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Need to save my opinel

M

max_b

Joined
Jan 17, 2014
Messages
26
It's no.8 opinel that we've been using in the kitchen daily use. The blade looks in a really bad shape with corrosion but it cuts really sharp still. The wife says we need to get rid of it but I want to save it and bring back to life! Any tips appreciated. I want to post picture but the forum has disabled photos for tapatalk.
 
Might upload your photos to Photobucket or a similar photo-hosting service, then cut & paste the Photobucket IMG urls for each pic into your post here. I'd think that should work. Might not have to deal with the Tapatalk issues that way. Even if you just post a link to the Photobucket page where the photo is hosted, I or someone here can probably get it posted in the thread, if you're not sure how to make it work.

I'm sure you'll get some good tips on resurrecting your Opinel, if you can get some pics posted.


David
 
ok here are the photos

opinel_1.jpg
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opinel_2.jpg
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hope it's not beyond recovery :o:o:o
 
It's not beyond recovery. ;)

Assuming the blade is pitted (looks like it is), the pitting could be sanded out, or mostly so, with a block with wet/dry sandpaper wrapped around it, and the blade supported against a firm backing. OR, just lay 1/3 or 1/2 a sheet of wet/dry over a hard, flat surface (glass, stone, hardwood) and move the blade against that. I used a similar method to thin & polish blades on two of my Opinels. The 'carbone' blades will sand easily, and some 220-400 grit wet/dry paper should work pretty fast. Might start with the 400; if that turns out to be a little slow, move back to 320/220 and try again. You don't necessarily need to remove all the pitting, if you don't want to. Take the wet/dry as far as you like in grit; anything up to about ~600-800 will leave a finer satin finish, and 1000+ will start to bring up a mirror shine.

If the pitting doesn't bother you that much, you could just scrub the blade with WD-40 or mineral oil, and steel wool or a wire brush, to get rid of any red rust. The dark grey/black patina won't harm the steel at all, so you needn't worry about that. After scrubbing the red rust away, clean the blade and use some metal polish like Flitz/Simichrome to shine it up a bit.

Might wait a bit for more suggestions from others as well. Lots of Opinel fans here, and you should get some good feedback.


David
 
Agree with OwE ^^^

Opinel blades are pretty thin so you're not likely to sand out any deep pits.

Once clean just wipe it down with Mineral Oil to keep it that way.
 
I would go the steel wool route. It'll clean the blade up and leave the character.
 
I agree with jpm2, some steel wool will get it back up and running as good as new, ( might not look new, but it will have some character ) then apply some light oil, or use the simichrome to polish it up. Then slice up some apples or oranges and let it sit overnight to get a nice layer of grey patina on it. Then just make sure it is dried off good after using or cleaning and it should not rust any further. I have cleaned up several carbon knives this way with good success.

Omar
 
By the way I also found an app called "imgupr" that you can download on your iPhone and easily upload images. After uploading just copy the "direct link" option and paste in tapatalk
 
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