I have been interested in these three knives for as long as I remember. I have had an Opinel for a while and had one way back in the late 70's/80's. The Douk Douk and the Svord peasant were the ones I was interested in, but had no first hand knowledge of. Well over the past couple of months I picked up both and thought I would share my opinion.
I will start by saying if you like knives, then I would think you should pick these up. I know I have said in the past that I'm not a "collector" and even as far as to say that I thought collecting was in some cases silly...but two classic knives (the opinel, and Douk Douk) and one classic design (svord peasant) likely should be owned by any knife lover.
I will grade these knives on class, the blade, how they carry, and how they open/close (deployability). 1-10 scale, ten at the top.
So lets start with the Opinel #8.
To me the Opinel has class, is pretty robust, is made of great steel which sharpens with ease, and seems to get about as sharp as a knife can be.
The wood handle lends its self to personalization, and thus is simple to sand to the proper fit of your hand*. Its a lightweight gentlemens knife that can work hard.
Best of all its a lot of knife for little money.
Down sides? Sure, some have trouble with the wood swelling and the blade getting stuck. Yet, my has never gotten stuck and its been submerged in the sink. Any tightness goes away when it drys out (or at least has so far for me). And we all know the tightnes can be fixed by sanding anyway.
Now personally I feel the #8 is a bit on the small side, but thats what I have. I think the next will be a #10.
Opinel, Class: 10 Blade: 10 Carry: 7* Deployability 7.
Next up will be the Svord peasant.
Well I picked up one with a yellow plastic handle, and this alone likely makes it lose points but I will try and over look that and imagin nice wood instead.
The Svord comes to you as a rather large handled knife, but you can shorten it a bit and that seems to be right. The blade is a bit short in my opinion and as it arrived, it was ground poorly and looked to be blunt, as if dropped on its tip. For the price of this knife I don't expect greatness, but its kind of sad that it comes this bad.
My solution was to convex the edge on sand paper, and now am pretty happy with it. My complaints are still that its a short blade, and that you are robbed a bit on potential edge length by the way the base of the blade slopes forward instead of running back into the handle. This "notch" also can get hung up in things you are cutting if not careful.
The lack of any internals mean this is about as simple as a knife gets. This is the kind of knife you could drop in pig shit and there would be no problems.
The blade thickness is a surprise, as in its not very thick at all. Its very close to that of the opinel #8. Its a deeper blade, but has overall less cutting surface, and even shaving sharp just does not slice as easy.
It does however open and close with greater ease, leading to a better work knife in my eyes than the Opinel. It also carries easy in the pocket. It is a good solid work knife, it just lacks some potential in the bladeshape and length in my book.
In the end, this knife is growing on me even with its flaws. Its something to be used hard.
Svord peasant: Class: 5 (and up w/nice wood) Blade: 6 (seems like good steel, but should be longer) Carry: 8 deployability: 9
Last is the Douk Douk.
I have had it the shortest amount of time (and thus am a bit limited on a solid review).
As a knife with class and style, its going to be hard to beat this thing. Its beautiful in its uglyness.
The blade on this knife is thicker than the opinel or svord. Its right there in thickness to the Rat1 folder.
Size wise its about the same as the opinel#8 and has an overall longer blade. The the edge however is slightly shorter than the Opi.
When you drop this knife into a pocket it is hardly noticeable. Its not like a dowel in you pocket, but more like a large piece of metal gum.
The coolness and class this knife has still can't save it from its faults however.
First its not easy to open, it has a strong spring. For most gentleman uses, thats fine...but if you hand slighty wet you can not grip that blade. So if you want to cut some fruit, be sure and open the blade before washing that apple or orange.
I don't know how much if any it will ease up on opening over time, but without a nailnick this is not a blade you will whip out with any speed and thus as a work knife it would be a fail in my view. It is a robust and classy knife but I think its a weekend/leisure knife mostly. Time proves it works, but I feel that overall useability is below the others. Sad, because its a very cool knife. It will still get carried for now, but I will not be surprised if it ends up siting.
Douk Douk: Class: 10+, Blade: 8 (needs nailnick), Carry: 10, Deployablity: 1
Mora and Rat 1 for scale.
I will start by saying if you like knives, then I would think you should pick these up. I know I have said in the past that I'm not a "collector" and even as far as to say that I thought collecting was in some cases silly...but two classic knives (the opinel, and Douk Douk) and one classic design (svord peasant) likely should be owned by any knife lover.
I will grade these knives on class, the blade, how they carry, and how they open/close (deployability). 1-10 scale, ten at the top.
So lets start with the Opinel #8.
To me the Opinel has class, is pretty robust, is made of great steel which sharpens with ease, and seems to get about as sharp as a knife can be.
The wood handle lends its self to personalization, and thus is simple to sand to the proper fit of your hand*. Its a lightweight gentlemens knife that can work hard.
Best of all its a lot of knife for little money.
Down sides? Sure, some have trouble with the wood swelling and the blade getting stuck. Yet, my has never gotten stuck and its been submerged in the sink. Any tightness goes away when it drys out (or at least has so far for me). And we all know the tightnes can be fixed by sanding anyway.
Now personally I feel the #8 is a bit on the small side, but thats what I have. I think the next will be a #10.
Opinel, Class: 10 Blade: 10 Carry: 7* Deployability 7.
Next up will be the Svord peasant.
Well I picked up one with a yellow plastic handle, and this alone likely makes it lose points but I will try and over look that and imagin nice wood instead.
The Svord comes to you as a rather large handled knife, but you can shorten it a bit and that seems to be right. The blade is a bit short in my opinion and as it arrived, it was ground poorly and looked to be blunt, as if dropped on its tip. For the price of this knife I don't expect greatness, but its kind of sad that it comes this bad.
My solution was to convex the edge on sand paper, and now am pretty happy with it. My complaints are still that its a short blade, and that you are robbed a bit on potential edge length by the way the base of the blade slopes forward instead of running back into the handle. This "notch" also can get hung up in things you are cutting if not careful.
The lack of any internals mean this is about as simple as a knife gets. This is the kind of knife you could drop in pig shit and there would be no problems.
The blade thickness is a surprise, as in its not very thick at all. Its very close to that of the opinel #8. Its a deeper blade, but has overall less cutting surface, and even shaving sharp just does not slice as easy.
It does however open and close with greater ease, leading to a better work knife in my eyes than the Opinel. It also carries easy in the pocket. It is a good solid work knife, it just lacks some potential in the bladeshape and length in my book.
In the end, this knife is growing on me even with its flaws. Its something to be used hard.
Svord peasant: Class: 5 (and up w/nice wood) Blade: 6 (seems like good steel, but should be longer) Carry: 8 deployability: 9
Last is the Douk Douk.
I have had it the shortest amount of time (and thus am a bit limited on a solid review).
As a knife with class and style, its going to be hard to beat this thing. Its beautiful in its uglyness.
The blade on this knife is thicker than the opinel or svord. Its right there in thickness to the Rat1 folder.
Size wise its about the same as the opinel#8 and has an overall longer blade. The the edge however is slightly shorter than the Opi.
When you drop this knife into a pocket it is hardly noticeable. Its not like a dowel in you pocket, but more like a large piece of metal gum.
The coolness and class this knife has still can't save it from its faults however.
First its not easy to open, it has a strong spring. For most gentleman uses, thats fine...but if you hand slighty wet you can not grip that blade. So if you want to cut some fruit, be sure and open the blade before washing that apple or orange.
I don't know how much if any it will ease up on opening over time, but without a nailnick this is not a blade you will whip out with any speed and thus as a work knife it would be a fail in my view. It is a robust and classy knife but I think its a weekend/leisure knife mostly. Time proves it works, but I feel that overall useability is below the others. Sad, because its a very cool knife. It will still get carried for now, but I will not be surprised if it ends up siting.
Douk Douk: Class: 10+, Blade: 8 (needs nailnick), Carry: 10, Deployablity: 1
Mora and Rat 1 for scale.
