Messed up my Opinel?

D

Desertrobot

Joined
Feb 26, 2016
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28
Hello, I'm completely new to knives, and this forum. I recently bought an Opinel No. 8 online for around 10 bucks as a basic introduction to the hobby, but I believe I messed it up already and could use any possible advice.

A few days after I got the knife I noticed some brown rust forming at the top of the uncovered blade, as I live in Florida right next to a lake, the house gets extremely humid when I'm not at home and the A/C isn't on. I quickly fixed the rust problem with a bit of elbow grease, and I also decided to give the knife a forced patina using mustard in order to protect against bad oxidation.

Apparently I didn't do a very good job with the Patina because immediately after I was done I noticed that the blade was incredibly stiff and was very hard to fold open. I cleaned up the blade with some alcohol and magic eraser but it didn't help much, I let the knife sit until the morning but it was still very stiff.

So today I decided to spray a bit of WD40 onto the joint in order to lubricate it a bit, the blade began opening smoothly again but I noticed another issue. The locking collar became INCREDIBLY stiff and hard to open immediately after using the WD40, almost as if it had gotten tighter. Whenever I attempt to turn the collar to lock the blade both the collar and the metal piece under it grind against each other. In fact, on the piece of metal under the collar I notice two streaks/scratches from the metals grinding against each other.

It is much harder to turn the collar when the blade is open by the way, not sure if that may explain anything.

tl;dr - After lubricating my new Opinel with WD40 the locking collar became incredibly stiff, and is grinding against the piece of metal under it whenever I try to turn it.

Any help or tips whatsoever appreciated, I'm new and thankfully this knife was cheap so it'll provide a better learning experience than anything else.
 
Get some USP mineral oil from the pharmacy or grocery store. It's sold as a laxative but it's a great oil for knives. Apply some oil to the pivot and collar with a q tip. Work it in. Wipe off any excess with a rag or paper towel. It's food safe and won't hurt anything. That should help.
 
I'll make sure to get some mineral oil tomorrow and try that, thank you. Kind of strange that the stainless steel locking collar reacted to the WD40 that way, the blade opened very well after I lubricated it.
 
The wooden handles are also notorious for swelling if wet or moist, which could be why it felt tighter. I wouldnt panic, like you said it was cheap, but after a couple days it may be fine. good luck!
 
I'm kind of guessing, and it's hard to tell without pics, but I think instead of the locking collar reacting like you think, the light oil actually caused the wood to swell and made the collar fit tighter, thus being hard to turn. Again, just a semi-educated guess.
 
I guess that's one con about wooden handles, as great as they look they're not as robust. Most likely the reason nearly everyone goes with tactical blades.
 
I live in south Louisiana and notice that the ease of opening/closing my Opinels is almost dependant on the humidity. The wood swells with the moisture and effectively pinches the blade/pivot.
 
I've read about using beeswax on the pivot and melting it with a hair dryer. That should help waterproof the pivot.
 
Throw it in the refrigerator (or a bag of rice) for a day or two.
De-swell that wood handle, then seal it up.
 
I used linseed oil and soaked the whole handle in it for days using hot and cold cycles. It was surprising how much weight the knife gained/oil it soaked up. Later I added a few layers of tung oil to make it waterproof.
Now the handle seems solid and doesn't expand and shrink. However if I don't use it for a couple of weeks the still polimerizing oils glue the blade shut. Moving it a few times in and out however and it's back to normal.
 
Leave it open and throw it in the kitchen droor. Salami and cheese duty.
 
My opi originally had a grinding problem, it seemed like after two days of use I had gummed it up. Play the ring back and forth to work in the grit, wearing it in so to speak, then pop off the ring, clean with an old toothbrush or q tip, do whatever sealing you want while the ring is off, then put ring on.

Here's how I remove my ring: make sure to pop it off at something really close and contained, maybe into a cardboard box. It can fly far! After you get a grip on it, just pull the blade open from the locked position. To reattach, snuggle it on to the top, then give the ring a sharp smack on a hard surface to snap it back on.
Also disregard Sailor Moon socks :D

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Connor
 
The wood in untreated on the interior and swells if it gets wet. That's what caused the stiff action after the mustard treatment. It should go back to normal when it dries out, or if it dries out considering your climate.

The locking ring that won't turn is a different problem. And there's nothing about WD-40 that would cause that. It's likely just a piece of sand or grit in the action; perhaps you blew it in there with the spray can or perhaps the timing was only a coincidence. You can pull off the locking ring and clean it, keep turning it until whatever it is breaks up, or maybe flush it out by twisting it repeatedly under running water.

Just a tip, I wouldn't use WD-40 on anything you might eventually use for food prep. Blech. Mineral oil would be better, and wax would be ok too.
 
Desertrobot said:
I guess that's one con about wooden handles, as great as they look they're not as robust. Most likely the reason nearly everyone goes with tactical blades.
Click to expand...

More expensive wood-handled knives have liners so the action is not affected by moisture. And many types of wood are sealed or stabilized before being made into knife handles, so they aren't affected by humidity either.
Opinels are neither of those. For ten dollars you get a piece of bare wood that's lightly varnished on the outside and completely raw on the inside, with no liners.
 
Wurrwulf said:
I live in south Louisiana and notice that the ease of opening/closing my Opinels is almost dependant on the humidity. The wood swells with the moisture and effectively pinches the blade/pivot.
Click to expand...

I carried one for years while working in the Arkansas forests, and learned the same thing. But back in those days the Opinel knives didn't lock closed and could open in your pocket. :eek: So it was good that they swelled and became stiff.
 
The stiffness is caused by the humid weather.
My old man owns a Opinel, what hes does is submerge the whole thing in mineral oil for some time to let the wood soak the mineral oil up, helps protects the wooden handle from being too dry or humid.
Seems to be working out pretty fine for him, hard to beat the humidity of living on a subtropic island in east Asia; a few weeks ago the humidity was so high there where water droplets covering everything from floor to ceiling.
 
Robot,

For the swelling... First thing you need to do is get the wood dry. Suggest leaving it in a warm dry place till it loosens up again. If it's warm where you live, I recommend the dashboard of your car in the sun.

Once dry, you can adjust the tension. Put a large screw driver in the well and twist it to expand the inner collar a small amount. Go slowly. Some amount of tension keeps the knife safer.

Once you have the tension where you want it, get some carpenters beeswax at the hardware store, break off small bit and shove into the nooks and crannies of the joint. Melt it in with a hair dryer. Do this with the ring off to keep the ring from getting fouled. Do this a few times and you should end up with a fairly good seal on the wood. Repeat as needed but this is the best approach I've found.

Sticky lock rings can have a lot of causes. If the matter is just a bit of dirt or sand, ignore it. It goes away and doesn't hurt anything. Most sticky or grabby lock ring issues will go away with use and the ring and inner ring wear in. But if you want to hurry along the process, I recommend taking off the ring and marking the inner ring with magic marker. Put the ring on, work it back and forth a bit, then take the ring off and look for scratch marks in the magic marker. This will tell you where the grinding is coming from.

On a new Opinel, the most common spot I encounter is the inner edge of the slot in the ring. I often sand these edges down with 400 wet/dry sand paper. Another common spot is the top of the rivet heads. Same thing. Polish them down a tick with 400 grit paper. Some Goo Gone will clean off the magic marker ink.
 
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