One Hand Open Modification to Opinel No 12

Lemmy Caution

Lemmy Caution

Joined
Aug 17, 2013
Messages
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I just purchased my first Opinel. A No 12. It a great knife. I love the carbon steel. As many have noted its got a real tight open, and the wood seemed to be pinching around the blade pivot very tightly, which is great for stability, but not so much for easy opening. So I looked around at people's suggestions for modifying it to open with one hand. Some of them looked great, but too complicated and others looked like they compromised the knife strength too much. I didnt want to bend the Viroloc too much. Anyways I decided just to try dragging a thin exacto blade where the wood meets the blade at the pivot until i was able to "chisel" out enough wood to be able to pass the width of an exacto between the blade and the wood on both sides all around. I made sure to chisel out deep enough so i could feel the exacto strike the metal arms that holds the blade in the handle. Then I shaved a bit of wood off both sides of the handle crevice and vaselined the pivot real well. Voila, my tight ass No 12 now swings totally open with a flick of the wrist and back closed easily. But its not so loose that it opens on its own just by gravity either. I was a little worried that I would have horizontal movement of the blade, but there's really almost none at all and when its locked its totally tight. Just thought I'd share this little modification. Let me know if anyone else has done the same or similar mods to Opi's (or if there's anything I should watch out for now that I've removed wood from the pivot.) Thanks.
 
Well, most of the Opinel users you'll run into around here are less concerned with flipping their knives open one-handed, and more concerned with keeping enough friction in the pivot to make sure that the knife doesn't flop around.

But if you found something you like, great; keep it up!
 
Thanks for the reply. I agree making an admittedly giant flip blade was not really necessary or what I originally intended. This was more of an experiment to see what you could get away with without compromising the knife strength. I have to admit though that the open feels more fluid now, less risk of your fingers slipping on the greased blade while opening. I guess one thing I'm asking is whether anyone else has run into problems from doing something like this. Like I said right now the blade isn't flopping around and still has enough friction to hold steady with no real horizontal movement or gravity opening. But I wonder if others have done the same only to find that with time the blade becomes less and less secure and then whether there would be a good fix for an issue like that. I guess I'd cross that bridge when/if I come to it. I'd guess if I needed to I could always put a small washer on either side of the blade at the pivot, which might still be more fluid than the binding wood enclosure.
 
[video=youtube;or3SL8Yt3Q4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or3SL8Yt3Q4[/video]
Here's what the opening action looks like on this No 12 now.
 
To each his own. If you like it, that's great.

BTW, Closing it like that looks like a fine way to lose a finger tip. ;)
 
Blade tightness varies a lot from knife to knife> I have a Inox #12 which flips open readily w/o modification. My carbon steel one is still a bit tight. None of my wood handle Opinels are very tight but then I live in a very low humidity climate.
 
I've never ruined a lock ring by popping it off. I wouldn't worry about that causing any damage. Loss, maybe. But not damage. :D

I've found the best way to control the friction is to open (flat head screw driver) or close (pliers) the mouth of the inner collar.

My preference for one hand opening is to pinch open the blade and hook the tail of the handle on my thigh. I did loosen one up and tried it like you describe. It can be done but you have to watch out for "rebound" closing. Keep the fingers outta there.

More on tuning...
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/28597626/tuning-opinels.txt
 
pinnah said:
It can be done but you have to watch out for "rebound" closing. Keep the fingers outta there.

More on tuning...
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/28597626/tuning-opinels.txt
Click to expand...

Hey thanks so much especially for the instructions on tuning. It'll definitely come in handy when I made the 8 thats on it s way. And yes i keep a tight grip but keep my fingers well clear of that blade path till its locked securely.

all best
 
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