What makes Opinel knives so sharp?

kamagong said:
Nothing too remarkable if your knife has good blade geometry.

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Very cool. I never thought to try something that large (we were indoctrinated not to ever deface a book, but it's a good test!). I tried it and my Opinel's and my Mora will slice through a corner of a 330pg paperback, but only if I rock the blade a little and use pressure. My OKC and Spyderco will do it, but only if I saw the blade back and forth. I was out of corners, but the Buck 119 sliced 4 inches into the side of the book with only a single slow forward stroke and downward pressure. Never knew I could do that. The Opinel did best of the bunch, as usual. I may become a fanboy at this rate.
Is that top one a Mora BTW? I don't know knives all that well yet. it looks similar, to mine, but not exactly alike. What's interesting about the Mora is that it seems to take a very sharp and fine edge, but the blade itself is quite thick, so it doesn't slice as well as the Opinels, in my opinion. The point is very sharp though, and you have to be careful not to prick yourself or you will bleed easily. I also like that the blade is full thickness almost right to the point, so it would be hard to break off anything except the last 3/8th inch or so.
 
miso2 said:
Congrats on the score!

I guess you mean "slicey" by "sharp".
Any knife can be as "sharp" as Opinels.
But, as others have said already, Opinels have the great blade geometry (thin stock and thin behind the edge) to be great slicers.
I think everyone should have one to know how a knife is supposed to perform.

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I guess that's the word. I just mean that it will cut into things without any sawing; the edge is so fine that it just separates the individual molecules of the object being cut! And it just feels sharp. Anyway, I appreciate the image. Very useful, although I didn't expect the Opinel to have a profile quite like that. From looking at it from the outside, it seems like it would be more like GEC 73 shown above it, with the taper extending most of the blade width, but with a maybe 1/5th or 1/4th of the blade width being untapered from the spine down. But I haven't broken one yet to find out for sure, so I can't say for sure.
As for "any knife can be as 'sharp' as Opinel's", that must depend on your sharpening skills, because some of mine certainly don't seem to take such a good edge. That might just be me though. It always seemed as if one ought to be able to put as sharp an edge as you want on just about anything, if you do it right. It's just a matter of how long that edge will last for.
 
KHarper said:
Very cool. I never thought to try something that large (we were indoctrinated not to ever deface a book, but it's a good test!). I tried it and my Opinel's and my Mora will slice through a corner of a 330pg paperback, but only if I rock the blade a little and use pressure. My OKC and Spyderco will do it, but only if I saw the blade back and forth. I was out of corners, but the Buck 119 sliced 4 inches into the side of the book with only a single slow forward stroke and downward pressure. Never knew I could do that. The Opinel did best of the bunch, as usual. I may become a fanboy at this rate.
Is that top one a Mora BTW? I don't know knives all that well yet. it looks similar, to mine, but not exactly alike. What's interesting about the Mora is that it seems to take a very sharp and fine edge, but the blade itself is quite thick, so it doesn't slice as well as the Opinels, in my opinion. The point is very sharp though, and you have to be careful not to prick yourself or you will bleed easily. I also like that the blade is full thickness almost right to the point, so it would be hard to break off anything except the last 3/8th inch or so.
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I'm normally against wanton destruction of books too, but the back cover on this one was already damaged, torn nearly off during storage. I made sure to keep the text untouched by the cuts, so it remains readable as ever. But you're right, this is best done with phone books.

As for the tests, the cutting with both knives was a straight push cut down. No rocking, no sawing.

The puukko is a Tommi, handforged by Mikko Inkeroinen.
 
soc_monki said:
I'm happy with the Rat. I was at Walmart and saw it, last one, od green, not my first choice, but as you said it's not really a pretty knife. Really good build quality for around 25 bucks! My Tenacious was my 4th decent knife, and I still carry it. I have a good number of spyderco now, as well as Kershaw and a few ZTs. But I like good knives regardless of price and the Rat is much higher quality than it's price suggests.

Anyway, enough derailing your thread! :D
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LMAO, that is exactly how I got my RAT 1. Same color even. Last one left in the case in Walmart, ugly OD green, satin/mirror finish blade (I really can't figure out which; seems to bright to be satin, too dull to be called "mirror finish". Picks up grease streaks and fingerprints like crazy. Mark that as another con I forgot, although the Tenacious is worse. It's also very difficult to strike sparks with it with a fire steel, even though it has relatively sharp spine edges. You can get a feeble spark if you use the jimping on the back to strike the steel with. The Tenacious works better, especially if you use the inside of the finger hole; more surface area, I guess). I always carried Kershaws before this (since back when I carried CRKTs anyway), but this time I bought both the Kershaw Pico and the RAT 1, since I couldn't decide which I liked best, and those were the only two knives they had left (aside from a very ugly and gimmicky looking Gerber that I managed to not buy until someone else apparently fell for it and took it out of my range). The RAT ended up being the best of the two, although the Pico is okay. Just I had to adjust the tension screw to get it to open correctly, and the liner lock doesn't like to engage fully, and doesn't like to disengage when it does.
I admit I haven't figured out yet what "RAT 1" is supposed to stand for. The blade base says "Model 1", and it seems like that would be a much more appealing and classy title for it. I wish they'd call it the "OKC Model 1" instead. RAT? Rapid Action Tool? Rescue And Teamwork? Really Awful Taste?
 
If I remember, it was originally for Randall Adventure Training, the company name before it became ESEE.
 
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The older RAT folders have the Randall's Adventure Training logo on the blade.

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KHarper said:
I can vouch that mine sharpen up real nice even though ...
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As others have noted, the slicing ability is due to the thin blade stock combined with the flat (actually, slightly convex) geometry.

The fact that is "sharpens up real nice" is because of the steel and heat treat. Neither the carbone (1086, iirc) nor the 12C27 Inox will retain their edge long compared to other steels but they are easy to sharpen (due to the steel) and for me, just as importantly, they hone easily without forming a wire edge or burr in the same way that some "gummy" steels do. Opinel hardens their Inox to 58Rc and I think that explains why it hones up so cleanly. I find softer similar steels like Victorinox's Inox and Case's Tru-Sharp (both in the 56Rc range) to burr and wire up much more easily.
 
Yes, Opinels slice like crazy. Such thin blades. They are like razors. You have to be careful with any knife, but especially with Opinels. Accidental cuts while preparing food or doing something with an Opinel will leave you with a nasty cut. It just slices so clean. I remember once I was slicing some oranges and someone said something to me while I was making a cut, and I looked up while cutting. Next thing you know, the very tip of my thumb was sliced clean off. Didn't even feel it (at first). Luckily, it didn't leave a scar or any deformity, but it was close. It would have been bad if I had gotten more of my thumb. It went through and sliced off the tip of my fingernail and the very end of my thumb, and it went through like butter.
 
rogatsby said:
Yes, Opinels slice like crazy. Such thin blades. They are like razors. You have to be careful with any knife, but especially with Opinels. Accidental cuts while preparing food or doing something with an Opinel will leave you with a nasty cut. It just slices so clean. I remember once I was slicing some oranges and someone said something to me while I was making a cut, and I looked up while cutting. Next thing you know, the very tip of my thumb was sliced clean off. Didn't even feel it (at first). Luckily, it didn't leave a scar or any deformity, but it was close. It would have been bad if I had gotten more of my thumb. It went through and sliced off the tip of my fingernail and the very end of my thumb, and it went through like butter.
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Yes, I've never cut myself with a knife of mine since I was a little kid, and I had 3 cuts on my hand after I got my Opinel No.8, just from not paying close attention when handling it. I don't mean to make it sound like a lightsaber, but that edge will get you if you aren't paying attention. The tip it was, in one case. Caught my finger on the tip when closing it, and it just cut me. None of them more than minor cuts, but many more than I'd gotten before!
 
gull wing said:
I like the carbon steel blade better than the SS, seems to slice better?????
Patina is ok!
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Yes, all mine except my little No.4 Inox (my first) are the Carbones, and I adore the patina. All brown and grey and red, changes with the light. Makes them look like real working knives (although the patina on my Mora Classic is even better, almost like oil on water effect). I keep thinking I ought to get an Inox just to compare, but I just so like the idea of an Opinel, in good old-fashioned carbon-steel, like they were 100 years ago, appeals to me.
 
The problem with the Carbones is that the geometry on the larger blades is ideal for food prep, while the steel is most definitely not. Even with a decent patina, fruit and veggies end up tasting very metallic, and onions tend to turn greyish.

I do have a carbone No. 8, but i use that exclusively for wood.
 
bemymonkey said:
The problem with the Carbones is that the geometry on the larger blades is ideal for food prep, while the steel is most definitely not. Even with a decent patina, fruit and veggies end up tasting very metallic, and onions tend to turn greyish.

I do have a carbone No. 8, but i use that exclusively for wood.
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I have certainly noticed that while cutting up simple things like apples, but not from, say, chopping onions for a soup, etc. Maybe the other ingredients mask it, or maybe I just wasn't paying enough attention.
 
Some pretty good info on display here...

The only thing I'd add is that Opinel imports their steel from the last known inhabitants of an island north of Iceland named
Grímsey; specifically the settlement of Sandvík. This is where the true Sandvik steel comes from and Opinel are the only company who utilize this trve Sandvík outpost for their superior steels and heat treatment. The settlers trek a 5 day voyage south, via the only surviving boat from the 1st century AD, to the volcanic island of Surtsey. It is here they begin to forge said steel and shape each blade with but mere chainmail gloves and the teeth of Greenland sharks. Forging here allows for the blades to remain in a state that can only be described as a tempered comatose-like hypnotic trance, where the steel demands a constant lulling with songs from the multi-platinum album-selling American rock band Journey, or it will evaporate and cause the onset of an immediate ice age. There is further testing on whether-or-not they can add an AC/DC track per 4 Journey songs to achieve a harder Rockwell rating. Next, the crew bolts out a 2-week barefoot jog back northerly to the glacial waters of Drangajökull, where the blades are finally quenched. The purity in temperature of glacial water at this particular coordinate (which shall remain undocumented) allows each blade to straighten and shed unwanted impurities and stock thickness without further hands-on refinement; enhancing the geometry as has been stated previously in this thread.

Opinel then receives the blades for basic QC testing of the steel to ensure proper quality-per-price-tag, which includes, but is not limited to: whittling porcupine quills; a clean-shave of a hippopotamus back; 595.75 thrusts into the hood of a silver 2001 model Ford F-150 (Warning: This test has been known to cause Cold Steel employees to blush); being able to cut a tripwire cleanly as to not detonate seven-thousand tons of semtex (1a) plastic explosive; just to name a few tests ran daily. The average life expectancy for a field testing agent at Opinel is actually slightly higher than the average, with an expected lifespan of 137.8 years.

I hope this helps shed further light as to why, and how, Opinel knives are able to achieve their sharpness and slice-ability.
 
weeping minora said:
Some pretty good info on display here...

The only thing I'd add is that Opinel imports their steel from the last known inhabitants of an island north of Iceland named
Grímsey; specifically the settlement of Sandvík. This is where the true Sandvik steel comes from and Opinel are the only company who utilize this trve Sandvík outpost for their superior steels and heat treatment. The settlers trek a 5 day voyage south, via the only surviving boat from the 1st century AD, to the volcanic island of Surtsey. It is here they begin to forge said steel and shape each blade with but mere chainmail gloves and the teeth of Greenland sharks. Forging here allows for the blades to remain in a state that can only be described as a tempered comatose-like hypnotic trance, where the steel demands a constant lulling with songs from the multi-platinum album-selling American rock band Journey, or it will evaporate and cause the onset of an immediate ice age. There is further testing on whether-or-not they can add an AC/DC track per 4 Journey songs to achieve a harder Rockwell rating. Next, the crew bolts out a 2-week barefoot jog back northerly to the glacial waters of Drangajökull, where the blades are finally quenched. The purity in temperature of glacial water at this particular coordinate (which shall remain undocumented) allows each blade to straighten and shed unwanted impurities and stock thickness without further hands-on refinement; enhancing the geometry as has been stated previously in this thread.

Opinel then receives the blades for basic QC testing of the steel to ensure proper quality-per-price-tag, which includes, but is not limited to: whittling porcupine quills; a clean-shave of a hippopotamus back; 595.75 thrusts into the hood of a silver 2001 model Ford F-150 (Warning: This test has been known to cause Cold Steel employees to blush); being able to cut a tripwire cleanly as to not detonate seven-thousand tons of semtex (1a) plastic explosive; just to name a few tests ran daily. The average life expectancy for a field testing agent at Opinel is actually slightly higher than the average, with an expected lifespan of 137.8 years.

I hope this helps shed further light as to why, and how, Opinel knives are able to achieve their sharpness and slice-ability.
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I have heard this about them. ;)
 
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