Heavy wood work with an Opinel

The moral of the story? Use the right tool for the job. Using an Opinel to convert a sapling to firewood is like entering the Paris-Dakar in a Smart car. That's quite a feat.
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When I fly commerial, I make sure to have a parachute, a reserve chute, an inflating raft, and an oxygen tank and regulator with my carry-on.

I think you are reading the wrong story, Rdelliott. The story is about making do with an underclassed knife by subsituting technique for strength. By using a variety of tools, you'll learn to appreciate and make use of the their respective qualities. However, don't despair if you are without your tiger-striped Armagedon Executionator Doomsday Blade and only have an Opinel.
 
kel_aa said:
By using a variety of tools, you'll learn to appreciate and make use of the their respective qualities.
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You also tend to learn how to better utilize the more robust knives. While some knives are very durable it never hurts to know how to mimize the loads they see in use, this tends to make life easier on you as well. You can for example just take something like the Ratweiler and pound it through twisted and cross grain hardwoods at random with no ill effect on the knife and this doesn't induce a huge incentive to figure much out about the nature of wood. But to do it with the Mora 2000 takes more knowledge about how wood splits. Using this information makes splitting the same wood with the Ratweiler easier on both you and the knife and allows you then to reoptomize the edge profile. I like the Armagedon Executionator Doomsday Blade as well, too bad it was switched to stainless, the origional L6 one was excellent.

-Cliff
 
kel_aa said:
When I fly commerial, I make sure to have a parachute, a reserve chute, an inflating raft, and an oxygen tank and regulator with my carry-on.

I think you are reading the wrong story, Rdelliott. The story is about making do with an underclassed knife by subsituting technique for strength. By using a variety of tools, you'll learn to appreciate and make use of the their respective qualities. However, don't despair if you are without your tiger-striped Armagedon Executionator Doomsday Blade and only have an Opinel.
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Actually, I prefer my safety orange BK-9http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412609, although the Dork Ops Ultimate Bin Laden Eviscerator in the trademark Dork Ops black/advertising copy finish would be my second choice :).

I quite agree that Cliff's experiments using small knives to do big tasks are extremely instructive; don't get me wrong. I just shudder at the thought of ever having to do something like that in the field.
 
I like Opinel folders. Light, simple... and kind of domestic looking so that you don't make everybody scatter when you pull it out to peel an apple at a picnic.

The steel in the ones I've had has been great for holding an edge. I managed to break one blade... can't remember how I did it now, but it is most likely to have been because I was levering something.

The one thing I am wary of though, is that when the wooden handle gets wet, the wood swells making the blade much harder to open. So it wouldn't be the only knife I had with me if I needed to depend on one in a cold wet climate. I suppose I should add that I don't think that wet weather has ever caused this problem for me... it is generally because I have washed the knife....I like my food preparation tools to be clean.

They make a good gift for people who might not consider themselves to be knife enthusiasts. Almost a bit fashionable looking... the kind of knife you would have in a picture advertising a slab of gourmet cheese. Well priced too.
 
Coote thats a good heads up on the wood swelling when wet . I try not to immerse my handles for long when washing . I mostly hold the bl\ade under water until scrubbed and then immerse the handle while still held for a quick scrub . I had a bad experience with my favourite Henckel which now has a splintery handle due to being immersed for way too long .
(That was some party ,) L:O:L
 
rdelliott said:
Using an Opinel to convert a sapling to firewood is like entering the Paris-Dakar in a Smart car. That's quite a feat.
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R:D: i wouldn,t enter into the car let alone the race . Being 6 foot 1 and 260 pounds I am stymied when it comes to entering small cars . I guess they are economical . Whwn I first saw how light and low to the ground they are I said they are just not made for a Canadian winter .

It must feel like a mosquito looking up at an elephant when one of those drivers looks up at a full sized pickup .
Heck The car could fit in the bed of the pick-up .
(Hey I think I just invented the spare . L:O:L )
 
Kevin the grey said:
R:D: i wouldn,t enter into the car let alone the race . Being 6 foot 1 and 260 pounds I am stymied when it comes to entering small cars . I guess they are economical . Whwn I first saw how light and low to the ground they are I said they are just not made for a Canadian winter .

It must feel like a mosquito looking up at an elephant when one of those drivers looks up at a full sized pickup .
Heck The car could fit in the bed of the pick-up .
(Hey I think I just invented the spare . L:O:L )
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I feel your pain; I wouldn't want to cram myself into one of those puppies either, even if I could get one down my driveway in mid-January.

I hear the gas mileage is great, though; when you start running low on juice you just flip it over and pop in some fresh AA's :D. And yeah, you probably could get one into a pickup. That'd be pretty darn funny.
 
Did you ever see the commercial for Cadillac . WHen they came out with the huge S:U:V: ? They made a version with a convertible pick-up bed in the back .
Two football players show up for one parking spot one in the Caddy and the other in a little sport car . They put the sport car in the bed of the Caddy .
Like you said . "The funniest thing I ever saw ".

B:T:W: The Smart economy runs on AA batteries . The six cylinder runs on a pair of 9 volt batteries . They get up to 2 kilometers per watt . L:O:L
 
I was just thinking about my post where I stated that my Opinel is harder to open when the wood has been soaked in water. I hope I didn't put anybody off getting one of these fine knives. I wouldn't hesitate to get another if I needed one. The knife that is hard to open is the smallest locking model I think. A larger one would be easier to open if wet I imagine, because of the greater leverage on the longer blade etc.

And perhaps I should try to prevent this problem..... I was once quite heavily into amateur radio, and I needed some spreaders for a double feed line to one of my antennas. An old timer said that wooden dowelling would be fine for the spreader if I soaked it in hot wax. I did this and had no problems with shorting due to wet (conductive) spreaders. So I imagine that if I dried out my Opinel, then simmered it for a short time in fairly hot beeswax or even paraffin wax, I would probably stop it absorbing water.

Be careful if you try this yourself. Molten wax can burst into flame if it gets too hot.
 
Coote since your post I have sold all my stock in the Opinel company . L:O:L

Actually I think you are right to state that all in all they are a fine knife .
Aside from the fact they are simple they are an extremely well made knife .
When the locking ring is engaged there is no wobble at all . Wobble is a big killer for me with folders . The knife has been around relatively the same for centuries . It can be made shaving sharp . From kitchen duty to cleaning a deer they are great . Heck a good sized one is only 20 bucks . I myself would go for the one up from the 4 inch blade . If it was strictly a pocket knife I might go for the 4 inch .
 
A friend of mine who is a machinist made a slip-lock with alum. scales out of a small Opie, says hes been carrying it for about 10 years. Blade is stained and pitted and somewhat thinner than it once was but still holds a wicked edge.
 
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