Coming back to Opinel!

[jackknife]

LostViking, you just gave me a good recipe! I think I'm gonna try that for dinner tonight! Looks great.

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[zolthar]

Just this one. Bought in France about 15 years ago. I once used it to practice free hand sharpening. After many hours it finally had a hair shaving edge on a rediculous angle. It now serves as a whittling knife [emoji4]

 

[Frisky]

I always have an Opinel #4 carbon in my pocket. At 143.4 grains (about 1/3 of an ounce) it weighs slightly less than my small house door key with key ring (150 grains) and gives me a blade when I need it. Still, the #4 and #5 need a lock ring and don't have one. Of course, the #6 is the smallest Opinel with a lock ring, and at 1 ounce even, is light but a little bulky in the pocket. I like using the #6 in my garden, even more than the SAK Gardener. I consider the 12C27 to be the best steel in any Opinel. It gets just as sharp, holds its edge just as long and is just as easy to sharpen as the carbon. If you want to polish the stainless, just stab the blade repeatedly into white styrofoam.

I forgot to add- For gifts, I give Opinel #8s with the walnut handles. I polish up the blades with styrofoam packaging material and people love them!

Joe

 

[jackknife]

I think I had to reach a certain age before I really appreciated the opinel for what it was, a no nonsense cutting tool. I had them, used them for a while, got short patient with the inconsistency of it, tossed it in the sock drawer. Then some cutting thing would come up, and I'd think, "I really want the sharpest knife in the drawer for this," and I'd go dig out the Opinel. Then it would get carried again for a while, I'd tweak it, get it just right, then after a while I'd get a bit put off by the wood swelling again and back in the sock drawer it went.

But the times in between got shorter and shorter as I got older, and I used them more and more. Anytime a really grungy job came up, or a job that I thought may mess up my so called "better knives" I'd go get the Opinel again. And again it ride in a pocket, for a longer while this time. Finally there came a time that I looked back on years of use, and I realized that I had used an Opinel for just about every kind of cutting job. Since it was my beater knife, it had done things that I had been afraid to use a really nice/expensive knife for. I found myself sanding and staining them to my own taste, mildly reshaping the wood handle. They made great give away knives for non knife people because they did work so well, and the thin blades sharpened up so well on a coffee mug bottom. With the little Victoriox classic, I think I have introduced more non knife people to knives with Opinels than any other kind of knife. Low cost, easy to sharpen, no back spring to worry about. And they are sooooo easy to personalize.

Opinels are the kind of knife that grows on you the more you use it.

Did I ever mention they cut like the dickens?

 

[lonestar1979]

I keep no10 in kitchen,along with victorinox and opinel paring knives.All of them are made for cutting.Victorinox and Opinel make no nonsense kitchen and pocket knives,with thin edges ,good steel that cut like crazy,and is easy to touchup,grind or sharpen on basically anything in couple minutes the most.

 

[Wrangoslash]

I bought two more last night because of this thread.:applouse: Got two more #10s, one carbon and one Inox. This will be my first SS Opinel.

 

[lonestar1979]

Im getting couple of those new paring Opinels when they come out,Im not sure,they have plastic or wooden round handles.