Messed up my Opinel?

[shinyedges]

I can't believe no one else caught this lol sailor moon socks hahaha a throw back cartoon on a sock in a knife forum, that's funny.

No chance of that now...

 

[jackknife]

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.

This is the best advise on the thread. You just have to lessen the tension on the blade by prying the thing open like Dave (pinnah) says. I've done this a zillion times on Opinels while tuning them up to be users. You use a large screw driver both in front of and behind the pivot area. But be CAREFULL, just a little bit at a time, you don't want it too loose.

An Opinel can be made to be pretty water resistant, and I've got mine to where it can be totally submerged for 20 to 30 minutes and still be functional, if a bit stiff. But you have to make sure you have the thing really dried out before you go and do any wax or oil treatment. Follows pinch's advise and you'll have a decent almost all weather Opinel. It's just a hassle to have to go through all that every time I buy a new Opinel, as I used to gift them off on a regular basis when someone admired the way it cut. And they do cut better than most other knives on the market.

 

[EChoil]

Sometimes the solvents in WD-40 will take metal surfaces down to the bare metal and there can be quite a difference in feel after its use, gritty, binding, rough, etc. You should regain full function of the joint eventually though.

As for waterproofing the handle, why go through all the beeswax and linseed oil hassles? A few coats of a good polyurethane, sanding between coats, will not only waterproof the handle but can beautify the knife by selection of stain if so desired. Even clear will change the looks of the knife for the better. Better physical protection of the wood too.

 

[EChoil]

~ double ~

 

[pinnah]

Echoil, do have success with poly IN the joint, next to the blade pivot?

IME, poly builds up and is great for the outside of the handle. But for the pivot surface, you need something that will go inside the grain and seal it.

Wax is the best I've tried but would love to hear your experiences. Could you say more?

 

[EChoil]

Echoil, do have success with poly IN the joint, next to the blade pivot?

IME, poly builds up and is great for the outside of the handle. But for the pivot surface, you need something that will go inside the grain and seal it.

Wax is the best I've tried but would love to hear your experiences. Could you say more?

For sealing, poly should work anywhere you can brush it on wood and they make some very fine brushes for tight work. If I were doing it, I'd coat every wood surface I could reach or see. If you're worried about build up, try a single light coat and see if it interferes with anything. If any of it gets on a metal-metal surface it should grind off easily and remain only on the non-affected wood areas...it's not like a light experimental coat will hurt anything.

If it looks as though that won't work out, the wax may be your solution.

 

[Desertrobot]

If anyone is curious as to what happened. I lubricated the crap out of the locking collar with mineral oil and left the knife to sit out in the open for a day or two.

The locking collar is now working decently, not how it was when i got the knife but I believe that it won't fully recover because of how much the collar grinded against the piece under it.

It works well enough though. For anyone in this situation, if you expose an Opinel wood handle to any sort of moisture don't expect it to work perfectly smoothly until it completely dries

 

[Alberta Ed]

I fixed my #8 Carbon from binding by melting a slug of hard floor wax (Johnson, but any similar will do) into the blade groove with a hair dryer. Worked it around the handle and into the locking ring. That sealed it perfectly and it hasn't bound up since. Lubed the locking ring, too.

 

[davek14]

I dry the knife very well then I soak the whole thing in mineral oil looking like this

but with the knife completely submerged. I leave it for weeks.

 

[Rostovsky]

If the handle gets wet and you can't open opinel, do as shown in the video. It's called "kick Savoyard"
[video=youtube;m_f25P1OkTM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_f25P1OkTM[/video]