Any Opinel love? (Updated pics)

Grand to see you enjoying the Opinel qualities Chui Chui . Hard to resist!

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If you have access to a grindwheel I can assure you a blade mod is nice and easy:) Some follow up work with some wet and dry paper has given this one a nice crowned spine too!
 
A avoidspam - grindwheel, to mod blade how.....? Yes, I was going to take the arris off the spine as they're too well machined, too sharp.

Have you given yours a convex cutting edge..?

Also, was thinking about doing a small depression in handle for easier opening where nail-nick is...........and stripping and oiling the handle to bring the grain out more.
 
Chui Chui you'll see from my pic above I have modified mine to a my favoured drop point. To achieve this I worked steadily on a fine grind wheel to get a smooth downwards curve to the spine, removing the up swept tip and the lump behind the nick keeping the top of the nail nick even with the spine. Once I was roughly there I took any burrs off with a fine metal file and used 600 grit wet and dry on a hard, flat surface to remove the grind marks from the spine. If you use a linear motion from handle to tip (regardless of where your grind marks are) and mainly keep the knife at 90% to the paper but let it tilt a little to each side as you work you will crown the spine and create an even spine (provided you haven't been too heavy handed with the grind wheel...).

I had an advantage with mine because it is a carbon blade. When you remove the burrs with a file you leave marks on the faces of the blade. Mine are already disappearing under the patina. I'm not sure how you would remove yours without marks...? You could try and run the file along the spine at an angle closer to the spine to minimize any marks?

From hard earned experience it is hard to modify the handle to improve opening without detracting from, let's face it some rather pretty lines:)

Here's a tip for opening (they've got it covered!)

 
Chui Chui P.S. If the blade goes tits up and you are keen on hanging onto the rather nice olive wood handle then you can remove the virole, tap the pivot pin out and drop a new blade in:)
 
avoidspam said:
Chui Chui P.S. If the blade goes tits up and you are keen on hanging onto the rather nice olive wood handle then you can remove the virole, tap the pivot pin out and drop a new blade in:)
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- thank you..........understood on all points :thumbsup:

Catch up with you soon...
 
davek14 said:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28597626/tuning-opinels.txt

Here is Pinnah's great link on tuning the Opinel.

I find the stainless Opinel's 12c27 steel to be one of the best budget stainless steels out there. Decent, solid, inexpensive knives beg to be used.

I'm a 61 year old fart whose been carrying a #7 again lately and am finding that millennials like them. So it's a "hipster" knife too.
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That is a good enough reason to drawer them. Bye the way i like them, but hate anything to do with "hipsters"
 
Henry Beige said:
I like that. You have flattened the sides more than I ever thought of doing. How did you get the black color, flame?
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Thanks, It's still comfortable in the hand and waaay better in the pocket, for me anyways. Yes, the black is from charring with a plumbers torch. I hit it with the torch, brushed it with a brass brush and rubbed it down with mineral oil.
Edit to add: Sand off lacquer first
 
Last edited:
Henry Beige Henry Beige , I made a edit to my previous post to add I sanded the lacquer off before hitting it with the torch.
Just in case you were going to give it a try.
 
flatblackcapo said:
Henry Beige Henry Beige , I made a edit to my previous post to add I sanded the lacquer off before hitting it with the torch.
Just in case you were going to give it a try.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Just about every Opinel I work on gets a bit of shou sugi ban after I reshape it. Any lacquer is pretty well gone after the sanding, filing and whittling to shape. So far, I haven’t gone for the full char like yours. I went pretty dark on the Antonini, but it could go farther.

A lot of the black came off the No.10 when I took a rasp to the sides. Not sure where I am going to go with this one.

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Opinel were my first love before I discovered victorinox and got a lot more serious about the whole knife thing. Used to always have one as a work knife that was used hard and never looked after. Abused even.
One of the first things I bought when I turned 18 was an opinel no8 and I used it for about 4 years for everything until it just snapped when cutting open a bale of silage. I was heartbroken and still have it in 2 pieces I can't bear to part with it.
Still have a no4/7/8 that get used on occasion and recently bought a no12 but haven't used it yet. Love opinels don't use them enough I'll be digging one out of the drawer for tomorrow after seeing this thread :)
 
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