Has Opinel messed up ???

Thanks SD. It's to bad that after market locking rings are not offered.
I don't trust those on key rings.

 

My no.7 locks fine, but it is odd that it only locks in one direction, whereas the several 8s and 6s I have lock both ways.

 

If yours is the new model with the slot in the inner collar and the indented nub in the outer, that is why it won't turn both ways. It is limited to the stops on the terminal ends of the slot.

 

Mine are not. I'm not even sure what these new models are. The collar on my 7 only twists one direction open while all the 6 and 8s twist both ways. I've only gotten into Opinels within the last couple months, so I'm confused as to what has changed since I got mine. I've got an 8 carbone, a few 8 INOX garden, a few carbone 6 (my favorite), a pair of 6 and 8 with oak, and the 7 carbone. Only the 7 locks only in one direction, all the others lock in either direction. None slip closed. If they've changed something, I guess everything I've gotten was older stock, even though it's only been a month or 2.

 

I love my Opinel knifes and never gave me problem!.

 

I just got a standard No8, and the lock seems to hold the blade fine in the open position. It takes a bit more effort on the ring turn to actually get it to lock closed properly, but I'm not seeing ring slippage in the open position from either spine taps or trying to just fold it.

 

In this image you will see the new locking feature that we are talking about. If you see that rectangular like feature on the outside locking ring, then you have a knife like we are talking about in this thread. If you don't see that then you have an older version which is not being discussed. It would be interesting if you have the new locking feature and your lock works fine with no tweaking. Mine didn't.

I heard they started the lock change with the #7 for some reason and that is the knife I've had the longest. I got that knife pictured below in late May of 2016. My slim #8 in Olive is much newer, got that knife earlier this year in 2017. Both if those had loose ill fitting, new lockrings that did not lock the blade properly either open or closed. Does anyone have this new locking feature that worked well from the factory? Which model do you have? That would be good for the rest of the future Opinel buyers to know.

 

I've been following this thread with interest, and here's two thoughts I had:

(1) Somebody suggested that the changes in the lock were made to cut costs. Well, given that the new design requires more/ more complex machining on both the viroblock and the inner collar (i.e., two of the five parts that the knife consists of), I think this is rather unlikely - might even be that the opposite is the case.

(2) I'm only about 1/3 engineer by training, but given my understanding of mechanics the new divot should actually make things stronger under force, if anything. My thinking is: if force is applied to the spine of the blade, the viroblock is forced downwards at the front (blade-side) of the knife, creating a pull on the backside (spine-side) of the collar (where the new divot is). This causes the divot to wedge into the rail cut into the inner collar, thus creating a second anchor point for the lock, and helping to prevent lock slip. This of course only works if the knife locks properly in the first place, meaning that the viroblock collar turns at least +/- 45° from open to closed.

And to answer SwiftDreams question: I have two Opi #8s (oak & walnut), both have the new lock, and both work great without having made any modifications. The lock-up on both knives (in terms of the degrees the collar turns as well as in terms of the look and feel of the lock-up in use) is the same as for my #7, which still has the old lock.

 

Looking at the opinel-USA website, they do have a manufacturing defects warranty. However, it does not state how the warranty works. (It may not be worth $5 shipping to get a $13 knife exchanged -I'd hope they would just mail you a new knife, and a prepaid package for return of the defective one.) If any of you that have a defective knife looks into the warranty, it would be nice to know what you find out.

May be better buying either in person or from a retailer with a good return policy instead.

 

Just checked my new No. 8--locks up fine, opened and closed.

 

As mentioned, my new No8 works fine, no lock problems. I literally got it two days ago.

 

Now that is some good news for the new version of the #8s anyway. Thanks for the feedback. Just wanted to verify these were not from old stock that are still selling currently. Regular #8 is their flagship size. Hopefully they will or have fixed their problems with the other models, should not be hard to do, simply cut the ramps just a bit different.

 

SwiftDream, thank you for the picture. None of my Opinels are new so I haven't seen what this thread is about.

 

I have an #8 Opinel in the slim version enroute. Will post when it arrives.

 

They will replace your no-locking re-engineered #7 with another non-locking re-engineered #7. Bad design.

 

Well it arrived today and seems to be working fine to me. It does only lock in one direction but locks tight.

 

It only has a ramp to lock open in one direction. Does it have...

 

Yes it appears to have it. Here is another shot of it.

 

Maybe they are tweaking the ramps for locking the blade in place. When I ordered my slim #8 in olive I noticed that I got the last one and they were on back order after that. They got a new shipment soon but could be the newer runs have better working lockrings. All they have to do it just reconfigure their machines that cut the ramps in the lockring just a bit. They way mine came was a lawsuit waiting to happen. They didn't do what they were supposed to do.

Does your knife also lock closed well and does not pop open any when you gently tug on the blade? The lock ramp on my #8 did not even contact the shoulder of the blade when the stop hit the side of the blade if that makes sense, just poor quality control that had a very easy fix. Perhaps they are addressing that now.