Opinel No7- First Impressions

forestnomad

forestnomad

Joined
Jan 9, 2009
Messages
226
Picked up an Opinel No7 on whim tonight; I had been wanting a carbon steel folder for a while, and ran into this at the store.

Right out of the box-

Handle and lock: nice size; closed length is a little bit longer than that of my Vic Farmer. The handle is very comfortable, I like the swell towards the blade. The twist lock feels secure, and it allows the knife to be locked closed as well. However, there is no liner around the blade pivot; getting enough moisture into the handle to swell it might lead to some tightness or alignment issues. I'm planning on soaking the whole thing in some linseed oil for a few days.

Blade: Right out of the packaging, the edge was pretty much nonexistent. Very rough, and with an almost imperceptible bevel. I had trouble cutting up a slightly under-ripe pear. I put it through a quick sharpen on the benchstone, however, and after that and a bit of stropping, the edge was considerably improved. The blade itself is extremely thin; with a little work I think this thing could become a scalpel.

All in all I am very satisfied with this knife, and it cost me all of $15.:thumbup: I would definitely recommend it to anyone, but if I was giving it as a gift to a non-knife person, I would probably include a small sharpening stone or something of the sort.

Can't wait to put it though its paces, though I doubt it will completely push my SAK out of my pocket.
 
Thanks for the review. I am pretty late to the Opinel scene but I got my first 8 about two months ago followed quickly by two 10s and an 8 fillet. Finally capped with a custom 8. Great knives for the money IMO. I agree about the factory edges. I had to touch mine up but with pretty small effort they are shaving sharp. They are crazy good slicers.
 
I love Opinels and got several of them. Great slicers and a lot of value for the money. I always have one in my camping cooking kit and use one in the kitchen too.
 
Opinels are excellent values for the money imo but they come with some of the absolute worst factory edges but don't let this bother you because they can get crazy sharp in no time.
 
Welcome to the club!

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Yeah, they do need a sharpenin' at first, but all knives need a touch up eventually anyway, and these lil' French suckers work great once you've gone through the initial trouble.
 
I use custom my owns ones they are cheap and best slicers I know ;-)
My only complain is that some times blade get hard to open becouse wood handle I´d like to have one with micarta handel
 
I notice the lock engages a lot later on my N°07 than on my N°10... Makes it even more uncomfortable as the opening in the locking ring points straight left or right.
 
I own 1 Opinel, a No.7. When I first opened the package I hated it. I decided the handle was uncomfortable and their particular style of clip point was goofy looking.

A few minutes with a Dremel and my attitude changed. I dropped the point, changed the shape of the handle and added sort of a modified easy open grip to take care of the swelling of the wood. I stained it a color I like and soaked in boiled linseed oil for a few days and it's turned into one of my favorite knives.

It weighs nothing and slices like mad. I find the opening and closing stiff enough that I almost never use the lock ring. It has my preferred carbon steel blade, although this is the first time I haven't allowed a patina to develop. For some reason I like the blade nice and shiny.

I'll probably get another one of these days. A bigger one. :D
 
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