Opinel Oyster Knife

Hey Deadfall, I would check it out in person if you are going to use it for EDC task. Oyster knives are designed for shucking, and are more for penetration and prying rather than cutting ( there are exceptions ) There are many different designs to oyster knives all regional, examples would be: the Boston, the New Haven, the Chesapeake Stabber ( love that name :-) to name a few, and the Opinel looks to be the Frenchman which makes sense. I'm sure you could put a proper edge and modify it to your needs. If you plan on using it to shuck oysters I would say there are far better choices, I really wouldn't want to shuck a thousand oysters with a folder, I have no doubt a Opinel can handle the task, a proper oyster knife would be better suited, but after you are done all the fluids and little shards of shell would be in the handle and the pivot, I imagine it would get pretty funky.
If you pick one up, I'm sure being a Opi it will be short $$ let us know if it comes with a sharp edge, could be a cool knife to mod, long handle short blade for carving and EDC task.
 
I just don't know.

Being a Maryland native, I've shucked oysters. It's a messy, grungy job and I don't know if a folder will be up for it. Aall kinds of junk is going to get into the locking ring and pivot, and be heck to clean out. I may have to go along with stich on this. I'm not sure why Opinel, after a hundred and twenty years of successful knife manufacture is going off in a couple of different direction. I hope they are doing well, but I think they should keep on doing what they do best. Now I see oyster knives, plastic handle sports knives with whistles in them and holes in the blade. But I'm just an old purist, maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong before, and I will be again before I'm done.

Maybe I'd better get a spare Opinel or two just in case my second favorite knife company gets too weird.

Carl.
 
I shuck oysters pretty regularly (also a Maryland native, Baltimore to be exact), and I would never want to use a folding knife. For that matter, I would never use a knife with a cutting edge, either.
A proper oyster knife just needs to be able to penetrate inward, and pry, plus a little bit of scraping. A sharp cutting edge is inviting disaster, and a folding knife would double the risk. Too dangerous!
The blade needs to be long and slender/narrow, but also thick enough that it will not snap.
This is what I use:
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On the other hand it could proove to be a great knife for modding the handle. All that extra gives you plenty to play with....

Sam
 
If properly heat treated for edge retention, that might make a dandy little kitchen knife! I might have to check one out...
 
That blade looks like it could be useful for something (maybe wood-carving or something similar), but I cringe a little bit at the thought of holding a clam/oyster in one hand, and then prying with the very pointy & sharpened blade in the other hand. One 'slip' or other momentary loss of control, and it's gonna get painful in a hurry. I've managed to poke a finger or two, a couple or three different times with just my Opinel No. 08, when cutting an apple in a similar manner. Luckily, it was just the tip of the blade poking me, but it wouldn't have taken much more of a slip to really slice into my hand.

If I were inclined to dedicate this knife to shelling clams or oysters, I'd very likely grind the cutting edge off of it, and round the tip a bit. But, quite literally, that would seem sort of 'pointless' on a brand new knife. ;)
 
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French oyster knives traditionally have a point, both edges sharpened, and a guard to protect yourself from the shell. I wouldn't use one, I've only used a Boston style.
 
Quite honestly, I was thinking of sharpening up the rest of the edge and putting it in my hiking pack. I just really like the blade shape :D
 
DeadFall27 said:
Quite honestly, I was thinking of sharpening up the rest of the edge and putting it in my hiking pack. I just really like the blade shape :D
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Yup!

I've never shucked an oyster in my life (I'm not sure I've ever even seen it done), and don't intend to start now(!), but do like the look of this Opinel and its proportions.

~ P.
 
I would never want to use that knife to pry open shellfish, but I like the look of it as an EDC piece. I agree with jackknife, though--I think Opinel is trying to expand in some...weird ways. Ones that aren't 100% thought through, seemingly. I would love to see more products from them, but I'd want them to be down-to-earth and practical like their standard line.
 
I think this is more of a knife to impress a girl at the beach if you find an oyster, maybe a novelty? Oysters are salty and wet and once you shuck a couple the wood is going to swell up and blade wont open\close, youre going to get oyster grit and shell inside, its just not practical. Some people bring their own steak knives to dinner, but thats different; id wager a bet that 99.9% of all diners serve shucked oysters unless you specify youd like closed ones? :grumpy:

I have to say though, it is a sexy looking knife...assuming it was properly heat treated, i bet you could but some bevels on it and have a sleek little knife.
 
I've seen plenty of oysters and clams shucked, but couldn't tell you how it's done. I've always been on the other side of the bar, not really noticing until they are ready to eat. :D

That original posted knife looks an oyster shuckers nightmare waiting to happen though.
 
shrapne1 said:
assuming it was properly heat treated, i bet you could but some bevels on it and have a sleek little knife.
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If you look at it you can see that it's sharpened. At least it looks like the standard Opinel factory edge to me.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
If you look at it you can see that it's sharpened. At least it looks like the standard Opinel factory edge to me.
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The specs supplied by the vendor also seem to indicate the 6.5cm blade is sharpened on only 1.5cm of it's length, describing it as 'Cutting edge only (1.5cm sharp)'. I hadn't noticed this before, but looked at it again a minute ago. Maybe the tip is 'dull', and a portion of the edge to the rear is sharpened(?).

opinel%20oyster%20knife.jpg
 
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Good eyes--I didn't catch that either. The wording is very ambiguous, though, isn't it?
 
Obsessed with Edges said:
Seems kinda sneaky. The separate 'specs' listing below the Opinel graphic didn't indicate that, which is what I'd originally looked for there.
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it does look sharpened, i figured someone would call me on it, however, shucking knives SHOULDNT be sharp, they can have a v bevel to slip into the joint of the oyster but technically it isnt sharp like a pocket knife :D
 
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