Sharpening Opinel

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Splicer2014

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Dec 6, 2019
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After a lot of trying (both carbon and inox) I seem to have problems sharpening Opinels to sharp enough for my standards. I'm very experienced hand sharpening knives most of my life, and I never have problems with any other knives and steels, but Opinel seems to be troublesome for me. I just don't seem to be able to sharpen it with my usual method, which is either diamond stone and or ceramic stone, riding down the grits and then stropping on two different compounds and then clean leather. I haven't tried waterstones since I only use those for my kitchen knives. The most luck I've gotten is using diamond with a feathers touch and then leaving it toothy, which isn't ideal for me.

Any ideas why this is happening?
 
Are you used to sharpening much harder steels? I never bother pulling out the diamonds on an Opinel, just an old india stone and then finish with fine ceramic. I find it's easy to round off the apex when stropping if I'm not very slow and careful, maybe with softer steel this problem is magnified?
 
r8shell said:
Are you used to sharpening much harder steels? I never bother pulling out the diamonds on an Opinel, just an old india stone and then finish with fine ceramic. I find it's easy to round off the apex when stropping if I'm not very slow and careful, maybe with softer steel this problem is magnified?
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I never thought about it, I sharpen everything from Victorinox on the soft side to move exotic steels on folders (not as high as maxamet though). But maybe diamond is a bit rough, and softer touch?
 
I don't have an Opinel but I almost never use diamonds on the simpler, softer steels. Ceramics and Arkansas are my go to for these.

Also, I'd caution you on the stropping. It's very easy to roll the apex on these steels, especially if it is rough or soft leather. I'd go hard bare leather or even bare wood. Just enough to deburr. Coming off a Fine India I will typically only make a couple passes on hard bare leather.
 
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Be sure you've cleaned off the burr. You might have just stretched out a wire edge on the rods. But good that you're getting positive results.
 
Okey, so after medium, fine and ultra fine spyderco ceramic, then stropping with a superlight touch on chromium oxide I got the result I want, so all good there. However, I'm not convinced about the greatness of Opinel, but at least I own a couple now, which as a knife guy, I "should" :D :P
 
You are over-thinking this. How sharp do you need it to be? Mine will shave arm hair with just a couple of minutes on any one of a number of methods, a coffee cup, a Worksharp field sharpener, or an EZE-LAP hone.

It’s not just the edge. The thin blade stock and subtly convex grind also contribute to the Opinel’s ability to keep slicing after the edge has lost its edge. The price is the icing on the cake.

We used to talk about the elegant, simple locking system. The product liability lawyers have mucked that up a bit, but it still works pretty well.
 
I am glad you got it worked out! I too had a little trouble getting my Opinels sharp, I discovered it was my stropping like mentioned above. They definitely aren’t perfect, but they are good working knives :thumbsup:
 
An India stone in 'Fine' grit from Norton, used with some mineral oil, can easily handle both the 'carbone' and 'inox' Opinels, and is my universal choice for such knives. AFTER setting the edge on the Norton Fine, a medium ceramic, such as that from Spyderco, works very well as a touch-up hone on the fly, especially on the 'Inox' (Sandvik 12C27Mod) blades. They respond very well to that regimen.

For the Inox (stainless), something like a Fine/EF diamond can also work OK, or even very well, when used with a very light touch. But the diamond would be overkill on the 'carbone', as that steel is quite soft and lacks the wear resistance of even the simpler stainless steels.

I don't strop my Opinels much at all, except on bare leather or denim (my jeans). It's too easy to overpolish the edge on these steels, if using much compound on a strop at all.
 
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My Opinel #8 carbon is among the sharpest knives I own. I have used it fairly extensively on a variety of wood projects, including carving things from hard maple, and I have never sharpened it on anything but an Arkansas stone and a ceramic rod. It practically falls through paper, and would easily cut your finger to the bone if you weren’t careful. Really my only complaint is that it cuts TOO well - it is easy to cut too deep and then you wind up removing too much material because you can’t change the direction of the cut like you could with a narrower profile but fatter cross-section blade.

As others have said, though, it may be more the shape of the blade rather than the refinement of the edge which makes them cut so well. I don’t really know.
 
I've never done anything but strop mine, green compound and then bare leather. However, if I were actually trying to sharpen a dull one I might try the finest sandpaper I could find with a mousepad.
 
Henry Beige said:
You are over-thinking this. How sharp do you need it to be? Mine will shave arm hair with just a couple of minutes on any one of a number of methods, a coffee cup, a Worksharp field sharpener, or an EZE-LAP hone.

It’s not just the edge. The thin blade stock and subtly convex grind also contribute to the Opinel’s ability to keep slicing after the edge has lost its edge. The price is the icing on the cake.

We used to talk about the elegant, simple locking system. The product liability lawyers have mucked that up a bit, but it still works pretty well.
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I'll never stop being entertained by waiting to see how long before the "coffee mug" comes out in these discussions.

He had an issue, he asked for help, he adjusted and is happy. All good.
 
Well, I was touching up the edge of my opie the other day, with my coffee mug sitting there, steaming.... ok, enough entertainment :D

My Opinels have all taken an amazingly sharp edge with very little effort. I do agree that it would be easy to over work the edge.. as thin as those blades are, it doesn't take much pressure to achieve good results.

.... and I actually did use the bottom of a coffee mug to put a working edge on a kitchen knife over the holidays. Visiting at the relatives, very dull knife, and no sharpener... turned over a mug (empty, of course) and did about 10 strokes on it, and to all the observers' amazement, put a decent kitchen edge on it.
 
I've always just used my Sharpmaker though to be honest I don't sharpen it often, it's so thin and well ground that you don't even notice if it's less than incredibly sharp, it still slides through stuff just the same.
 
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These knives take scary sharp edge easily,i sharpened both of these on folding dmt,edge is very toothy and agressive while being able to whittle hair too.Stainless is better all around,holds edge longer.
 
lonestar1979 said:
These knives take scary sharp edge easily,i sharpened both of these on folding dmt,edge is very toothy and agressive while being able to whittle hair too.Stainless is better all around,holds edge longer.
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Love my carbon blade. Gotta get me stainless too!
 
I've only used an Arkansas stone (with either honing oil or water) that I've had for so long, I do not recall for sure if it is "soft" or "hard".
(It is marbled gray, which I think is "soft". Is that correct?)
I've also used the bottom of an (empty) ceramic coffee mug (dry), if/when a blade just needs a light touchup.
My Opinel Number 8 has the "Carbone" blade. The (empty) coffee mug keeps it "sharp enough" to slice paper thin slices of tomato, if needed. (such thin slices rarely are for me.)
 
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My Opinels seem just about the easiest I ife I have to sharpen to a sticky sharp hair jumping edge.
 
Stainless is easy to sharpen,but takes and holds better edge than carbon.Ev3n at high pol8sh 12c27mod has that bite that whittles hair ,yet is toothy for any cutting task.Have 3 carbon opinels but stainless is better and more practical in any way.
 
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