Our little trip to the Opinel Museum

[Bigfattyt]

Very cool. I'd love to visit and get a few speciality models.

 

[RayseM]

Knife Art - now why didn't I think of that . Those are very cool. Glad you shared.
Would like to see in person someday. You selected a very nice Opinel for your engraved version

All Good.

Ray

 

[DavidZ]

Great pictures, and story of your visit. Thanks for sharing!

 

[pfranze78]

Knife Art - now why didn't I think of that . Those are very cool. Glad you shared.
Would like to see in person someday. You selected a very nice Opinel for your engraved version

All Good.

Ray

Thanks buddy!

 

[pfranze78]

Very cool. I'd love to visit and get a few speciality models.

Walking around the store, you’d want more then a few. Luckely for my wallet, there’s a misses Franzé. If there was anything I would like to have also bought, it would have been the collectors box which contains all knives (No3 to 12) and a No13. But that’s 200 euros.

 

[pfranze78]

Thanks again everyone for al those kind words!

 

[willard0341]

Good looking kids! I appreciate sharing your visit

 

[pfranze78]

Good looking kids! I appreciate sharing your visit

They take it from their mom

 

[WinchesteRalox]

Looks like it was a fun trip!

 

[315]

I don’t have one as they have never really appealed to me but it’s always neat to see a part of history and manufacturing. If I were there I’d definately take a tour!

 

[pmek5]

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Misplaced Hillbilly]

Thanks so much for sharing! This is exactly the kind of thing I like, the history of it all. Wonder if they still got that behemoth Mr.Opinel is holding in that pic your son is posing with. I got to get me one for sure.

 

[lambertiana]

I'd like to visit that place. Of all my knives, I probably use my opinel #8 more than any other (it is relegated to fruit cutting duty in my lunch bag, and I have fruit every day).

 

[ecallahan]

Awesome thank you. I’ll never get there in person.

 

[Fodderwing]

P pfranze78 thanks for the tour. Very interesting museum and history.

 

[herder]

It started with an 1,5 hour journey to the town of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, in the Savoie region of France.

It was a very rainy day, so I didn't have a hard time convincing my wife to drive 1,5 hours to go to a pocket knife museum .
But here we are:

The museum is divided in two seperate parts. One is to show you the manufacturing through the years and the other is an art exibition.

To our suprise, the entry was free of charge!

Let's start with the manufacturing. This is the entrance:

The tour starts off with an example of one of the first (or maybe THE first) Opinel ever made.

Mister Joseph Opinel himself.

Then you get to see some of the old techniques to forge the blades and make the handles.

Wood lathe

Different types of packaging trough the years sorted geographically.

Some examples of Opinel cutlery.

The museumpart ended with a movie showing todays production proces.

If you are interested, this is the one:

So the exibition part of the museum had art pieces which incorporated the Opinel No13.
Here are a few examples.

The museum also has store where you can buy every Opinel they make, including kitchen cutlery. (this is only one cabinet with special handles)

They also have an engraving service, so me and my son bought a keepsake. I bought a No8 Slim line whith my name on the blade. My son, who turned 12 on the 12th of august, got a No6 with his name and and date of his birthday. (He also bought a green key chain No3 and I bought a Carbone No6 for my dad, but I don't have pictures of them.)

Although the museum was not very big, for me the trip was worth the effort. Specially as a knife nut, I can definitely recommend going to the Opinel Museum.

Thanks for reading!

Fantastic pictures and descriptions, thank you!!!

 

[KooKooforKukripuffs]

Very cool, I just bought a 12 recently.

 

[brownshoe]

Thanks a lot for your efforts! You guys look like a happy family, may your good times continue to roll. Simple family trips are some of the best!

Was the art commissiomed by Opinel? How was the collection put together. I especially like the neon piece.

You guys do anything else that day?

 

[pfranze78]

Thanks a lot for your efforts! You guys look like a happy family, may your good times continue to roll. Simple family trips are some of the best!

Was the art commissiomed by Opinel? How was the collection put together. I especially like the neon piece.

You guys do anything else that day?

We are a very happy familiy and we take a lot of trips together. This is more important than anything else in the world.

About the art:
"Extended in 2018, the Opinel museum proposes to its visitors a new room devoted to temporary exhibitions(exposures). From June 25th till September 16th, 2018, temporary exhibition(exposure) Opinel Series presents the work of several tens of international artists of the collective Art By Friends on an original support(medium) of creation: Opinel. Having made stopover between 2016 and 2017 to Bayreuth, Montreal, Geneva, Vicenza, Brooklyn, and Annecy, about fifty works will be presented for this last stage to the Museum Opinel de Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The artists had carte blanche as for the expression of their artistic vision by reinventing the knife Opinel by misappropriation(diversion) and creation of the blade and of the handle. By means of different techniques of painting(paint), collage(sticking), sculpture, drawing, stencil, poker-work, collections will surprise a public of any age. Schedule of visit: 9h-18h Free admission The permanent exhibition on the history(story) of the knife Opinel and its trade secrets will be also opened to the same schedules."

As for your last question, on the way back we visited Albertville where the Winter Olypmics were held in '92.

 

[pfranze78]

Very cool, I just bought a 12 recently.

I like the twelve too! Very handy in the kitchen for slicing large pieces of meat, preparing for the BBQ or something.