Opinels: what do YOU do with 'em?

FortyTwoBlades said:
1095 and 12C26 aren't decent steels? :confused:
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manowar669 said:
What??!! Decent steel?! For the money, you can't get better steel. Great design, cheap, real good steel (especially for the money), and in my opinion one of the most visually attractive and useful blade shapes. No wonder it's one of the oldest knife companies on earth, if not THE oldest.
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1095 at 65 or 66 HRC is a great steel. At 55 or 57, whatever they run it, no, it's not a decent steel. For a large chopper yes, for a small slicer, no. I've not seen any in 12C26, so I can't comment on those.

The Opinel has one of the best cutting geometries out there, and that's no joke. It keeps cutting even after the edge folds because of that great geometry. They need to use a steel that is strong enough to support such a thin blade. To be strong enough, it has to be MUCH harder than what most people are used to. And as thin as it is, it would still be a breeze to sharpen, yes, even at 66 or so HRC. Make that 1095 or (better yet) M2 HSS at 66 HRC, and you'd be shocked at how much better it would be.

Yes, it's fine for the price, but it could be so much better. It's like having a Ferrari and putting a 60 mph governor on it...
 
I bought three(3) No. 8's for gifts - for my daughter, granddaughter and myself - when I saw that among other things they were referred to as a "peasant's knife"..had to have them.

I bet these gals will enjoy theirs..well, at Christmas.
 
I consider the edge retention more than good enough. If it was being used strictly as a dress knife, yes it would be too soft. But these are peasant knives and are honestly meant to be beaten the hell up and ridden into the ground. I only have to give mine an occasional touch up and when I do it's super quick and easy, and I keep my edge angle thin. A medium-soft heat treatment makes damage easy to sharpen out. Just 'cause they're thin doesn't mean they're supposed to be used lightly. Just my take on it though. :p
 
My understanding is that they're made to be touched up, in the field or at the end of the day. You put it through hell and, at the end of the day, you sharpen and oil it. If you were to harden it to 65 hrc then you'd have a lot of snapped blades. They're a working knife, what more can you reasonably ask for?
 
All I know is I run mine over a 5-600 grit oil bench stone, then strop it on CrOx and FeOx and then nylon and leather. It gives me a very sharp, semi smooth edge with a toothy feel when slicing. I find it about perfect for a work knife. I really want to get another one and take it up to 8000 just to see what happens, but I haven't done it yet.

It amazes me that no one trusts a 1/16" blade any more. Both my pocket knives' blades tonight don't add up to over .100". I have yet to ever snap a blade or break a pivot doing something a knife is Supposed to do.
 
I've got a stainless #8 and plan on picking up a carbon one soon - it's a great little knife.

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medicevans said:
It amazes me that no one trusts a 1/16" blade any more. Both my pocket knives' blades tonight don't add up to over .100". I have yet to ever snap a blade or break a pivot doing something a knife is Supposed to do.
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Seriously--what the heck is up with that, anyway? We live in an age where knives are manufactured out of better materials and with greater precision than at any other point in history, yet it sometimes seems like we've gone backwards in terms of actually understanding the tool.:confused:
 
I love my 0.055" Opi. It slices like the dickens. My 50s Imperial jack also slices amazingly well. I love it!
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
Seriously--what the heck is up with that, anyway? We live in an age where knives are manufactured out of better materials and with greater precision than at any other point in history, yet it sometimes seems like we've gone backwards in terms of actually understanding the tool.:confused:
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That's because all these 16 year old internet experts have no father or grandfather figure to teach them the way it's done. So they have to go with what they learn from video games and trash knife magazines that are the whores of the knife industry and are out to sell the latest fad cover knife of the month in the totally artificially created market. It has very little to do with reality. It's all about the tactical craze, and so called hard use knives. Never mind that thier granddadys worked the farm and built a life with a stockman or trapper in their pocket, and did whatever they had to do cutting wise with it. Now, the kids think they need a quarter inch thick blade with a massive pivot just to open the mail. It would be a huge shock to them to find out an Opinel will do what they have to do, cost a fraction of what the so called tactical knife will do, and weight a lot less in the pocket.

But that would be reality, and that's not allowed in todays knife market.
 
medicevans said:
It amazes me that no one trusts a 1/16" blade any more. Both my pocket knives' blades tonight don't add up to over .100". I have yet to ever snap a blade or break a pivot doing something a knife is Supposed to do.
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Nobody in this thread has said anything about not trusting a thin knife. Curtis Lowe (who is taking your side, by the way), is who brought up snapped blades if it is HRC 65 or higher. I've actually used thin blades at 65 - 6HRC, and have yet to snap one. It would be a TREMENDOUS improvement on an Opinel. If the edge retention on current ones is good enough for you, great. It's substandard for me, and I have a LOT of other knives that put it to shame - similar blade geometries, and much better steel.


FortyTwoBlades said:
Seriously--what the heck is up with that, anyway? We live in an age where knives are manufactured out of better materials and with greater precision than at any other point in history, yet it sometimes seems like we've gone backwards in terms of actually understanding the tool.:confused:
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Please re-read your post. I'm arguing for IMPROVING the materials, yet keeping the exact same design. (If you have an opinel with wonderful tolerances, put it in a museum...) We understand the materials much better these days, and want to improve upon them. What's wrong with that?

jackknife said:
It would be a huge shock to them to find out an Opinel will do what they have to do, cost a fraction of what the so called tactical knife will do, and weight a lot less in the pocket.

But that would be reality, and that's not allowed in todays knife market.
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It falls short, for me, because of greatly inferior edge retention compared to many other knives that I own. I'm not arguing for a thicker blade, I'm arguing for a steel that's better suited for the task.

You all seem to love setting up straw men. I'm NOT a teenager, I'm in my 50's. I don't want a tactical folder, I want an Opinel made out of a "simple" carbon steel 1095, with a decent heat treat. That's what I'm arguing for. All of you that moan and groan about internet teenagers are AVOIDING my points. This knife could be ten times better if it had a better steel and heat treat.

Get off your soapboxes and address my points, if you can.
 
sodak said:
Please re-read your post. I'm arguing for IMPROVING the materials, yet keeping the exact same design. (If you have an opinel with wonderful tolerances, put it in a museum...) We understand the materials much better these days, and want to improve upon them. What's wrong with that?

[...]

You all seem to love setting up straw men. I'm NOT a teenager, I'm in my 50's. I don't want a tactical folder, I want an Opinel made out of a "simple" carbon steel 1095, with a decent heat treat. That's what I'm arguing for. All of you that moan and groan about internet teenagers are AVOIDING my points. This knife could be ten times better if it had a better steel and heat treat.

Get off your soapboxes and address my points, if you can.
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My comment wasn't directed at you, dude. I know just what you were saying. However I was addressing medicevans' post about the general distrust in the marketplace at large (NOT you! :)) that seems to think you need a 1/4" thick knife to do any sort of serious work. It's been a noticeable trend. I won't deny that Opinels could benefit from a series with harder heat treatment. Maybe call 'em the "diamant" series or something and blue the blades so you can tell them apart at a distance. I'd be all for that. But I'd still edc my regular one.
 
FortyTwoBlades said:
... But I'd still edc my regular one.
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And that's totally fine. To each their own, if it works for you, that's great. I have some M2 HSS stock that I'm thinking about having ground down to an Opinel to test my theory. It would be an interesting experiment.
 
I picked up a carbon No. 8 about 3 months ago, or so. Easy to sharpen (as pointed out repeatedly in this thread), and good enough edge retention for my needs. When I first picked it up, the handle would swell after being exposed to moisture, to the point where it couldn't be opened or closed without a pair of pliers. So, I sanded and put two coats of MinWax on the handle, slabbed some petroleoum jelly around the pivot, and haven't had any issues with swelling since then.

It gets used I the yard, mostly. While lighter than air, it's too long and thick for my tastes. Maybe a 6 or 7 is more my speed.
 
sodak said:
And that's totally fine. To each their own, if it works for you, that's great. I have some M2 HSS stock that I'm thinking about having ground down to an Opinel to test my theory. It would be an interesting experiment.
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Do it! Do it! :D
 
Had to check the pronunciation - it is "Oh-peen-el"..who says all this knife stuff isn't interesting
 
sodak said:
Nobody in this thread has said anything about not trusting a thin knife. Curtis Lowe (who is taking your side, by the way), is who brought up snapped blades if it is HRC 65 or higher. I've actually used thin blades at 65 - 6HRC, and have yet to snap one. It would be a TREMENDOUS improvement on an Opinel. If the edge retention on current ones is good enough for you, great. It's substandard for me, and I have a LOT of other knives that put it to shame - similar blade geometries, and much better steel.



Please re-read your post. I'm arguing for IMPROVING the materials, yet keeping the exact same design. (If you have an opinel with wonderful tolerances, put it in a museum...) We understand the materials much better these days, and want to improve upon them. What's wrong with that?
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I think I didn't make myself clear. I was in no way implying anyone in this post mistrusted Opinels. I meant the public in general moving towards thicker and thicker blades for less and less hard use, while our grandfathers used 1/16" thick blades for uses most of the knife buying community would never attempt without a ZT560 sized knife or other similar "hard use" knife.

To put it another way, my dad farms. He has all his life. He has carried a USA Schrade SP3 or similar for as long as I can remember. It's not a hard use knife, and he doesn't take it out to fondle it or post all the time about how the blade is 2 mm off center or the lockup isn't perfect. He just uses the crap out of it. It does open mail, but it has 101 other, much tougher uses.

To my knowledge, he has never broken one. However, he uses a prybar and a screwdriver, not his knife.


To address the point of a higher hardness Opinel, I don't know. For a farmer/peasant knife, I think I'd rather have a 57 Rc knife in 1095 than a 63 Rc. I'd much rather sharpen a rolled edge or a dull edge than a chipped edge. Now, if you're talking something like M4 or 3V, then that's different. Run it hard. It would be awesome with the thin stock blade geometry. I'm working on a series of light weight knives in 1/16 stock to do just that. Super steel, super thin, super hard.
 
medicevans said:
To address the point of a higher hardness Opinel, I don't know. For a farmer/peasant knife, I think I'd rather have a 57 Rc knife in 1095 than a 63 Rc. I'd much rather sharpen a rolled edge or a dull edge than a chipped edge. Now, if you're talking something like M4 or 3V, then that's different. Run it hard. It would be awesome with the thin stock blade geometry. I'm working on a series of light weight knives in 1/16 stock to do just that. Super steel, super thin, super hard.
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Personally I think the high hardness 1095 would be great for the EDC crowd. Like I said, run 'em hard, blue the blades, and name the line different, and I bet you the folks not using 'em like peasants/farmers would jump all over them.
 
abuse i hate this knife its dull as shit so i beat the shit out of it i am not a gold member if i was i would sell it for 1 penny its a pile of shit with scooby do vomit all over btw i love scooby doo i am not hating on scooby i am hating gay ass opinel
 
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