy of mine who works as a carpenter on the be that he couldn't break it. He finally did after 2 years of abuse. He used it to open paint cans (and the like) and to pry apart wood work. He told me he regularly bent the blade a full 45 degrees when he did this. Eventually he work hardened the blade and it snapped just in front of the joint. The joint never loosened up on him. No way a 110 would stand up to that abuse.
With respect to hard cutting forces, lock backs are well known to develop vertical play under hard cutting. The affects pretty much every maker of lock backs, not just Buck. Again, it's a design issue. The design puts a lot of stress on the lock bar/blade mate points and on the lock bar pivot. These areas wear and when they do, they develop play. I've had several Bucks develop scary "I'll no longer trust it" type play in under a year's worth of use.
The Opinel's design puts the blade against the inner lock ring. The picture above shows how Opinels wear out. Notice the small dent on the inner lock ring at about the 10 oclock position it the picture. That is from the blade being forced against it by hard cutting. You need to really, really use the knife hard to get this to happen, long past the point where a lock back will give out, IME. On the Opinel, all this does is cause the tip of the blade to migrate up relative to hand the handle and to necessitate turning the lock ring a bit further to get solid lock up. The knife will still lock up with no wobble.
With smaller Opinels (8 and smaller) it is possible to break the handle with enough force. The joint itself won't fail. Instead, the inner lock ring will eventually snap the wood, like a shovel will snap a handle. But you have to really, really, really abuse a knife to get that to happen and we're talking about another universe of abuse than what any lockback I'm aware of will take.
With respect to me donating an Opinel to the Bladeforum testing cause, I already have. I sent a small Opinel 8 out on a pass around with the challenge to see if guys in the trades could break it.
Nobody could cause any wobble in the joint and eventually a guy was able to bust the tip off by drilling plastic pipe in sub-zero temperatures.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1097460-Opinel-Pass-Around-amp-Walk-About
Please don't read this as me saying that Bucks are inferior knives. They aren't. They're great hunting knives and if you think of them that way, they're fine.
In contrast, the Opinel is a farming knife first and foremost. It's design is just better suited for that type of hard use, just as the Buck's design makes it a better hunting knife.
This said, I think the Opinel is both more durable and more versatile. That latter bit is YMMV, obviously.
Jill, my recommendation for your uses would be to get an Opinel #10 in carbon. I prefer the #9 Inox for EDC, but if you're snap cutting brush, the #10 Carbone will be super tough.
[/URL]
:thumbup: