Heavy Opinel Use

Nice to see you use that knife and liking it :)
Carbon steel Opinels are great. Always keep one in my bag.
 
This (fine) review says something about Opinels ...... but it also says something about thin blades and folding pocketknives in general. Good job, Vivi.
 
Vivi said:
It's just an undeveloped section of woods at the end of my neighborhood, bordering a golf course, another neighborhood and a real busy road. It's a pretty good sized place for where it is. There are even some whitetails back there.
Click to expand...
Hope they leave it be...

Thanks for the pics and the test! Well done.
 
Thank you for the positive feedback :)

I don't see them developing it much further in the next few years. By the time they tear it down for more houses or a bigger golf course, I'll have graduated to the real wilderness methinks.

Anyways, Opinels aren't the only knives you can baton with. Saks can do it too :)

30ijr4g.jpg
 
with the opinel did you have the blade fully out out partially out like in the pic?
 
It was fully out, then would move to close as I batoned it keeping some pressure on the handle. Then I'd straighten the handle and push down on it to straighten the blade back out, repeating the process. I'll try to make a video if this at some point so the technique is easier to understand.
 
A questions on wood sealant. I use my opinels for everything -- and that includes food preparation. Are the sealants you guys talked about food safe?

Also since my first opinel was untreated, it has some rust at the pivot point which I can't reach easily -- is there a way of getting that off before sealing?
 
I have rust on my pivot areas too, bright orange rust. Haven't experimented with sealants though.
 
alephlex said:
Also since my first opinel was untreated, it has some rust at the pivot point which I can't reach easily -- is there a way of getting that off before sealing?
Click to expand...
Opinels are pretty easy to disassemble.

The only thing holding the locking ring in place is the head of the pivot pin, inside the ring. If you hold the knife pivot-up/butt-end-down, looking at the slot where the blade goes, it's on the right-hand end of the pin. Take a pair of narrow pliers (a Leatherman or similar work well) and grab the locking ring under the raised slot on the right side, pull away from the handle, and up towards the pivot, the ring will pop right off.

Next, drive out the pivot pin. I use a narrow nail set, then a sawed-off nail; an old broken drill bit makes a good tool, too. The pivot pin is slightly flared on one end, but is soft enough that it's easy to drive it through the inner collar. It'll hang up badly at the blade tang though; a couple more firm whacks will get it through the blade, and after that, the other side of the inner collar if you want.

A few things I've found interesting:

  • The blades are stamped out of sheet, so one side of the tang is convex, with a bit of raised metal around the edge. Sanding the tang smooth makes the blade swing more smoothly. If yours is rusty, sanding away the rust will help a lot!

  • The inner collar is what controls the tension on the blade tang. If your blade is really stiff to open, don't sand the slot bigger, just open up the collar a bit. It's a lot easier to reverse if you go to far! The inner collar is not very springy, unlike the locking collar, you can just wedge it open a bit with the jaws of the pliers you used to remove the locking collar. Reassemble the inner collar and blade, without the pivot pin, to check the fit. If you go too far, just remove the inner ring again and clamp it tighter using a vice or large pliers; check the fit again, repeat as necessary.

  • Once you've driven out the pivot pin once, it's a lot easer to do subsequently. So feel free to play around with it! For instance, with all the metal removed, it's a lot easier to refinish the handle. Speaking of which...

  • I've refinished several Opinels; I like boiled linseed oil for a finish, since it repels water well but doens't leave a slick surface like polyurethane. I just sand off the old finish (and tweak the shape to my liking!), remove all the metal parts, and soak the stripped handle in a small bag with the linseed oil. After a few days in the bag, take out the handle, wipe off the excess linseed oil, hand-buff with a clean cloth, and reassemble. Couldn't be easier.
 
Thanks Gryffin! Very detailed instructions and I like your suggestion about the boiled linseed. I've tended to use paraffin oil (or mineral oil) and that works well for my other knives as it is ok for consumption.

I know this is a big ask but you wouldn't by any chance have any pictures would you? -- especially of the pivot joint. I can think of quite a number of people (including myself !!) who would be interested.

Thanks again.
 
i own a opinel #7. supreme knife for the price. have been batoning light wood with it after observing this post. wanted to see for myself. and thus far it still works like a charm.
 
Glad to hear it worked out alright for you. Don't want people blaming me for their broken knives. :p

Really though, I haven't had durability issues at all. Like I said, in the pictures you see, that was somewhere around the 15th time I had done that with the knife. It's also seen the typical casual use of cutting up packaging, shaving and being my go-to kitchen knife for chopping up meats, fruits and veggies. Tough knife for me to dull in my practice.

I should be getting a #12 in the mail this week, which will offer another 3/4 inch of blade. Should work even better for batoning.

Gryffin, I'll try removing the collar and pivot pin from one of my #8 Opinels later today and see how well it works. The Pivot area is fine on that one though, only thing I want to adjust on it is grinding the blade to a wharncliffe shape, but it takes a while by hand on a cinder block.
 
alephlex said:
I know this is a big ask but you wouldn't by any chance have any pictures would you? -- especially of the pivot joint. I can think of quite a number of people (including myself !!) who would be interested.
Click to expand...
I took a few pictures last weekend of my customized Opinels, but not in a disassembled state. I've got some time on my hands this week, I'll take some more detailed ones and get them posted.
 
Heres a pic of an 'exploded' Opinel - hope it helps.

I like Opinels but living in the tropics I experienced lots of problems with moisture absorbtion in our extremely humid wet season. I tried a few oil and wax sealing options but didn't have a lot of luck. I now strip the knives down and completely seal them in epoxy (the stuff I use is boat building epoxy - it is quite safe around food once dry and is very robust).

Sand the outside of the handle and sand out the groove and the exposed end grain at the blade end of the handle. I apply epoxy with a thin spatula in two coats to all of the 'in the slot' surfaces. Apply the second coat just as the first is going 'off ' for the best result. Seal the outside of the handle and particularly the end grain - I also use epoxy for this. I rub it on with a rubber gloved finger, smearing it around thinly - this provides a good matte, waterproof finish. The epoxy is very tough but not UV resistant - I don't think this matters much unless you leave the knife lying around in the sun a lot. If you do then use some other finish.

I usually clean up the worst of the machine marks on the blade and smooth up the pivot area.

Reassemble the knife and you have a relatively moisture proof knife. I sometimes apply a wood stain before coating. This is not just for appearances but also to show if the expoxy is wearing through around the pivot area - the light coloured beech shows up very obviously through a darker stain.

To do all of this, plus put a better profile on the grip takes me about 30 to 40 minutes in total. Elapsed time is about a day due to the drying time of the epoxy. It doesn't turn into a scuba knife but eliminates one of the most common problems with these knives in wet climates.

Unlike many, I actually prefer the stainless Opinels, mainly due to the maintenance overhead of carbon blades in a tropical, salt water environment. I don't notice any great difference in the ability to take or hold an edge between the two steels.

opinel1.jpg


opinelproj2.jpg
 
Thanks for those photos. I haven't had many rusting issues with the carbon steel myself. I had an Opinel with me at a thrash metal concert recently where I moshed and headbanged the entire time. It was a wild show and I got real sweaty, so I had some surface spots on the blade when I got home. That's the worst of it though.

I was thinking about taping an Opinel blade to my roof for a week, month or the entire summer and seeing how the blades were affected by the elements.
 
Vivi said:
I want to adjust on it is grinding the blade to a wharncliffe shape, but it takes a while by hand on a cinder block.
Click to expand...

I would love to see a picture of this when you finish it. I've thought of creating a wharncliffe, but did not know how to open the knife once the nail nick was gone. I am, without a doubt, not the most inventive person I know. :)

Cheers.
 
I've learned alot! Especially useful is proper battoning technique for folders. Thanks guys!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top