Opinel Knives

R

rawhide

Joined
Oct 28, 2000
Messages
62
Does anyone have any information on the french folder, Opinel? I'm not sure if this is the correct spelling. Any information on this knife would be appreciated
 
Rawhide,
Checkout www.covecutlery.com He (Ron) has them for sale in his store, and they should also be on his website. he also sells nontrons, which are also traditional french folding knives with boxwood handles. If they are not on his site just email him.

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A Knife is no more than an Iron Tooth
 
I know a bit, not much.

The basic Opinels with which many are acquainted are French made. They have, I believe, pearwood handles. They are folders. The blade is opened by pulling on a nail nick. There is a metal ferrule at the pivot end of the handle. This ferrule has a slit in it, which the blade moves. The ferrule can be twisted to either side, thereby locking the blade very simply and solidly.

Most of the Opinels are made with carbon steel blades. A couple, the model 64 and 84, I think, are made with stainless steel. They are quite inexpensive usually. In fact, their price in brick and mortar stores is the closest to that of web dealers of any knives I've seen. This makes them ideal conscience salvers. You can handle all the knives that you're interested in buying, then buy an Opinel. The merchant makes a couple bucks and you don't feel so guilty about not buying anything from him.

Opinel makes much fancier horn-handled knives, which are quite a bit more expensive than the common wood-handled knives that are so well known.

They are basically very good knives, especially for the price. As someone pointed out in just the last couple days, we could all probably get by with Opinels, and don't need all the fancy knives we hold so dear.
 
when i was a youngster i grew up on a ranch in south texas, and we road horses, etc all the time, more out of the work side of riding than the pleasure side - but i had an opinel i bought out of some magazine, paid like $1.99 or so, and carried that knife many a mile, and used it a lot too - i would venture to guess it was the first knife i bought myself, that wasnt given to me by father - but i lost it while riding many years ago, and at a gunshow a few months ago, a guy had about 7-8 opinels of various sizes, and i bought the one which i thought i had amny years ago, never carry it now, its a link to my childhood though - and they are really a pretty good knife, for the $$, they will do a job imho


sifu
 
..a few years back. I take it every time I go back to Europe. If I have to carry my large knife in my checked bags, I don't want it to be an expensive one. I believe I paid about Sfr 6 or 7 for it about 5 or 6 years ago. I use it for cutting cheese, fruit, bread, etc... in the hotel room. It is actually a pretty good blade. Takes a razor sharp edge quickly with a small ceramic stone and holds that edge a long time. (I also carry it in my jacket pocket as we sight-see. It would make just a hell of a weapon! You never know when a large blade will come in handy.)


Will
 
They are made from stainless and carbon steel.

The stainless is reasonable, but the Carbon steel is 1075 and it holds a good edge.
 
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