My First Opinel

Swoop03

Swoop03

Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
840
I acquired my first Opinel the other day!

My first impressions of it were awesome, I liked the feel, the looks, and the action but it stopped there. I checked the edge and the entire blade was not apexed. It was reflecting light the whole way down as if someone ran the edge on a stone. So I sharpened it up real quick and went to use it and the edge immediately chipped and rolled badly upon the first cut in cardboard, so now I suspected poor HT or something. So I took a little bit of steel from the edge and re sharpened it a little thinner than factory and after a while it started to get better but the belly and tip were giving me issues so I just repeated what I was doing a few times more and then I hit it with some sandpaper to get out the ugly scratches I put in it being careless and also to convex the edge.

It now seems to be holding up great, I have two days of use on it and I'm getting some reds and blues showing near the tip, the patina is coming in nicely and quicker than I suspected. When I took the pics you could barely see a little staining by eye so the camera didn't pick any of it up. Now you can see it better and down to the middle of the blade, but the camera still won't pick it up. I don't want to force it either, I want it to build character through my daily use.

I also scraped off the "e" from "carbone" just out of boredom and to see how well the paint on the handle was going to hold up.



 
Opinels rock!

I never have any problems with any of mine and they eat cardboard boxes big time.

Here three of mine:





 
I have a no.8 in carbon. Great slicer and very light.

I have a pair of kitchen paring knives in carbon by Opinel on the way.
 
Mine came with a slight burr on it (#6 carbone) and all I had to do was strop it slightly. It was then razor sharp and would push cut phone book paper smoothly and with no noise. Very impressing. My #8 stainless was the same way, except I ran it on my slotted wheel to remove the burr, as my strop would not knock it off as easily as the carbone blade. I carry the #6 for my EDC now and love it. It is so light that I don't even know I have it in my pocket. Was at a meeting last night, and brought it out, and it was quite the topic of conversation. It was a mixed group, and the women were just as inquisitive as the men. They thought it was "cute". :o

Blessings,

Omar
 
Mine came dull as a rock. Doesn't matter though because its the easiest knife I've ever had to get sharp, and the sharpest knife too.

It is a simple carbon steel so expect to touch it up, but I've found that stropping keeps mine razor sharp even after light rolling of the edge.
 
I've had "opies" for years - prefer the #6 and the #6 in Carbon. I've been meaning to pick up a stainless-and someday I will - but for the price you get a lot of value - plus the light weight and safety ring - I use it in the kitchen as well as general use. - a great knife IMO!
Peace Revvie
 
Congratulations Swoop, the Opinel is a wonderful knife. There's a strong cult following of them for a good reason. And they beg to be tinkered with and moddded, into a very one off personalized knife. Your problem is typical of the new knives with thin blades like an Opinel or mora. Sometimes the steel right at the edge is a little brittle or 'off', and a sharpening or two puts the edge back into good steel. Once there you'll be fine. And the slicing of the Opinel will spoil you. There's nothing quite like a fresh off the stone Opy for clean slicing and dicing. Good luck, and welcome to the cult. Come on over to the traditional form for some Opinel mods. :thumbup:

Carl.
 
Opinels are great knives, they become addictive once you learn they come in premium woods, limited editions, sets, etc.

Here is my small collection. Olive wood knives are my favorite, they have a marbled look to them.

opinelcollection.jpg
 
Yea it was brittle but it does seem fine now, i think i got it good now, but for slicing im not impressed by it, my leek feels like it slices better, thicker v grind with a hollow behind it that ramps up to thicker stock. I have the opie to a full convex right now testing how thin i can go without a microbevel. The opie is way sharper than the leek as well. I am impressed by how easily it sharpens though. Im used to s30v for edc lol.

I love some of the premium woods they come in but i wish they offered more under their carbon line, something about the carbon steels tells me quality, the cheaper knives that are stainless, seem..well cheap.
 
Swoop03 said:
but for slicing im not impressed by it, my leek feels like it slices better, thicker v grind with a hollow behind it that ramps up to thicker stock.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure that I understand how that makes the Leek a better slicer. A thicker edge plus a hollow grind to thick stock spells out much worse slicing to me. What materials have you been testing? With anything that binds and relies on more than pure edge sharpness, I can't imagine the Leek performing as well.
 
From opinel usa.

17. Why does Opinel do not offer a wider range of carbon blade models, why just beechwood handle?
Several reasons are at play here. Some woods like olive wood for example contain oils that are very corrosive and simply would deteriorate a carbon blade regardless if you take care of it or not. The other and probably most understandable reason is that many of us would not know how to take care of a carbon blade or even realize/know what it is. In the grand scheme of things expanding the carbon blade range would be detrimental to the brand as it would simply create more issues then good.
 
machine26 said:
Opinels are great knives, they become addictive once you learn they come in premium woods, limited editions, sets, etc.

Here is my small collection. Olive wood knives are my favorite, they have a marbled look to them.
Click to expand...

If you don't mind, what model is the black one, middle back, different shape to all the rest?

My 4 or 5 year old Opinel has been so abused, I used it to rewire my whole bike, taught myself to sharpen knifes on it, snapped the tip off, made a new tip, used it as a tin opener for 6 months when I moved (incidentally way faster than the normal way), chipped the blade, dropped it, crushed it, lost it, let it rust, cleaned it up and it's still somehow a great knife.

Great EDC for Europe, look quite harmless and many people might overlook the fact that it locks as it's not immediately obvious. If you lose it, cheap to replace.
 
alfk said:
If you don't mind, what model is the black one, middle back, different shape to all the rest?

My 4 or 5 year old Opinel has been so abused, I used it to rewire my whole bike, taught myself to sharpen knifes on it, snapped the tip off, made a new tip, used it as a tin opener for 6 months when I moved (incidentally way faster than the normal way), chipped the blade, dropped it, crushed it, lost it, let it rust, cleaned it up and it's still somehow a great knife.

Great EDC for Europe, look quite harmless and many people might overlook the fact that it locks as it's not immediately obvious. If you lose it, cheap to replace.
Click to expand...


The middle black one is a slim number 8 ebony, the one to the right is the standard number 8 ebony. They have polished blades, go great with the black wood.

ETA: Swoop, why do the SS ones feel cheap to you? It's 12C27 Sandvik, pretty decent. My user opie is a walnut with stainless, works well I reckon.
 
got my first opinel several Christmases ago (three number sixes actually) to give as stocking stuffers, but I ordered last minute and there was a mix up in delivery and I got them a day or two late. none came with anything resembling an edge, but it's easy enough to put one on.

I ended up keeping one, giving the other two to my parents. dad abused the heck out of it, but said it was one of the better sod knives he used. he left it muddy and it got a very weathered and rusty look quickly haha.

Still use mine around the kitchen and carry it from time to time, great knives. I've been thinking of a bigger one for a traveling food knife.
 
I'm not sure how your Kershaw makes a better slicer either.

My guess is that you have an edge that is too obtuse.

You already know how light the knife is. Mine will push cutting through paper on its own weight. It will also break a hair when dragged along its edge. Mine is around 10° per side and polished. I'm planning on 7 per side with a mirror polish to achieve a hht successfully. The edge will be fairly useless (unless I decide to use it as a straight razor) but it's a lot of fun. ;)
 
Everybody should try out an Opinel at least once. It's such an affordable classic knife that there's no good reason not to.

I've found the #8 works best for my needs. I've tried different sizes but keep coming back to the #8. My favourite user is a carbon steel one, but the prettiest one I have is a stainless steel model with oak handle that came with a nice leather belt sheath and wee sharpening steel.

DSC02353.JPG
 
Oh, my #6 has cut more people than all the rest of my knives combined. People love to fondle it if they see it. Then they notice the "rustic" looking blade with the patina and they think it's dull or something (even though they know my knives are always sharp) so they inevitably run their finger down the edge. I was at my old bosses house playing video games one day and a coworker saw it sticking out of my watch pocket of my jeans, without asking he pulled it out, opened the blade and instantly cut himself haha...
 
Brutus013 said:
I'm not sure that I understand how that makes the Leek a better slicer. A thicker edge plus a hollow grind to thick stock spells out much worse slicing to me. What materials have you been testing? With anything that binds and relies on more than pure edge sharpness, I can't imagine the Leek performing as well.
Click to expand...

I've just been cutting into cardboard really, it is all i have laying around free to cut. I filled half my 25 gallon trash can with nothing but small bits of cardboard from corrugated boxes, soda can boxes, cereal boxes and flat rate mail boxes I needed to get rid of. I thinned out the edge on my opie and now it feels like it slices a touch better, I guess I just had a fluke from the facotory, the edge was burnt and to obtuse to really show the knife's potential. I will keep trying a thinner edge until it starts to hinder performance too I'm curious as to what the carbon steel can handle. I believe I will get it to a zero grind and it still perform great for edc and just slap a small microbevel on it so I can use it harder.

machine26 said:
From opinel usa.

17. Why does Opinel do not offer a wider range of carbon blade models, why just beechwood handle?
Several reasons are at play here. Some woods like olive wood for example contain oils that are very corrosive and simply would deteriorate a carbon blade regardless if you take care of it or not. The other and probably most understandable reason is that many of us would not know how to take care of a carbon blade or even realize/know what it is. In the grand scheme of things expanding the carbon blade range would be detrimental to the brand as it would simply create more issues then good.
Click to expand...

Oh makes sense then, I didn't think of that.

machine26 said:
The middle black one is a slim number 8 ebony, the one to the right is the standard number 8 ebony. They have polished blades, go great with the black wood.

ETA: Swoop, why do the SS ones feel cheap to you? It's 12C27 Sandvik, pretty decent. My user opie is a walnut with stainless, works well I reckon.
Click to expand...

I don't know, just when I see a stainless knife that is around 10 bucks I assume it to be cheap no name or poorly heat treat 440 but i also didn't know what steel they used. I do like the sandvik steels. My leek as the 14c28n and I've used the 13c27 I think it is and I love both. IMO a good bit better in edge retention than 8cr or aus 8 for around the same price. I will have to try their stainless before judging it further. I'll have to try the number 7, this one is a 6 and it is perfect, its got a 3" blade and almost a 1:1 blade handle ratio and does weigh nothing. I do wish it had just a touch more handle, I want to drill it and put a lanyard on it for my pinky to grip on.

Strigamort said:
I'm not sure how your Kershaw makes a better slicer either.

My guess is that you have an edge that is too obtuse.

You already know how light the knife is. Mine will push cutting through paper on its own weight. It will also break a hair when dragged along its edge. Mine is around 10° per side and polished. I'm planning on 7 per side with a mirror polish to achieve a hht successfully. The edge will be fairly useless (unless I decide to use it as a straight razor) but it's a lot of fun. ;)
Click to expand...

Like I said above here my edge just seemed to obtuse from the factory, I don't know what it was as I moved to free handing everything but I'd have to guess 25-30 degrees? It seemed a little more obtuse than a factory Victorinox grind. I have it now to maybe 7-10 per side with a 15-20 microbevel. I will def. try it thinner.
 
Swoop03 said:
I acquired my first Opinel the other day!

My first impressions of it were awesome, I liked the feel, the looks, and the action but it stopped there. I checked the edge and the entire blade was not apexed. It was reflecting light the whole way down as if someone ran the edge on a stone. So I sharpened it up real quick and went to use it and the edge immediately chipped and rolled badly upon the first cut in cardboard, so now I suspected poor HT or something. So I took a little bit of steel from the edge and re sharpened it a little thinner than factory and after a while it started to get better but the belly and tip were giving me issues so I just repeated what I was doing a few times more and then I hit it with some sandpaper to get out the ugly scratches I put in it being careless and also to convex the edge.

It now seems to be holding up great, I have two days of use on it and I'm getting some reds and blues showing near the tip, the patina is coming in nicely and quicker than I suspected. When I took the pics you could barely see a little staining by eye so the camera didn't pick any of it up. Now you can see it better and down to the middle of the blade, but the camera still won't pick it up. I don't want to force it either, I want it to build character through my daily use.

I also scraped off the "e" from "carbone" just out of boredom and to see how well the paint on the handle was going to hold up.



Click to expand...


That looks like a desk of a very bored knife nut. Just playing! :D Congrats on the Opinel. What size did you pick?
 
matt1987 said:
That looks like a desk of a very bored knife nut. Just playing! :D Congrats on the Opinel. What size did you pick?
Click to expand...

Ha you're the first to ever comment on that. My desk is the background of many of my pictures. It doubles as a workbench and I use it from time to time as a burr block :D The desk cost $20 bucks new and I've had it for 10 years so I couldn't care less anymore lol. I picked up a number 6. The blade is perfect but the handle needs to be a hair longer so I think I'm going to pick up a 9 maybe and wharncliffe it and round the back of the handle when my belt sander comes in.
 
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