Carl,
I wonder if you could shed some more light on the Opinels that you and Danny each broke.
I should begin by noting that I agree with this point completely.
I had taken out a small dogwood tree in the back yard, and was cutting up the limbs to bundle. They limbs were about thumb thick to a little thicker. I had cut up most of them, and was on the home stretch, when I felt a crack, and the whole blade and pivot assembly was very wobbly. The wood had split right where the step down was turned on the lather to fit the bolster and locking ring. The wood had cracked right at the step like it was a stress point.
I was thinking about this over the weekend as I was helping my wife move and plant perennials which meant that I was using a standard wood handle spade and a 4' pry bar. Our neck of the woods sits on top of glacial till, which translates into rocks. 6" rocks. 10" rocks. And one nice 18"x12" shovel buster that promptly went to the rock wall.
Anyway, I was standing there prying the heck out of a rock in vain with my spade and pressing the limits of what the grain would take and was thinking about your observation on the stress point. The Opinel in my pocket (which I used to trim back branches) uses the same exact construction as my spade and the steel garden rake and the leaf rake. A metal socket on the end of a stick and held in place with a pin.
As an engineer, it's obvious that the end of the socket creates a fulcrum and a stress point and it's also obvious that when wood is used as a structural element, there is the problem of inconsistencies in grain patterns, which can conspire to make a handle of a shovel or a knife weaker than normal. The question becomes, is the design fundamentally poor or can it be made strong enough to handle rough usage by simply making it bigger? A spade handle is stronger than a garden rake handle. A garden rake handle is stronger than a light leaf rake handle.
When I was a bike mechanic, we didn't have the internet to give some indication on failure rates. Enter "Mavic anodized MA40 rim failure" into a search engine, and you'll get lots of discussion of hairline cracks and rim breakage. Enter "opinel handle broken" and the only stories I can find are about you and Danny. I've read stories about Opinel handles getting broken from being crushed like being kicked out a hand by a horse or run over by a tractor. But I don't find any other stories of handles breaking. Maybe my search-fu is weak but I'm suspecting that the experiences that you and Danny had are rare. So, I'm trying to get a handle on whether that is the case, if you both had the bad luck of getting knives with bad grain or if you guys are just exceptionally hard on knives.
Here's what you wrote in 2012 about you and Danny, a few drinks, a vice and testing to see if the Opinel could be relied upon in an emergency.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/981003-An-Opinel-saves-the-day
A bud, Danny, expressed some doubts that a little knife this light could be worth anything beyond a picnic knife. Sound familiar? He looked at it and said it would break soon as you leaned on it. I stood up for the little slicer, and we made a bet. The bet was, he couldn't break the knife by hand on anything he needed to cut. I have to admit at this point in the story that we'd had a few beers. So Danny goes down the basement and comes up with some thick heavy manilla rope. He goes and saws away on an angle and the Opinel slices right through the rope. He does it again, same result. Then he gets a hardwood dowel and cuts into the dowel at a 45 degree angle and is twisting the blade. The knife goes through the dowel. Cuts it off clean with very little effort. It went through so fast, Danny almost takes a slice of his thigh. By this time, he's holding the knife out and looking at it, with what I can guess is the beginning of respect. I should say here, that Danny is 6' 4" and about 250 to 270. Big strong guy and works out. So far, he couldn't break the Opinel.
By now, we're both curious, about in a real emergent how much can you lean on an Opinel. Danny takes out his wallet and hands me a five and says "Let's see."
We put the blade of the Opinel halfway in a vise and clamp it down. Danny puts on a heavy work glove and starts to bend the knife over. The blade is flexing, bending, and Danny is surprised at how much pressure he has to push down with. Finally , at past 45 degrees, there's a snap, and the blade breaks. But it breaks off clean even with the vise jaws, leaving half the blade still usable and foldable. The action of the pivot was unaffected, and the joint still had 100% integrity, with the locking ring still working. It took a 6 foot 4 inch 250 pound guy and a vise on a heavy workbench clamping the blade, to break a little number 6 Opinel. The next day, Danny went out and bought a number 8 Opinel. Now a bit over thirty years later, Danny is still a fan of Opinel knives with a selection that he uses for edc and fishing.
In our current thread, you wrote
I can't remember what Danny did, it was over 25 years ago. But his came right apart at the same point, but broke clean off. His blade with the bolster and locking ring were a whole separate piece than the handle that was still in his hand, but nothing attached to it. It had sheared right off even with the shoulder of the wood where it was turned down for the bolster.
I've done a lot of work with a scout/SAK doing the same thing, and neve chad a problem. I've done wood processing and gardening like Mr. Van had bought us with the notching and then breaking it off. SK's I've used for trimming limbs and cutting down saplings have been recruits, tinkers, and my old Wenger SI. My old Buck 301 stockman had also done lots of work like that with no problem. Danny went back to using his old Vic pioneer. No problemo with that either. I like Opinel's, but have since regulated them to picnic and light duty knives. I just don't think the wood construction around the pivot of the Opinel is as sturdy as a conventional knife like a SAK or sodbuster.
I'm all about evolution on my relationship to knives. I've been all over the map, as you know. But I find this confusing...
Did Danny give up on Opinels due to them being too flimsy after the incident with his wife's injury or did he continue to use them? I would think given his size, your report that he was using a #7 and the urgency of the situation that he put spade type power on a leaf rake sized handle. I wouldn't take Danny's story about breaking a #7 as giving any indication on the durability of the larger #9s and #10s, would you? That would be like predicting the durability of a spade handle based on the performance of a leaf rake.
Regarding the #8 that you broke, last year in this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1101245-Can-you-bust-an-Opinel
you wrote
I've only seen one Opinel break, and that was an unusual thing. We were cutting down some saplings to make a stretcher for my friend Danny's wife, who had broken an ankle slipping on a icy rock face on a early morning hike. Danny was a bit agitated, and was trying to hurry as he cut down the sapling he was working on. To give the Opinel credit, Danny is 6 foot four inches, and over 250 pounds. A big guy that works out. The Opinel handle broke off just where the wood is stepped down to a smaller diameter to receive the inner bolster. May have been a fault of the wood, or just it was never designed to be leaned on by a very large very powerful guy who was listening to his wife moan in pain.
I had one develop a crack right in the same area, running bak from the pivot end. But I had been using that knife as a beater. I've never had a blade break on me.
Is this referring to the same knife or did you crack one and entirely bust another? If they are the same knife, you mentioned in 2013 thread that you had been using the knife as a "beater". Can you say more on what sort of use constitutes it being used as a "beater" and any chance that you somehow damaged the knife before it breaking when cutting up the wood bundles?
Again, all of this to try to get a handle on what your stories might indicate for other Opinels.
I readily admit I am lucky with respect to Opinels. With my XL sized hands, even a #8 is frustratingly small in my hands. And a #10 is just too big for my pocket. So, I'm sort of stuck with the #9 which fits my hand perfectly and, it would seem, is stronger than a #8 and #7 in the same way that a spade is stronger than a garden rake and leaf rake.
Sorry for the length of the post and heavy old quoting. Trying to get a better bead on things. Thanks.
) That is the allure. If you want to spend an hour on diamond stones to make your modern knife cut almost as well as an opinel that you sharpened on a $2 hardware store stone, that's your perogative (and often mine, because I love some modern steel, modern construction knives). Or if you want to spend 30x the amount on a mid tech or custom with an actually nice edge, or anything between, that's fine and great.
