Opinel with no edge??

It's conventional for them to come with only a marginal edge on them. 5 minutes or less with a stone and you'll have it scalpel-sharp in no time.
 
Mine came just like that. It would not cut warm butter until I gave it a good going over on some sandpaper-and-mousepad.
 
Trust me--once you put an edge on it it'll be one of the best slicers you ever come across. :)
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
It's conventional for them to come with only a marginal edge on them. 5 minutes or less with a stone and you'll have it scalpel-sharp in no time.
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True. I have lots of Opis and the sharpest one I've ever had from the factory would (barely) draw cut printer paper. It's sort of like they leave the final edge to the customer, which is fine by me. I've heard the blades are full convex ground. They're too thin for me to see it with the naked eye, but it sounds likely enough. In any case, I always just put a secondary bevel on mine and then maintain them with crock sticks. I've never had one that was butterknife dull, but I wouldn't sweat it and don't think it's worth a return. Just take a few minutes and put your own edge on it. Being either XC90 (I assume analogous to 1090) or 12C27M, both carbon and Inox versions are uber easy to sharpen initially and equally easy to maintain the edges on.
 
Yes--they're a full height convex. Their chef's knife is too!
 
the opinel #7 will cut ok even when dulled by cutting coconut fiber mat impregnated with sand. and i can sharpen/hone them ok on the edge of a car window or a coffee cup even though im at best a mediocre freehand sharpener.
mine came with an ok 'toothy' edge but it did need some work. its a $10-ish peasant knife and its not unreasonable to expect to work on it.
 
The key thing to bear in mind with "peasant tools" is that the manufacturer saves you money by only doing the work that the average individual can't do themselves. Any further work increases the price and many MANY penny-pinchers would just as soon invest a little more time and a little less money for a tool that'll still likely outlive them.
 
Just not seeing the appeal. my biggest gripe with the brand is the design, I don't like a folder that takes 2 hands to open and close. But dullness in a knife... Why?

If I said I bought a pair of shoes and the soles were, say, made of paper, would you all chime in saying oh, it takes nothing to stitch a sole on? Think of all the money you save not paying for a "fancy" sole! At least these shoes aren't from (Internet gagging sound) CHINA!

And Perhaps I am only a sharpening yellow belt but I had always heard convex was about the toughest to sharpen, especially if you want to keep the basic profile.

But different strokes to different folks, if you all love the opines then more power to you, live and let live.
 
MassMatt said:
Just not seeing the appeal. my biggest gripe with the brand is the design, I don't like a folder that takes 2 hands to open and close. But dullness in a knife... Why?

If I said I bought a pair of shoes and the soles were, say, made of paper, would you all chime in saying oh, it takes nothing to stitch a sole on? Think of all the money you save not paying for a "fancy" sole! At least these shoes aren't from (Internet gagging sound) CHINA!

And Perhaps I am only a sharpening yellow belt but I had always heard convex was about the toughest to sharpen, especially if you want to keep the basic profile.

But different strokes to different folks, if you all love the opines then more power to you, live and let live.
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Well if you want to go with the shoe comparison, an Opinel that need a sharpening is more like a shoelace that needs to be tied the first time you put on the shoe.
It takes 2 hands to do it, or you could buy a pair with Velcro, the onehanders of shoes.
 
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The steel is of reasonable quality and will take a good edge, but every Opinel I've had has come with an edge that is 'scratchy' at best. I know these knives are very popular, but personally I've never liked them.
 
If you hold something like the edge of a CD case against the side of the blade you'll see the convex:)
 
Hawkings said:
Well if you want to go with the shoe comparison, an Opinel that need a sharpening is more like a shoelace that needs to be tied the first time you put on the shoe.
It takes 2 hands to do it, or you could buy a pair with Velcro, the onehanders of shoes.
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This. And the convex is the primary grind. You can put whatever kind of secondary bevel on it you so choose--the main blade itself is already convexnd always will be. Seriously it only takes, like, 5 strokes of a medium stone on each side to establish the edge. As far as one-handed opening goes, I can one-hand my Opinels fairly easily, though it isn't particularly fast. The design has been around for so long because it's inexpensive, durable, cuts well, and is easy to maintain. But it's not for everyone.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
This. And the convex is the primary grind. You can put whatever kind of secondary bevel on it you so choose--the main blade itself is already convexnd always will be.
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Basically: You can sharpen an Opinel the same way you sharpen any other knife. To put it simply ;)
 
MassMatt said:
Just not seeing the appeal. my biggest gripe with the brand is the design, I don't like a folder that takes 2 hands to open and close. But dullness in a knife... Why?

If I said I bought a pair of shoes and the soles were, say, made of paper, would you all chime in saying oh, it takes nothing to stitch a sole on? Think of all the money you save not paying for a "fancy" sole! At least these shoes aren't from (Internet gagging sound) CHINA!

And Perhaps I am only a sharpening yellow belt but I had always heard convex was about the toughest to sharpen, especially if you want to keep the basic profile.

But different strokes to different folks, if you all love the opines then more power to you, live and let live.
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your 'shoes with no soles' example is a dis-analogy. buying shoes with no soles is like buying a folding knife without a blade lol.
having to sharpen an opinel is more like buying a pair of discount work boots that you have to put the shoelaces into yourself.
 
I purchased two No. 9s in carbon a couple years ago, but were plenty sharp, (not shaving sharp) but sharp enough for the price.
 
I've had a few over the years and the edge they come with is not consistent.
But its a knife that is designed to be cheap to make and provide a efficient cutting tool to the end user. When it does not cut efficiently, its easy to sharpen.

The pocket stone that Opinel also sells is a really good stone for the knife, I like mine a lot.
 
it seems to be very normal for an Opinel to come with no edge, or a very unfinished edge...

however the primary grind makes it so thin right down to the edge, it is an absolute breeze to put an edge on it. and this is a flipping $10 knife with decent steel that isn't made in China... you simply will never see that price if they put a Spyderco factory edge on every knife...

I would rather put an edge on two dozen new opinels than reprofile a single Benchmade's obtuse factory grind on S30v or better steel. And that is a common complaint on those ~$100 knives.

If you can't put an edge on an Opinel in under five minutes with very rudimentary tools, then maybe you should buy disposable Xacto knives.
 
5 minutes on the Sharpmaker brown (medium) rods is more than sufficient to sharpen an Opinel out of the box. The edge is so thin that it doesn't take much to sharpen it right up. You could do the same thing freehand with $3 worth of 3M sandpaper and a mousepad.
 
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