My first Carbon-Steel knife, holy Belgium that's *SHARP!*

M

MacTech

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Jan 7, 2006
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On a whim I stopped down at my local knife shop (Kittery Trading Post) to pick up a Vic Explorer, while I was there, I noticed they had some number 8 Opinels as well, so for $10 i figured it'd be worth a try

It's a No 8 Carbon-Steel blade model, the factory edge felt decently sharp, but I've read that high-carbon steel can get truly, terrifyingly sharp, Monomolecular level sharp....

So, I got back home, broke out the Sharpmaker and my 3-stage strop, starting off with the brown SM rods on the 30 degree setting

High Carbon steel definitely sharpens quickly, as the Opinel was pulled down the Sharpmaker rod, it almost sounded like it was singing....

"Feed Me, MacTech, Feed me all night long...."

after only five passes on the corners of the brown rods, it was noticeably sharper, so I finished up on the flats, then to the white rods, corners then flats....

after the Sharpmaker treatment, the Opinel was honed to a hair-popping edge, it was truly amazing, it actually felt *sharper* than my benchmark knife, my Spydie Pacific Salt PE.....

I then stropped it, to take the sharpness to the next level.....
This is the first knife I own that is capable of popping hairs above skin level, incredibly, incredibly sharp, this humble little $10 Opinel is sharper than my fanciest and most expensive Spydies, a truly jaw-dropping revalation....

I know that this level of sharpness can't last, but it's so easy to touch it up that resharpening won't be a problem and won't matter, the humble Opinel has got to be one of the best sleeper values in the knife world, keeping a razor edge on this one is so easy that it's a no brainer, it *would* be the perfect loaner/beater knife, but it's far too sharp for my absentminded co-workers

heck, they're already scared of my EDC knives anyway, they say they're "too sharp", and this little Opinel makes my EDC array seem dull in comparison.....

hmm, my evil side wants to loan them my humble little Opinel anyway, they'll look at it as a cheap, crappy knife.....until they cut with it (or more likely get cut *by* it), I just want to see their expression when I give them the standard warning "be careful, it's sharp, *very* sharp, this one is the sharpest one i've handed to you yet"

they'll look at this simple, lowly, mundane looking knife and think "naaah, he's gotta be lying, he's pulling our leg" and run their thumb across the blade to check it's sharpness.........

and I'll stand ready with the Triage kit, and a stern "I told you so".....
the temptation is there.... ;)
 
Don't do it... an Opinel is too delicate for clods. Better to give them a scary sharp beater like a Mora, and you won't feel so bad when you're mopping up the gore. And you can still stand there and say, "I told you so.":D
 
I EDC an Opinel to work - it's an office, and I find that Opinels are the least threatening knife (after perhaps the SAK) to nervous people. Nevertheless, there is something about the combination of wood handle and carbon steel blade that just makes me happy - I was just born a couple of hundred years too late!

I keep mine sharp using the sandpaper/mousemat routine, which is never hair-popping, but enough for what I need. And always sharper than anything my co-workers have ever handled before.

Please don't be patronised by this, but have you tried smearing Vaseline over the end of the handle where the blade swings out? The Achilles heel of this knife is the fact that water causes the wood to swell, making the blade stick. Vaseline makes most minor splashes bead and not sink in, which means you can wash it without worrying too much.
 
I've got an Opinel in the glove box of my truck. Used to use it for EDC till the blade loosened up enough in the handle to open on it's own. Retired it to the glove box after cutting myself a couple times sticking my hands in my pocket. The steel in that blade sharpens better and easier than any other knife I've carried. It's definitely a sleeper in terms of price and appearance.
 
The newer models have the locking ring modified to lock them shut as well as open. The same thing can be done with a file or Dremel tool cutting the bottom edge of the locking ring to slide over the blade heel when closed. It is worth the time to get your Opinel back in your pocket.

I've had a few Opinels for nearly thirty years. They are great knives for the money.
 
I showed the Opinel off to the guys at work, as expected, they scoffed at the appearance of the blade, they're used to me using SAKS, multitools, and Spydies, all relatively "sophisticated" knives, so me handing them a little wooden handled knife with a dark, mottled patina had them scoffing

....until they saw how sharp it was, one of them handed it back to me open, and said "you close it, this one scares me" (he uses a Delica3 SE, so he's not a Sheeple, he just hasn't experienced anything as sharp as this little Opinel
 
Now try a Douk-Douk.

Although for sharp I was most impressed by my Spyderco Adventura. It even looks like something out of a science fiction movie.
 
It would be awesome if Spyderco or Benchmade would produce a modern design pocket knife with a carbon steel blade. A carbon steel Endura 4 would be an amazing knife. I'm not holding my breath though; most people are too lazy to take care of a carbon steel knife.
 
ahh it warms my heart to see people discovering the humble opinel . I dont have a knife in my collection that will keep up with the 10 buck opinel as far as pure cutting gos. all that super steel out there and theres nothing better than good old carbon. sad that it took me so much money and years to find that out.i polished my blade flats and rust and stains are not so fast to form . the thing abought the opinel is that they grind the blade thin like a knife should be. no its not a pry bar its a knife ment for cutting
 
Actually Spyderco was working on a Mule team knife made from one of my favourite tool steels 51200 but that has been indefinitely postponed.
They had some trouble working with the steel apparently. I like tool steel even better than carbon steel as it is like a good carbon steel but with some of the sexy and expensive alloys like vanadium that you see in super stainless like S30V without all that extra cromium that makes stainless brittle and hard to sharpen. 51200 is used in really good ball bearings and is the same steel used by Swamprat and Ed Fowler.

A2 is another good one.
I hate cheap crappy stainless knives. If cost is such a big deal why don't they just use a cheap good carbon steel like 1095.
 
I remember first learning to sharpen using a carbon steel opinel. I got that sucker so sharp, I cut myself doing a hair test. I sliced off a thin piece of skin on my left hand. The slice was so fine, I didn't even feel it. Only the discoloration at that spot indicated that I had cut skin.
 
Seems a lot of people share the opinel experience. Mine got soo sharp after some passes on a sharpmaker, sharpest knife I have so far, which saying much. Might buy some more :-)
 
I have a large and small CS Twistmaster, bought 'em several years ago for next to nothing. Wide, flat ground carbon V can take a pretty decent edge, almost lost the end of one of my thumbs to the large one. Pretty good knife to toss in a toolbox. I do like the carbon/tool steel blades, and have never found maintenance to be an issue
 
Opinel is a very good example that cheap&simple does NOT have to be nasty and useless.The locking collar makes it safe, the carbon blade is a fiendishly sharp USER and the wooden handle simple and ergonomic. They come in many sizes too, if you read French then check www.opinel.fr good pix too. I have a long filleting Opinel in Stainless with a buffalo horn handle (how do they carve THAT out of one piece?) Opinel, SAK, Mora, Muela, CASE Sodbuster all cheap simple and practical blades that are worth owning&carrying.
 
I have a bunch of folders (not as many as most of you guys... but I am working on it) and unless I plan to be cutting rope, line and stuff like that... I always carry a Leatherman PST (the oldest on I guess) and an big Carbon Steel Opinel while backpacking. It is by far the best blade for pure cutting purposes and food preparation. The only thing I could complain about is that whenever it gets wet (and I can't dry it right on the spot) the wooden handle swollens because of the moisture and the blade gets kind of stuck. I just keep it in a pocket for a while and it drys off.
I don't own a sharpmaker (I am looking for one but here in Spain is arround 100€... go figure) so I usually sharpen in with a little pocket sharperner I got when I went to Wisconsin like 8 years ago. It is made of two ceramic rods set up at a fixed angle. Just a few passes and it gets truly sharp.
Mikel

willgoy said:
...Muela... all cheap simple and practical blades that are worth owning&carrying.
Click to expand...
Sorry willgoy but I hate to say that I will never buy Muela... The usually work with stainless and not the best ones let me tell you. I got a stag handle Muela as a present. I loved it for a while (I was 14 and only used it on summer camps and stuff like that), even stitched a new leather strap across the guard so I could carry it upside down on my backpacks shoulder strap. I shaped the stag handle so it would fit my hand better and got rid of some material on the end of the handle that produced me blisters while chopping with it. It didn't hold and edge at all and the blade got somewhat loose on the handle (not to mention that is not a full tang knife). The leather sheat was awesome though. A friend of mine was gifted with a Muela folder and it was the crappiest ever. Didn't hold and edge, had a lot of play, lock failures after a while and didn't open smothly at all because it didn't have washers. I guess for now I preffer the french stuff... and I am looking for a RAT-7 to replace that Muela.
 
Don't forget, the Opinel has pretty good geometry in addition to the carbon blade steel. Thin blades slice like the dickens.
 
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