Can you bust an Opinel?

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pinnah

Joined
Jul 28, 2011
Messages
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Do you use your EDC folder hard?

I mean, really hard? Borderline abusively hard?


I've croaked a few folders in my days. Folders with supposedly good reputations like Bucks. But I've not been able to kill an Opinel.

Maybe you can?

I'm running an Opinel pass around and am happy to turn it into something of a challenge for those of you who, like me, tend to push the limits of their folding knives. Obviously, anybody can stick a blade in a vice and smash a knife into bits with a good hammer. I'm not talking about that.

But I'm very, very curious if somebody can bust or significantly damage and wreck an Opinel under hard (sane, but hard) use.

Up for the challenge?

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1097460-Opinel-Pass-Around-amp-Walk-About
 
You can bust any knife if you're too hard on it.

That said, I've watched someone use the... 13? I think? the huge Opinel, whatever it's called. I watched someone use it as a machete and a wood splitter for half an hour, and it held up fine. Obviously the huge one is going to be a bit tougher (through just the amount of stuff that would have to break) but still. They may be simple knives, but they aren't delicate or anything. Just be smart - stuff like, leaving it unlocked if you want to baton with it.
 
Grease said:
They may be simple knives, but they aren't delicate or anything.
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I'm beginning to think that the thing that is delicate is the sensitivity of people who've spent 10 times as much on a knife on the promise or hope that they were buying a tougher, more durable knife. :D

I'm sort of surprised that no modern knife users have stepped forward on the pass around.
 
I've only seen one Opinel break, and that was an unusual thing. We were cutting down some saplings to make a stretcher for my friend Danny's wife, who had broken an ankle slipping on a icy rock face on a early morning hike. Danny was a bit agitated, and was trying to hurry as he cut down the sapling he was working on. To give the Opinel credit, Danny is 6 foot four inches, and over 250 pounds. A big guy that works out. The Opinel handle broke off just where the wood is stepped down to a smaller diameter to receive the inner bolster. May have been a fault of the wood, or just it was never designed to be leaned on by a very large very powerful guy who was listening to his wife moan in pain.

I had one develop a crack right in the same area, running bak from the pivot end. But I had been using that knife as a beater. I've never had a blade break on me.

Carl.
 
I have 2 No.8 Opinels that are at least 20 years old and they have held up very well.
If someone sets there mind to it they could be busted up easily but they are pretty tough for an inexpensive knife.
 
No thanks. There's nothing that I do that could break one. I'd have to invent a task to break one. And I split kindling with my SAK pretty regular. Small kindling but it was enough to kill a bark river mini north star. Cheap knives are tougher than people think. I tend to agree with Cody Lundin and Jeff Randall when they say that most of the knife industry is completely BS.
 
pinnah said:
I'm beginning to think that the thing that is delicate is the sensitivity of people who've spent 10 times as much on a knife on the promise or hope that they were buying a tougher, more durable knife. :D

I'm sort of surprised that no modern knife users have stepped forward on the pass around.
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Guilty as charged. Opinels do the job and do it well, to the point that I am going to thin the herd and concentrate on French knives.
 
Shotgun said:
No thanks. There's nothing that I do that could break one. I'd have to invent a task to break one. And I split kindling with my SAK pretty regular. Small kindling but it was enough to kill a bark river mini north star. Cheap knives are tougher than people think. I tend to agree with Cody Lundin and Jeff Randall when they say that most of the knife industry is completely BS.
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"Cheap knives" constitute "most of the knife industry" - by far.
 
My old job, didn't stand a chance with the amount of cardboard I cut in a daily basis... Edge retention only.
 
Shotgun said:
No thanks. There's nothing that I do that could break one. I'd have to invent a task to break one. And I split kindling with my SAK pretty regular. Small kindling but it was enough to kill a bark river mini north star. Cheap knives are tougher than people think. I tend to agree with Cody Lundin and Jeff Randall when they say that most of the knife industry is completely BS.
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That statement is soooo true. Not to run down our forum members, but how many people here use their knives as hard as some worker in Libya, or Vietnam, or anywhere on the continent of Africa? A Chinese rice farmer out in the hinterlands of their peoples republic?

The truth is, the American knife user is a pampered prince when it comes to some arab guy skinning out a camel that dropped dead so's not to waste anything. I had the good fortune to see some of the world while serving in the Army, and while at Wheelus Air Force base, Libya, I saw some plain old beat up Douk-Douk's being used for things that I doubt some on these forums would use their Sebanza's for, and survive just fine. We, the knife obsessed, are totally out of touch with the real world, and what working people in the rest for the world use. Douk-Douk's, Opinel's, Mercators, and some no name stuff from a land where they eat a lot of rice, do most of the real work of the human race that needs to cut something.

Carl.
 
pinnah said:
I'm beginning to think that the thing that is delicate is the sensitivity of people who've spent 10 times as much on a knife on the promise or hope that they were buying a tougher, more durable knife. :D

I'm sort of surprised that no modern knife users have stepped forward on the pass around.
Click to expand...

I am for the most part a modern knife user, though I hang around the traditional area a lot trying to soak up a lot of information and I have my first real traditional on the way. But I couldn't participate in the pass around due to the 6month req that I don't meet, and Opinels are cheap enough that after taking in the cost to ship to the next person I probably just paid for half the knife so I mine as well spend a few extra dollars and just buy one for myself. Which I plan to do at some point in the future.

As for people who spend 10x on a durable knife, I will own up to the fact that I have been thinking about eventually picking up a ZT 0566/0350/0560 (one of those) all of which are suppose to be a tank in terms of abuse it can handle. But I am under no illusion that it means it can handle 100x or even 10x as much abuse as my Cryo or an Opinel. In fact I don't abuse my knives, I want those knives for certain characteristics they each possess which I think would suit me quite well such as ergonomics, blade shape, spring assist, flipper (I feel safer with one when it doubles as a guard so your hand won't run up along the blade), etc.

As for how durable an Opinel is, I don't think I can break one under normal use for what I do. I would have to go out of my way to bust one or any quality knife. And this is just going off of taking a look at the knife and how it's constructed, if it's as good quality as I keep hearing I can probably get one to last me a lifetime easily.
 
Thomas Linton said:
So this forum is largely a waste of time and bandwidth?:D
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No, it's for the obsessed. The 1% of us that are the knife knuts. Just like the car nuts that have to have an exotic number that costs as much as the house we grew up in, yet most of society is more than content to commute to work everyday driving a Toyota or Ford. What percent of the people drive a Porshe 911 or Ferrari? For the regular joe working guy, car magazines are a waste of time because they can never afford the 100,000 dollar plus car. JUst like many people in a lot of the world can't afford a 500 dollar knife when they maybe earn 500 dollars a year.

The cheap knives like Opinel's can do a heck of a job cutting, just like a cheap car like a Toyota can go a long way with no trouble.
 
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