Was familiar with their carbons, and love them a lot. Easy sharpening, taking a crazy edge, not too steep though. Good candidate for maintain its convexity and keeping sharp on a leather strop. Needs frequent touch ups.
Just discovered their stainless. Normally I don't like stainless steel at all. Always problems with deburring, it takes years before you get used to it and find a procedure for one specific steel type.
But I found, yes, really found a brand new Opinel no. 9. I must admit I do carry serious prejudices against French stainless. In kitchen cutlery the French makers always use soft, very soft German stuff. The best French kitchen knives are made from a very average German X50etc. Others use steels that start to take an edge at some 20 degree per side, perhaps.
But about the Opinel.
The edge was as poor as you may expect in your worse nightmare. Had been "sharpened" in three very distinct phases. Tip and belly were done quite correctly on some 60 stone at some 18 degree per side, the next flat section was done by his colleague who didn't want to get associated with the first man's work, and marked the new work with an interruption of a few millimeters and deepened the bevel unnecessary by one millimeter as well. The third section, from the middle to the heel, was simply unsharpened. Coffee time I guess.
I've used a strip of worn coarse sandpaper (originally P120) to bring some order into this mess, followed by a little work with a Chosera 400. After that, refining both edge and burr with Choseras 800 and 2000.
After all this battlefield the burr remainings were very small, and easily removed. Not as easy as with simple carbon, but in few minutes of judicious abrading you're done.
The result: a very strong edge at a much steeper angle than I'm used to with it's carbon nephew, and much steeper than OOTB (under the 30 degree inclusive), resisting a lot abuse. I use it for everything I don't want to use "better" knives for, thick cardboard, plastic, that kind of stuff.
As for my steak, I must agree the carbon is a finer cutter. And I love the patina.
Just discovered their stainless. Normally I don't like stainless steel at all. Always problems with deburring, it takes years before you get used to it and find a procedure for one specific steel type.
But I found, yes, really found a brand new Opinel no. 9. I must admit I do carry serious prejudices against French stainless. In kitchen cutlery the French makers always use soft, very soft German stuff. The best French kitchen knives are made from a very average German X50etc. Others use steels that start to take an edge at some 20 degree per side, perhaps.
But about the Opinel.
The edge was as poor as you may expect in your worse nightmare. Had been "sharpened" in three very distinct phases. Tip and belly were done quite correctly on some 60 stone at some 18 degree per side, the next flat section was done by his colleague who didn't want to get associated with the first man's work, and marked the new work with an interruption of a few millimeters and deepened the bevel unnecessary by one millimeter as well. The third section, from the middle to the heel, was simply unsharpened. Coffee time I guess.
I've used a strip of worn coarse sandpaper (originally P120) to bring some order into this mess, followed by a little work with a Chosera 400. After that, refining both edge and burr with Choseras 800 and 2000.
After all this battlefield the burr remainings were very small, and easily removed. Not as easy as with simple carbon, but in few minutes of judicious abrading you're done.
The result: a very strong edge at a much steeper angle than I'm used to with it's carbon nephew, and much steeper than OOTB (under the 30 degree inclusive), resisting a lot abuse. I use it for everything I don't want to use "better" knives for, thick cardboard, plastic, that kind of stuff.
As for my steak, I must agree the carbon is a finer cutter. And I love the patina.
