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Opinel Disassembly
- Thread starter JNieporte
- Start date
yablanowitz
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 9,998
As far as I can tell, you don't. But I only have about a dozen that I have picked up here and there over the last thirty years. I've never run across a reason to take one apart, but if you do, you probably won't be able to get it back together. For what they cost, go ahead and destroy one to see how it is put together.
There is a detailed tutorial contained within one of the threads here, i know because i used it as a guide to dismantle my No.7 Opinel.
I honestly tried but couldn't find the specific thread. I'm pretty sure i posted in the thread if thats any help. According to the search i've posted in 459 threads, yikes!
Just vary your search terms, try terms like opinel/mods/refinish etc.
There is one a sortof Opinel guru here (i can't remember his name) maybe he will post in this thread and help you out.
Edit-
Hey found it! I had it saved as a text file and had the url address!
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=425239&page=2
The post is about half way down the page.The forumites name is Gryffin.
I honestly tried but couldn't find the specific thread. I'm pretty sure i posted in the thread if thats any help. According to the search i've posted in 459 threads, yikes!
Just vary your search terms, try terms like opinel/mods/refinish etc.
There is one a sortof Opinel guru here (i can't remember his name) maybe he will post in this thread and help you out.
Edit-
Hey found it! I had it saved as a text file and had the url address!
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=425239&page=2
The post is about half way down the page.The forumites name is Gryffin.
I must say that dismantling my opinel was interesting. Nows its refinished and the lock is much easier to engage/disengage and the blade opens with ease and still locks up tight.
One caveat since i dismantled it it is a lot easier now to accidentally send the locking ring flying if you forget to unlock the ring before unfolding the blade.
Before i dismantled it it would take two hands strength and a real conscious effort to send the ring flying.
But thats not the tutorials fault but my own.I think i slightly changed the shape of the ring making it easier to accidentally remove.
The next time i mod an Opinel i will work slower and be more precise.
Actually some people here don't bother to totally dissassemble their Opinels to loose them up and make them more water resistant. Its a soaking and refinishing process of some kind.
There should be a few threads here on loosening up Opinels without having to dissassemble them.
One caveat since i dismantled it it is a lot easier now to accidentally send the locking ring flying if you forget to unlock the ring before unfolding the blade.
Before i dismantled it it would take two hands strength and a real conscious effort to send the ring flying.
But thats not the tutorials fault but my own.I think i slightly changed the shape of the ring making it easier to accidentally remove.
The next time i mod an Opinel i will work slower and be more precise.
Actually some people here don't bother to totally dissassemble their Opinels to loose them up and make them more water resistant. Its a soaking and refinishing process of some kind.
There should be a few threads here on loosening up Opinels without having to dissassemble them.
I disassembled one of my old ones a couple of days ago using pretty much the same method described here.
I sanded down the handle where it touches the moving parts and its working a lot smoother. Now I just need to buy some linseed oil
What's the linseed oil consensus here, boiled or raw? Both will soak in to some extent, but boiled linseed oil tends to dry, somewhat like varnish. Several months ago I treated a new Opinel #8 stainless standard configuration with Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil gunstock finish (small bottles at Wal-Mart, sporting goods dept.). Tru-Oil is good stuff, but I've managed to sort of gum up the pivot of my Opinel with it in this case. I guess it's time to take it apart now and loosen it up. I might as well give it a shot as I've taken nearly every other mechanical device in my life apart. Thanks for the threads, tips, and photos.
By the way, you can take a stubborn Opinel, hold it closed, horizontal, and with the blade downward toward a firm surface. Then, while pinching it near the pivot, rap the butt of the handle (next to the closed blade) on a table or some other firm surface (your heel maybe), and that will start the blade open far enough for you to get a better grip on it so you can pull it all the way open.
Several years ago, before I had ever seen an Opinel, I was looking at the knives a friend of mine had accumulated. He showed me an old, well used #7 Opinel he had bought for next to nothing at a flea market. He paid fifty cents for it I think he told me. Well, the little bugger intrigued me with its simplicity and apparent sturdiness, so my friend gave it to me right then and there. It had evidently been owned and used by a farmer or one of his field hands because it was full of the reddish clay dirt found in South Georgia and a short ways into North Florida. The blade was sharpened down about one-third of the way, but there was a lot of life left in the old knife. I cleaned it up under running water with a toothbrush, then let it dry for a couple of weeks before I rubbed Tru-Oil into the exterior of it. I didn't sand it down and try to make it look new because it had earned its scars I figured. It's now a very useful knife again and will be so into another generation or two. It has some character, too. Some of us like knives with character.
By the way, you can take a stubborn Opinel, hold it closed, horizontal, and with the blade downward toward a firm surface. Then, while pinching it near the pivot, rap the butt of the handle (next to the closed blade) on a table or some other firm surface (your heel maybe), and that will start the blade open far enough for you to get a better grip on it so you can pull it all the way open.
Several years ago, before I had ever seen an Opinel, I was looking at the knives a friend of mine had accumulated. He showed me an old, well used #7 Opinel he had bought for next to nothing at a flea market. He paid fifty cents for it I think he told me. Well, the little bugger intrigued me with its simplicity and apparent sturdiness, so my friend gave it to me right then and there. It had evidently been owned and used by a farmer or one of his field hands because it was full of the reddish clay dirt found in South Georgia and a short ways into North Florida. The blade was sharpened down about one-third of the way, but there was a lot of life left in the old knife. I cleaned it up under running water with a toothbrush, then let it dry for a couple of weeks before I rubbed Tru-Oil into the exterior of it. I didn't sand it down and try to make it look new because it had earned its scars I figured. It's now a very useful knife again and will be so into another generation or two. It has some character, too. Some of us like knives with character.
Cougar Allen
Buccaneer (ret.)
- Joined
- Oct 9, 1998
- Messages
- 76,186
An old post from 1999. That was before they started making them to lock closed....
yablanowitz
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 9,998
Sorry, I forget that other people live where there is humidity. Half of my Opinels will fall open if inverted, unless they've been washed recently.
Vancouver is in a "Temperate Coastal Rainforest". Yeah, there's a little bit of humidity here. 
Actually, what's really funny is when people from the Prairies complain about the cold in winter here. It gets *WAY* colder in the prairies (rarely goes below -5 celcius here in the winter) but the moist air feels very chilly.
Actually, what's really funny is when people from the Prairies complain about the cold in winter here. It gets *WAY* colder in the prairies (rarely goes below -5 celcius here in the winter) but the moist air feels very chilly.
yablanowitz
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 14, 2006
- Messages
- 9,998
I've been there, and you are right, the moist cold air feels much colder than the dry cold air here, as long as the wind isn't factored in. When you add in that thirty mile per hour wind to the 10 below zero F actual temp, it feels pretty cool here, too. 
Being in the rain shadow of the Rockies drops our humidity pretty low here, so the exposed wood in the Opinels (or any other exposed wood for that matter) tends to dry out and shrink, which can result in some pretty wobbly blades. That's life.
Being in the rain shadow of the Rockies drops our humidity pretty low here, so the exposed wood in the Opinels (or any other exposed wood for that matter) tends to dry out and shrink, which can result in some pretty wobbly blades. That's life.
Many thanks to Gryffin for his post on how to disassemble Opinel folders.
I finally found an Opinel No. 6 carbon, got it and it was beautiful but way too stiff, both the blade movement and the rotating safety catch lock ring.
The lock ring came off after a struggle using some needle nosed pliers that had rounded edges, ground off for jewelry use. It took more force than expected. After driving out the pivot pin I worked on that to reduce the diameter of the flared end and eventually had to reduce the size of the head of the pin so the rotating lock ring would rotate with the right tension.
The blade had definate concave/convex deformation around the pivot pin hole caused by stamping out the blade. I diamoned filed and stoned this for a while without much benefit. Finally I had to remove the inner steel ring and open it a bit. Also used a thin, flat diamond file to smooth the wood where the blade pivots. When I put it back together the blade pivoted too freely so the inner steel ring had to be closed down some.
After final assembly this No. 6 looks just like it did when new but the lock ring and the blade now move with the tension I wanted and that the knife should have had from the factory.
Some time on the crock sticks got it slicing paper nicely so I finally have a good but inexpensive knife I've wanted for some time and it works like I always wanted it too.
Thanks again Gryffin and the guys who got this thread going.
Mike S
I finally found an Opinel No. 6 carbon, got it and it was beautiful but way too stiff, both the blade movement and the rotating safety catch lock ring.
The lock ring came off after a struggle using some needle nosed pliers that had rounded edges, ground off for jewelry use. It took more force than expected. After driving out the pivot pin I worked on that to reduce the diameter of the flared end and eventually had to reduce the size of the head of the pin so the rotating lock ring would rotate with the right tension.
The blade had definate concave/convex deformation around the pivot pin hole caused by stamping out the blade. I diamoned filed and stoned this for a while without much benefit. Finally I had to remove the inner steel ring and open it a bit. Also used a thin, flat diamond file to smooth the wood where the blade pivots. When I put it back together the blade pivoted too freely so the inner steel ring had to be closed down some.
After final assembly this No. 6 looks just like it did when new but the lock ring and the blade now move with the tension I wanted and that the knife should have had from the factory.
Some time on the crock sticks got it slicing paper nicely so I finally have a good but inexpensive knife I've wanted for some time and it works like I always wanted it too.
Thanks again Gryffin and the guys who got this thread going.
Mike S
