What makes Opinel knives so sharp?

I own a few Opinels. No. 7 through 12 (the 12 being the only one in Inox). They are some of my favorite knives to use for when you just need to cut something. I haven't noticed any discoloration of food when cutting with them. But I do notice the smell of the acids reacting with the carbon steel. It's very faint and I like it for some reason. I have a couple of more "modern" knives that compete well in geometry with the Opinels: my Manly Wasp (as mentioned above) and my Spyderco Chaparral. But neither have the nice curved sides of the Opinels. If you grasp the flat sides (not the edge, for the love of everything holy) of the blade lightly between your thumb and forefinger and slide them from the pivot end to the tip, you feel the blade stock get narrower at the tip. The Wasp and the Chaparral are completely flat by comparison and I find things like onions and tomatoes tend to remain on those blades while they just fall off the Opinels.
 
I find opinels to be one of my most useful knives for cutting.

The acid reaction with the carbon steel slows if you patina the knife. After you have a nice grey patina, it is much less noticable.

I have one stainless model, which obviously does not have this issue. It is just as easy to sharpen, a d seems to hold an edge a bit longer. Seems it may be a few points harder on the RC scale....
 
This thread and the importance of blade geometry kind of has me thinking.

Why do we prefer a somewhat brittle steel with a long lasting cutting edge like S110V in a folder... Rather than using an extremely tough steel like Elmax and then thinning the edge to the point that it's brittleness is comparable to S110V? It seems like the thinned blade geometry would more than make up for the faster wearing edge.

Is this a stupid question with an obvious answer I'm missing?
 
Last edited:
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.

View attachment 1105041
Click to expand...
Thanks for that graphic miso2. Very useful :cool::thumbsup:
 

Attachments

  • upload_2019-4-16_20-53-50.png
    upload_2019-4-16_20-53-50.png
    69.5 KB · Views: 5
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top