Hats off................to Opinel

[Johnnythefox]

Added a picnic set for my no 8s…….

 

[mitch13]

Added a picnic set for my no 8s…….

Sure is interesting
Put it in your bike kit? Johnny the Hobo

 

[SwissHeritageCo]

Added a picnic set for my no 8s…….

I don't get it... how do they not fall out?

Neato.

 

[John A. Larsen]

Looks to be a small prong at the end of the tang that sticks out at an angle. I would think that when you rotate the Opinel locking collar, that it locks it firmly in place. John

 

[Johnnythefox]

I don't get it... how do they not fall out?

Neato.

Same as you lock the blade.

You can buy the knife and bits or just the bits no8 only.

 

[Johnnythefox]

Real world review.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

 

[Henry Beige]

Nice, minimalist mod on the handle.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Nice, minimalist mod on the handle.

Thank you.

I'd originally done that with another stainless Opinel in walnut. Actually two separate attempts at reshaping the handle on that one, over the span of a few years. The first attempt left the handle looking more plump & rounded, kind of cigar-like. It was OK, but I never really got comfortable with the look of it. 2nd time around, I thinned it out more toward the butt end. And the lanyard hole with brass tube was kind of an afterthought, after I'd found some tubing at a local hobby shop. After doing that one and liking how it turned out, I did the 'Carbone' and another in a combination of exotic woods, laminated together. The 'Carbone' was originally one of Opinel's older finishes on the beechwood handle, with the conspicuously 'orange' factory finish, which I sanded away. The underlying color & grain of the raw wood, with some high-grit sanding and a polyurethane finish really made it pop, as with the other two. See below.

 

[Henry Beige]

Thank you.

I'd originally done that with another stainless Opinel in walnut. Actually two separate attempts at reshaping the handle on that one, over the span of a few years. The first attempt left the handle looking more plump & rounded, kind of cigar-like. It was OK, but I never really got comfortable with the look of it. 2nd time around, I thinned it out more toward the butt end. And the lanyard hole with brass tube was kind of an afterthought, after I'd found some tubing at a local hobby shop. After doing that one and liking how it turned out, I did the 'Carbone' and another in a combination of exotic woods, laminated together. The 'Carbone' was originally one of Opinel's older finishes on the beechwood handle, with the conspicuously 'orange' factory finish, which I sanded away. The underlying color & grain of the raw wood, with some high-grit sanding and a polyurethane finish really made it pop, as with the other two. See below.

For some time now, I have had a No.7 sitting around waiting for me to decide what to do with the handle. This gives me some ideas. For a finish, I usually use beeswax. (In Minnesota, everybody has a pot of Sno-Seal sitting around).

 

[Barbababa]

The only criticism I have with my Opinels is that they stiffens up when wet. I wish they did something to the front part of the wood (so I don´t have to ).

 

[Johnnythefox]

Thank you.

I'd originally done that with another stainless Opinel in walnut. Actually two separate attempts at reshaping the handle on that one, over the span of a few years. The first attempt left the handle looking more plump & rounded, kind of cigar-like. It was OK, but I never really got comfortable with the look of it. 2nd time around, I thinned it out more toward the butt end. And the lanyard hole with brass tube was kind of an afterthought, after I'd found some tubing at a local hobby shop. After doing that one and liking how it turned out, I did the 'Carbone' and another in a combination of exotic woods, laminated together. The 'Carbone' was originally one of Opinel's older finishes on the beechwood handle, with the conspicuously 'orange' factory finish, which I sanded away. The underlying color & grain of the raw wood, with some high-grit sanding and a polyurethane finish really made it pop, as with the other two. See below.

Good Job,I rounded mine like that as well,much more comfortable in the palm.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

Good Job,I rounded mine like that as well,much more comfortable in the palm.

Thank you.

Much less bulk in the pocket too - a slimmer carry. That was the motivation for me at the beginning, though I've since really liked the feel in-hand as well.

 

[Johnnythefox]

Thank you.

Much less bulk in the pocket too - a slimmer carry. That was the motivation for me at the beginning, though I've since really liked the feel in-hand as well.

Agreed,you can see it in my photos above.

 

[The Zieg]

It keeps coming back.

Zieg

 

[Just Tom.]

How about hats ON ….. to Opinel?:

Here is me in 1988, about halfway through the 4-month Legion basic training, at the “Remise des Képis Blancs”, where you were first allowed to don the iconic képi, after completing the “Marche du Képi Blanc” (a forced march, and one of many haha). I would have most likely had an Opinel No. 8 carbone in one of my breast pockets, along with my signing contract. They told us to keep our contract with us at all times, and I took that a little too seriously. After the first few weeks of basic it was a blurry pulp from the gallons of sweat it had been exposed to in my pocket.

We stood there at attention so long before the company commander arrived to witness the ceremony that my hand went numb holding the képi, and when the time came to put it on, I barely managed to do so, and with an extremely awkward motion. I’m still embarrassed 35 years later…

The first day of basic was when I got my first Opinel. They were not issued to us, rather they were purchased for us along with basic toiletries and such, using our own pay, which the lieutenant had access to. Recruits were not allowed to visit or purchase things from the small store on base, as if we had time for that anyway, and our pay was held for us by the lieutenant. Expenditures made for us out of our own money were carefully accounted for.

The lieutenant himself showed us how to operate the Opinel’s locking ring, and we were each given a can and shown how to open it with the knife blade. The tip of mine broke off when I tried it, and I was shocked and disappointed by the apparent cheapness of this knife that was so different from the slipjoints I had grown up with. We were informed that we would need to make sure we always had the knife handy, and that we would especially need it when it was our turn for corvée cuisine (KP) at the farm (see below). I don’t know if this was standard procedure, or if Lieutenant Nichols was just a fan of Opinels.

If you were married in civilian life, French, wanted for a petty crime, or were being looked-for for some other reason, they made you join under an assumed name, and the option to choose an assumed name was available to everybody. If you kept your real name though, you were allowed to correspond with the outside world about halfway through basic. They provided Legion-branded stationery and made it a lesson on how to address an envelope and use the French postal system. I got a letter out to my parents (who still didn’t know where I was yet), and asked my dad to send me a GOOD knife with a locking blade. A month or so later a package came in the mail. All incoming mail was screened, so I was called into the lieutenant’s office where he opened the package in front of me. He admired the Case Mako lockback as he handed it over, along with the small tackle box I had asked for (to put my personal items in). He very much approved of the items I had been sent.

The farm:
A large part of the 4-month basic was spent not at the regimental “quartier”, but at a rustic farm compound, or out in the field on forced marches, or on shooting and explosives ranges and such. The 2nd company’s farm - shown in the picture above - was known as La Jasse (now no longer a Legion property).

The Case Mako went on to accompany me on my next 5 years’ adventures, and I still have it.

I’m not sure what eventually happened to the Opinel. Now I am older, I have developed a greater appreciation for Opinels, and wish I had kept my original, broken tip and all…

 

[dantzk8]

How about hats ON ….. to Opinel?:

Here is me in 1988, about halfway through the 4-month Legion basic training, at the “Remise des Képis Blancs”, where you were first allowed to don the iconic képi, after completing the “Marche du Képi Blanc” (a forced march, and one of many haha). I would have most likely had an Opinel No. 8 carbone in one of my breast pockets, along with my signing contract. They told us to keep our contract with us at all times, and I took that a little too seriously. After the first few weeks of basic it was a blurry pulp from the gallons of sweat it had been exposed to in my pocket.

We stood there at attention so long before the company commander arrived to witness the ceremony that my hand went numb holding the képi, and when the time came to put it on, I barely managed to do so, and with an extremely awkward motion. I’m still embarrassed 35 years later…

The first day of basic was when I got my first Opinel. They were not issued to us, rather they were purchased for us along with basic toiletries and such, using our own pay, which the lieutenant had access to. Recruits were not allowed to visit or purchase things from the small store on base, as if we had time for that anyway, and our pay was held for us by the lieutenant. Expenditures made for us out of our own money were carefully accounted for.

The lieutenant himself showed us how to operate the Opinel’s locking ring, and we were each given a can and shown how to open it with the knife blade. The tip of mine broke off when I tried it, and I was shocked and disappointed by the apparent cheapness of this knife that was so different from the slipjoints I had grown up with. We were informed that we would need to make sure we always had the knife handy, and that we would especially need it when it was our turn for corvée cuisine (KP) at the farm (see below). I don’t know if this was standard procedure, or if Lieutenant Nichols was just a fan of Opinels.

If you were married in civilian life, French, wanted for a petty crime, or were being looked-for for some other reason, they made you join under an assumed name, and the option to choose an assumed name was available to everybody. If you kept your real name though, you were allowed to correspond with the outside world about halfway through basic. They provided Legion-branded stationery and made it a lesson on how to address an envelope and use the French postal system. I got a letter out to my parents (who still didn’t know where I was yet), and asked my dad to send me a GOOD knife with a locking blade. A month or so later a package came in the mail. All incoming mail was screened, so I was called into the lieutenant’s office where he opened the package in front of me. He admired the Case Mako lockback as he handed it over, along with the small tackle box I had asked for (to put my personal items in). He very much approved of the items I had been sent.

The farm:
A large part of the 4-month basic was spent not at the regimental “quartier”, but at a rustic farm compound, or out in the field on forced marches, or on shooting and explosives ranges and such. The 2nd company’s farm - shown in the picture above - was known as La Jasse (now no longer a Legion property).

The Case Mako went on to accompany me on my next 5 years’ adventures, and I still have it.

I’m not sure what eventually happened to the Opinel. Now I am older, I have developed a greater appreciation for Opinels, and wish I had kept my original, broken tip and all…

Tom,
You were a Legionnaire! Glory to you!
Therefore you are French and you speak French, don't you?
I confirm that the Opinel 8 was, in any case until the 1970s, the unofficial , not supplied knife but considered essential and highly recommended in all the infantry corps of the French army. Probably because, you must have realized it the hard way, frugality is the most important rule. An Opinel, a piece of string, is all a soldier in the French army needs to have in his pocket.

Rompez les rangs!

Dan.

 

[kyhunt]

Another thread I’m going to have to go back and read all the way through.

It’s kind of ironic. I don’t own a single Opinel , but through the years have bought many for my kids. They always loved them and I liked the way the locking mechanism worked.

I might have to try one myself.

 

[Just Tom.]

Tom,
You were a Legionnaire! Glory to you!
Therefore you are French and you speak French.
I confirm that the Opinel 8 was, in any case until the 1970s, the unofficial , not supplied knife but considered essential and highly recommended in all the infantry corps of the French army. Probably because, you must have realized it the hard way, frugality is the most important rule. An Opinel, a piece of string, is all a soldier in the French army needs to have in his pocket.

Rompez les rangs!

Dan.

I did not apply for French residency or nationality when I got out, but I think I still could if I wanted to. All my papers got stolen in a break-in in 2003, so I would have to go to Aubagne to get my records first.

As for my spoken French, it’s pretty rusty, and even at its best was not exactly what’s spoken in polite society

“An Opinel, a piece of string, is all a soldier in the French army needs to have in his pocket.”
You are being polite - we used the expression (sent out with) “nothing but your [male member] and your Opinel” when referring to under-equipped missions, or missions without clearly defined objectives…

Example - Ils m’ont envoyé avec rien que ma b*** et mon Opinel

 

[dantzk8]

I did not apply for French residency or nationality when I got out, but I think I still could if I wanted to. All my papers got stolen in a break-in in 2003, so I would have to go to Aubagne to get my records first.

No matters , a former Légionnaire is French.

As for my spoken French, it’s pretty rusty, and even at its best was not exactly what’s spoken in polite society

There is no more polite society in France anyway.

You are being polite - we used the expression “your [male member] and your Opinel” when referring to under-equipped missions…

Yes, i'm one of the last.

Dan.