Opinel Mods, lets see them

jackknife said:
I'm not a metallurgist, but I was a machinist for the last half of my working life. I can tell you when making small springs, 350 degrees was the 'tempering' range for drawing down the hardened spring from it's initial point. This was 1095 in the oven for one hour. A lot of it all depends on what steel it is and what hardness it was to start. I'm not sure where the table is on Sandvik products, but I'll bet that 350 degrees for a whole 90 minutes is going to draw down that blade headiness. To put a finished knife blade in an oven at that temp is insane. Why not just toss it in the trash and be done with it?:eek:

I sure wouldn't do it with any knife of mine, even a low cost Opinel.
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I agree with Carl.

Opinel uses 1075 for Carbonne blades. An hour at 350F is enough to affect the hardness.
Here's a chart that shows the effect of 30 minutes of tempering at various temperatures. (An hour would have a stronger effect than 30 min):
http://tienda.suministrosparacuchillos.com/en/carbon-steels-for-knives/585-steel-1075.html

Opinel used 12C27Mod for their stainless. An hour at 350F is also enough to have an effect on the hardness.
Here is the Sandvik tempering chart for 12C27Mod.
As with the 1075, Sandvik's standard tempering time is 30 min, so an hour will have quite an effect:
http://smt.sandvik.com/en/materials-center/material-datasheets/strip-steel/sandvik-12c27m/
 
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The two opinel's in my car presently. I enjoy modding them a little and then giving them to people as simple presents.
 
In the second post in this thread, I posted about a handle mod I did on an Opinel #6, only to discover that I took off so much wood that the blade tip stuck out of the groove. Here's an edited version of that post:
5K Qs said:
Well, I'm in the middle of an ongoing mod of an Opinel #6. I decided to reshape the handle, mainly just to see if I could do it. So I whipped out a sunfish that was in my pocket and cut off the "flare" at the end of the handle, then grabbed some sandpaper and smoothed it all down to end up with what I'll call a "hot dog handle". ...

Unfortunately, I didn't have the foresight to think about the consequences of removing all that wood at the heel of the handle, and discovered this less than ideal situation. :(
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I used a red Sharpie to mark the steel I wanted to remove to drop the point of the blade into the new handle...
and will result in what I'll pretend is a spearpoint blade, once all the red steel is gone.
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So I went to Sears and bought a single-cut medium/coarse bastard file, and have removed most of the "offending" steel. The blade is still clamped in my little vice for one more session of filing, and then I'll have to try to smooth out the finish with a silicon carbide stone and/or some sandpaper. I hope someday soon to post the finished project. (Maybe I should buy and learn to use some power tools! :rolleyes:)

- GT
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I finally finished the unplanned blade mod, too. The blade tip now rests where it should when closed:
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And the spearpoint look I was trying for seems OK to my inexperienced eye. So I'm pretty happy with the experience!
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- GT
 
Another No8 that I did. Stained it then rubbed the whole thing down with some old mustache wax I had (mostly beeswax based). Gonna be my edc

 
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Here is my first folder. I have 2 Opinel paring knives destined to be small edc fixed blades. This is the Opinel #8 Carbone and was awesome right out of the box. For being such a proud, "Made in USA" kinda guy, I gotta give it to these French boys. They got this one right. Simple to use, good at its intended purpose and more. I don't even get that from my $1000 phone, or my car for that matter lol! Anyway, I put my signature "Bonez Custom" finish on the handle, as well as shaping it a little more for my hand. I also blued the blade. The kydex neck sheath just makes it easier than caring in my pocket, but it's the lightest and one of the largest neck knives I've ever worn. Given most weren't folders lol. I wanted this to look like an Opinel, there is nothing wrong with total change, but I bought an Opinel#8 and I wanted one. I got the perfect one for me! Waiting on a gifted custom damascus lanyard bead to fill that big hole in the back... any suggestions?
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Opinels are the knives responsible for getting me into modding about seven years ago, that then led to making & forging........
Some of the ones I've carved.

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Top is the large 15 fillet knife with 6" (15cm) blade. I've done more including a tiny #2.
 
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