Opinel as flint striker?

S

spike22

Joined
Jun 23, 2003
Messages
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After reading plenty of positive reviews of the Opinel knives, I have got myself an Opinel 8.

It's a great little knife at a bargain price, but is it safe to use the spine to strike a firesteel?

I have tried it and it works almost as well as the metal striker supplied with my firesteel - so I could save space by getting rid of the striker - as long as it is not damaging the knife. Although Opinels are cheap to buy, in a survival situation their value would be huge so obviously I don't want to damage the blade.

If anybody knows the answer it would be appreciated.
opi8.jpg
 
spike22 said:
... but is it safe to use the spine to strike a firesteel?...
Click to expand...
Why wouldn't it be safe to use the square edge of the spine to scrape/strike the flint/fire steel???
 
The main reason would be you have a very sharp edge facing towards you with concern about lock release, or maybe an issue with heat from the possible flare up depending on how you are starting a fire. Neither of these are issues if you use a little care. It won't do anything do the knife besides put some wear on the spine and it will take a long time before that does anything significant. You would likely wear the blade out before it would be a concern.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp said:
The main reason would be you have a very sharp edge facing towards you with concern about lock release...
Click to expand...
Thanks. I don't know that knife and I did not realize it was a wooden handle folding blade. I thought it was a fixed blade by the picture.
 
i haven't used an opinel before, although plan to get one shortly. but when using my sak as a striker, i use the spine while it is in the closed position. that would take care of the lock release issue, providing that there is enough spine available with the blade folded into the handle.
 
I have an opinel and I`ve used it as a striker for a ferro-rod. If you don`t mind the knife being a little dirty (from the spark/residue) it works fine.
Sharp spine, gives of a lot of sparks.

Tor
 
Yup, works great. I use mine blade closed. You get more leverage that way and get a huge sparks shower.

I also use mine (still blade closed) to get sparks with a flint (silex I mean). Works fine as well. It's good carbon steel and not too hard. Of course this DOES wear the blade out, but for the price, who cares ?

Cheers,

David
 
"I use mine blade closed. "

Me too. No probs. However, I have not had good results for some reason when using it with actual flint. It seems too soft to throw good sparks EASILY. I habe better results with a plain old carbon Mora- also the BKT #111 ( the small, skeleton-handled model) worked well too.
 
True. It's a bit hard to throw sparks as easily as a dedicated steel, but still works for me. I do have to keep the flint very sharp though. When it does throw sparks, they seem a bit bigger. Dunno... maybe just an impression.

David
 
Well, that makes sense that you would get larger sparks from a softer steel.. I think I will play with this at home later!
 
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