That ONE friend who can't understand...

[pinnah]

Basic maintenance? You mean, taking the knife apart and soaking the handle is some whatever it is people use to stabilize the wood? LOL Nah, I'll just use a knife that's better made and doesn't swell up on its user in humid environments (which is where I live), and given that I have so many excellent knives that cut just as well, I'd rather use them anyway.

Dear heavens... You're simply making things up in response to your ignorance.

No. You smear a bit of paste wax (carpenters bee's wax also works well) into the joint and heat the wax with a heat gun. It takes all of a few minutes. Incredibly simple and much easier than taking apart a jammed up frame lock.

 

[Quiet]

Dear heavens... You're simply making things up in response to your ignorance.

No. You smear a bit of paste wax (carpenters bee's wax also works well) into the joint and heat the wax with a heat gun. It takes all of a few minutes. Incredibly simple and much easier than taking apart a jammed up frame lock.

I am not making things up, because what you're describing is essentially what I'm talking about. "Well, see ya just take the knife apart*, and then ya just smear this stuff on the wood** and then ya just put it back together!"

All of that is definitely not easier than working on a framelock that's seized (hint: 99.999999% of the time, the fix doesn't require taking the knife apart). Two seconds with a pencil will solve that particular problem all day long, so I'll excuse your ignorance on this. It's not surprising, given that Moras, Opinels, and Squirts aren't framelocks, so it's entirely understandable why you'd have no idea what you were talking about.



*Just like I said
** Compleeeeetely different than what I said about soaking the wood in some sort of substance. Totally. LOL

 

[James Y]

I know that when you're really into knives, sometimes it can be tempting to want to "convert" someone to "see the light". Some knife people, especially those who are fairly new to the hobby, become like those "born-again" types. However, more often than not, trying to convert others is annoying to those who don't share your interest. Think about it. We may be knife people, but it's pretty certain there are things every one of us are not interested in that others are passionate about.

I knew a man who was passionate about both guns and knives. He knew all about various firearms and ammo (clearly I'm not a gun guy). One day he asked me what I was up to, and I mentioned I was planning to teach a martial arts (MA) class (which I ended up doing for a few years before deciding teaching MA isn't my passion). I've been training MA almost my entire life. This man stated that there are already plenty of MA classes out there, and essentially stated that MA training is useless. He stated that firearms are real self-defense. Truth be told, he was in far more immediate danger from his own high-fat diet and sedentary lifestyle than from any human attackers. But I didn't argue with him or even try to rebut his comment, because it wouldn't have changed anything, and would have created an unpleasant situation where there was none.

People are different and they value different things in different ways.

Jim

 

[Quiet]

Also, I should add, I'm not looking to get into a big debate with you, Pinnah. You made a statement that was incorrect, because humid environments DO cause issue with these knives. Not everyone wants a wood-working project when they buy a knife. Usually, when folks buy a knife, they want a working knife. Pretty simple. Anyway, not really much else here to discuss, so I'll take a step back. It's been what, a year since you and I last jumped on this merry-go-round?

 

[pinnah]

I am not making things up, because what you're describing is essentially what I'm talking about. "Well, see ya just take the knife apart*, and then ya just smear this stuff on the wood** and then ya just put it back together!"

All of that is definitely not easier than working on a framelock that's seized (hint: 99.999999% of the time, the fix doesn't require taking the knife apart). Two seconds with a pencil will solve that particular problem all day long, so I'll excuse your ignorance on this. It's not surprising, given that Moras, Opinels, and Squirts aren't framelocks, so it's entirely understandable why you'd have no idea what you were talking about.



*Just like I said
** Compleeeeetely different than what I said about soaking the wood in some sort of substance. Totally. LOL

No disassembly is needed to seal an Opinel.

There are countless threads on this in the archives, which is how I learned about it. You're making things up.

And you're missing the larger point. There are countless relatively low cost knives such as the Buck 110LT, Spyderco Byrd, Rat2, or many others that are reasonably durable and very serviceable for tough working environments at a very low cost. Any of these knives will be significantly more durable than crap off brands.

 

[pinnah]

Also, I should add, I'm not looking to get into a big debate with you, Pinnah. You made a statement that was incorrect, because humid environments DO cause issue with these knives.

No one controls your posting but you.

Any unmaintined knife will fail. Take any lockback, slipjoint or framelock and use it in a wet marine environment with out cleaning it lubricating it and it will bind up in short order. Anybody who uses a knife outdoors knows this.

The only thing different about an Opinel is that it requires different "lube".

An Opinel maintained at a basic level won't bind up in wet or humid conditions and any stiffening is easily dealt with by a tap on your shoe heel.

 

[Quiet]

No one controls your posting but you.

Any unmaintined knife will fail. Take any lockback, slipjoint or framelock and use it in a wet marine environment with out cleaning it lubricating it and it will bind up in short order. Anybody who uses a knife outdoors knows this.

The only thing different about an Opinel is that it requires different "lube".

An Opinel maintained at a basic level won't bind up in wet or humid conditions and any stiffening is easily dealt with by a tap on your shoe heel.

Still missing the point, I see. That's fine, no further need to correct you.

"Buy a knife! Dip it in wax! That should be expected!" Or, someone can just buy a better knife that doesn't need to be treated like it's a back deck in the rainy season.

Have a good day.

 

[Quiet]

No disassembly is needed to seal an Opinel.

There are countless threads on this in the archives, which is how I learned about it. You're making things up.

And you're missing the larger point. There are countless relatively low cost knives such as the Buck 110LT, Spyderco Byrd, Rat2, or many others that are reasonably durable and very serviceable for tough working environments at a very low cost. Any of these knives will be significantly more durable than crap off brands.

Much better than an Opinel also, because you can just take 'em out and use them.

 

[uxo2]

MYOB

 

[katanas]

Why all the animosity in this thread? OP, just get your friend a quality low priced knife (like a Rat 1 or?) and ask him to give you HIS opinion after he uses it a while. Listen to him and THEN judge whether you think (really, his not yours) his position (changed or not) is fine for him. Then just enjoy the friendship; "vive le difference". Have fun, it's just knives, not wives.

 

[jackknife]

Much better than an Opinel also, because you can just take 'em out and use them.

Yeah, this!

After over thirty years of an on again and off again affair wth Opinels, I've finally run out of patience with them. Fidley. Finicky. A PITA to set up every time you buy a new one. Now they've even changed the locking ring design so you need to do some modification with a dremel tool for it too work right.

I soaked them in linseed oil, waxed them with petroleum jelly and the better ahlfs blow drier. Sanded and spar varnished. Sanded and spar urathane. It all helps, but theres a limit. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I've never had to puck with a Victorinox SAK for it to work perfectly every time out in the middle of someplace far from home. For the price of an Opinel number 8 I can buy a Victorinox recruit that right out of the package is fine. It can be submerged, dropped in the dirt, pried with, screwed with, opens cans with, and actually neglected to a criminal degree and its fine. I can even scrub itup with the dinner dishes if I so wish.

For the price of two Opinels, I can buy a Douk-Douk, Mercator K55, a Case sodbuster, that all will slice just fine and work just fine with no maintenance under very dirty conditions, and no wood handle to split or crack. No more Opinels for me.

 

[Quiet]

Yeah, this!

After over thirty years of an on again and off again affair wth Opinels, I've finally run out of patience with them. Fidley. Finicky. A PITA to set up every time you buy a new one. Now they've even changed the locking ring design so you need to do some modification with a dremel tool for it too work right.

I soaked them in linseed oil, waxed them with petroleum jelly and the better ahlfs blow drier. Sanded and spar varnished. Sanded and spar urathane. It all helps, but theres a limit. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I've never had to puck with a Victorinox SAK for it to work perfectly every time out in the middle of someplace far from home. For the price of an Opinel number 8 I can buy a Victorinox recruit that right out of the package is fine. It can be submerged, dropped in the dirt, pried with, screwed with, opens cans with, and actually neglected to a criminal degree and its fine. I can even scrub itup with the dinner dishes if I so wish.

For the price of two Opinels, I can buy a Douk-Douk, Mercator K55, a Case sodbuster, that all will slice just fine and work just fine with no maintenance under very dirty conditions, and no wood handle to split or crack. No more Opinels for me.

You've got to making all of this up. Everyone knows, you just pour a little bit of wax in the joint slot, little bit of heat gun and the knife is perfect, come on now.

LMAO

 

[pinnah]

Yeah, this!

After over thirty years of an on again and off again affair wth Opinels, I've finally run out of patience with them. Fidley. Finicky. A PITA to set up every time you buy a new one. Now they've even changed the locking ring design so you need to do some modification with a dremel tool for it too work right.

I soaked them in linseed oil, waxed them with petroleum jelly and the better ahlfs blow drier. Sanded and spar varnished. Sanded and spar urathane. It all helps, but theres a limit. Maybe I'm just getting old, but I've never had to puck with a Victorinox SAK for it to work perfectly every time out in the middle of someplace far from home. For the price of an Opinel number 8 I can buy a Victorinox recruit that right out of the package is fine. It can be submerged, dropped in the dirt, pried with, screwed with, opens cans with, and actually neglected to a criminal degree and its fine. I can even scrub itup with the dinner dishes if I so wish.

For the price of two Opinels, I can buy a Douk-Douk, Mercator K55, a Case sodbuster, that all will slice just fine and work just fine with no maintenance under very dirty conditions, and no wood handle to split or crack. No more Opinels for me.

Heya Carl. My experience is different than yours. I spend a lot of time in wet sandy conditions amd a lot of time in the wet New England woods.

I find sand to be the nemesis of slipjoints, lockbacks and liner/frame locks. I've got as much experience with all of those designs as most others here. Drop a regular locking knife in the sand and I need to give the knife a thorough cleaning and oiling. In contrast I can bury an Opinel in the sand, tap it and it works without a worry.

I too grew weary of fiddling too much with Opinels. Figures out that I wasted time. I forget the guy on the Trad forum who recommended Johnson's Paste Wax. Lasts a long time. Very easy to apply. Super effective.

This discussion is an unfortunate sidetrack. If I had just said Rat 1 instead of Opinel, Quier wouldn't have succumbed to his impulse to stalk me.

Quiet, time to stand down or I'll report you for stalking.

Again.

 

[Night Rider]

I'm a tournament Bass fisherman and am in a club with guys who take it way more serous than me yet a bunch of them will not spend more than 40 bucks on a rod, the same guys have 15 thousand dollar bass boats. The rod is your link to that pay check at the other end of the line yet they refuse to spend another 60 bucks for a far superior rod just out of principle. One guy told me that I buy three of the same cheap rods at a time so when he breaks one or two over the season he always has a back up. I spend up to a 100 bucks on my rods and have had some for over 15 years. The moral of this story is every one has a different set of prioritys so pick your battles wisely and gift him a Kershaw Blur, Best EDC knife ever!

 

[Quiet]

Heya Carl. My experience is different than yours. I spend a lot of time in wet sandy conditions amd a lot of time in the wet New England woods.

I find sand to be the nemesis of slipjoints, lockbacks and liner/frame locks. I've got as much experience with all of those designs as most others here. Drop a regular locking knife in the sand and I need to give the knife a thorough cleaning and oiling. In contrast I can bury an Opinel in the sand, tap it and it works without a worry.

I too grew weary of fiddling too much with Opinels. Figures out that I wasted time. I forget the guy on the Trad forum who recommended Johnson's Paste Wax. Lasts a long time. Very easy to apply. Super effective.

This discussion is an unfortunate sidetrack. If I had just said Rat 1 instead of Opinel, Quier wouldn't have succumbed to his impulse to stalk me.

Quiet, time to stand down or I'll report you for stalking.

Again.

Please do not discuss other members, we're discussing the knives. Please stay on track, or I'll have to use the report feature myself, thanks.

By the way, Florida humidity will bind up a pocketed Opinel within an hour. This is in direct contradiction to your claim that it's nearly impossible. All of my years of camping in the sandy soils of Florida and Georgia, I've dropped knives countless times and had no issues. Odd. Anyway, I see that you don't like being challenged on your assertions, so if you're going to threaten to report people who correct your incorrect statements, you may want to go to another forum. Thank you.

OP, I definitely recommend letting your friend enjoy the knives he enjoys and uses. Maybe at some point he'll seek out your advice on a better knife when one of his lets him down on some task.

P.S. Feel free to report me, I've broken no rules.

 

[shinyedges]

Heya Carl. My experience is different than yours. I spend a lot of time in wet sandy conditions amd a lot of time in the wet New England woods.

I find sand to be the nemesis of slipjoints, lockbacks and liner/frame locks. I've got as much experience with all of those designs as most others here. Drop a regular locking knife in the sand and I need to give the knife a thorough cleaning and oiling. In contrast I can bury an Opinel in the sand, tap it and it works without a worry.

I too grew weary of fiddling too much with Opinels. Figures out that I wasted time. I forget the guy on the Trad forum who recommended Johnson's Paste Wax. Lasts a long time. Very easy to apply. Super effective.

This discussion is an unfortunate sidetrack. If I had just said Rat 1 instead of Opinel, Quier wouldn't have succumbed to his impulse to stalk me.

Quiet, time to stand down or I'll report you for stalking.

Again.

You make assertions that are completely wrong. To the point it's just lying. Most locking folders (and SAKs) are perfectly fine after a drop in sand. The impervious picture you paint for the opinel is flat out wrong and goes against the experience of plenty of people here. Wood handles like on the opinel have plenty of drawbacks that modern materials DON'T HAVE. Period.

Let's have a looksy at design:


Look at this flow through design on this framelock. Literally COMPLETELY FLOW THROUGH and titanium doesn't crack, swell, shrink, or need wax.


Now, let's look at the opinel:


NON FLOW THROUGH design that has a handle that needs an immediate waxing or boiling. On top of that it still has problems with durability that modern materials simply don't have.


Wow. Who knew.

 

[The Aflac Duck]

You make assertions that are completely wrong. To the point it's just lying. Most locking folders (and SAKs) are perfectly fine after a drop in sand. The impervious picture you paint for the opinel is flat out wrong and goes against the experience of plenty of people here. Wood handles like on the opinel have plenty of drawbacks that modern materials DON'T HAVE. Period.

OH NOEZ!!!

 

[shinyedges]

OH NOEZ!!!

View attachment 981350

Hope those had a thorough cleaning or they might not be any good!

 

[jackknife]

Heya Carl. My experience is different than yours. I spend a lot of time in wet sandy conditions amd a lot of time in the wet New England woods.

I find sand to be the nemesis of slipjoints, lockbacks and liner/frame locks. I've got as much experience with all of those designs as most others here. Drop a regular locking knife in the sand and I need to give the knife a thorough cleaning and oiling. In contrast I can bury an Opinel in the sand, tap it and it works without a worry.

I too grew weary of fiddling too much with Opinels. Figures out that I wasted time. I forget the guy on the Trad forum who recommended Johnson's Paste Wax. Lasts a long time. Very easy to apply. Super effective.

This discussion is an unfortunate sidetrack. If I had just said Rat 1 instead of Opinel, Quier wouldn't have succumbed to his impulse to stalk me.

Quiet, time to stand down or I'll report you for stalking.

Again.

Wow.

So you think you have more experience in wet sandy conditions than I. You must not be that familiar with Maryland where I spent most my life. Try camping on Assategue Island and not have damp sand in EVERYTHING by the end of the weekend. Go crabbing down on the Chesapeake Bay and see what condition your knife is in after cutting salted eel for bait. I've had my Victorinox pioneer get sandy as well as outright grungy, and just swishing it around in the ocean got it clean enough to keep going. Yeah, salt water. If it gets dropped in the sand, just give it a good dunking in whatever water you are on. End of problem.

Wet? Try running the Old Washington canal on the Potomac river in either a canoe or kayak and not have whatever you have in your pockets well soaked. Or rent a Laser sailboat from the Bellhaven Marina on the Potomac on a very blustery day and not be wet by the end of the sail.Wet is a condition I am extremely familiar with on and around the water in small boats. And I have had Opinel's fail under those conditions.

I had an Opinel number 7 in the right front pocket of my shorts when kayaking and after getting a lapful of water mid morning, it was unable to be opened by the time we stopped on an island for lunch. Tap on a boot heel? I had on sneakers, but I tapped and then banged it on tree trunks, rocks, and finally chucked it out in the river and broke out my well worn Buck 301 stockman and ate my lunch. That old Buck had been used and sometimes abused, neglected, and yet it never failed. It had been in the left front pocket of my shorts and had been soaked for as long as the Opinel that day. Yet in spite of the water I took on board when I zigged instead of zagged and almost went over when grazing a rock, it opened fine.

But aside form the water issue, take a very good look at an Opinel. Everything, and I mean everything, is mounted on just two little 'fingers' of wood that jut out from the main body of the handle. If you torque the blade by accident or other reason, those little fingers can crack. It happened to me and I ended up with a useless knife that went in the trash can. People who have elevated these knives to a cult worship status forget that in France they are considered a semi disposable knife to be tossed if it breaks or becomes to worn it use.

Yeah we get it; you love Opinels. But face facts, they have their problems, and it's not a tinker free knife. And it's not a knife for everyone. Having used one in wet sandy conditions, I know it's not for me. Spare me the wet New England woods stuff.

 

[Chariotz4]

The one thing that comes to my mind is this; if the OP, who's still debating about whether or not to get/gift his friend an upgrade in the knife department, has reservations about potentially gifting his buddy something like an Ontario RAT I/II in D2 steel because he's worried that his friend's uses for said knife combined with his (lack of) maintenance routine for said knife may cause it to corrode and thus have new found anecdotal proof as to why his bargain bin knives are superior; then why in the world would he consider getting him a knife that comes standard with a carbon steel blade and a wooden handle that would require some sort of sealing/stabilizing before it's ready for the kinds of use it sounds like his friend puts his knives through?

If he decides to go the route of trying to convince his friend that an extra $20 spent pays back dividends at a more entry level price point, it would seem like he'd be much better off buying something like a USA made Kershaw, a RAT in AUS8, an American Buck, or budget Spyderco etc. There's a lot to be said for modern designs, materials, decent construction and F&F and non-mystery stainless steels (compared to what his friend is likely currently using).

Mind you, this is all moot if he decides not to go through with it or if his friend has no desire to change what seems to be his set ways.

Edited for clarity.