Opinel Knife

[Mutley]

When in the Alps of Northern France I bought a nice handmade Opinel Knife with leather case.

It also had an engraved handle of some Marmottes.

It cost me 30 Euros and it is real good quality and sharp. Bargain in my opinion, for a leather case too!

The leather case also holds a long pen shaped metal object with fine vertical grooves in it, I thought it was procesed flint but it doesn't appear to spark with my blade and it seems too soft to be a sharpener, any ideas?

Has anyone heard of Opinel? Any good? Thanks.

 

[OhCanada]

Sounds like a minature sharpening steel to me. Check a good shop that sells kitchen knives and ask about knife steels. You may find that they are the same as your little tool there.

 

[peppin72]

It's indeed a knife steel.

Sounds like a beautiful knife Mutley.

The wood used for Opinels like yours is often more exclusive than the standart Opinels too

Pepijn

 

[morch]

Yea it is a small steel. I got a #8 in a leather case with the attached steel for £15 in a small gun shop in Barnard Castle last year.

 

[Mutley]

Thanks guys.

Yeh I got a number 8 too. The handle is a great design and I really like the locking part so you can lock the blade tightly closed or open.

Any instructions on how to sharpen the blade with this tool? What angle? Motions?

Thanks.

 

[Hoodoo]

Opinels take to a steel really well. When I use a steel, I like to slice away from me although I as a kid recall watching my father a zillion times during butchering, sharpen butcher knives with a steel by working the blade towards him. This has never appealed to me for some reason.

Anyway, using a steel to sharpen a knife is pretty easy. I prefer to go back and forth, from one side to the other, rather than doing one side of the knife, then the other. Just move the knife across the steel like you are trying to cut a thin sliver from it. Keep the angle low. Then do the other side by making the same slice only holding he blade under the steel. With large steels, you can do this quickly and rhythmically and it takes only a few seconds to keep an edge maintained. It's harder to do with a small steel so take your time and make sure you work the entire length of the blade. A good 10x hand lens will tell you if your knife is sharp but then, so will slicing some meat or bread. A little stropping on a piece of leather will help the edge last longer.

When the knife becomes too dull to maintain with a steel, you will need to work the blade down a bit with a stone.

Keep in mind that there are smooth steels and serrated steels. Smooth steels are used to keep an edge aligned. Smooth steels can also be used to remove a wire edge. Serrated steels used on mild steel knives will give you a nice toothy edge for slicing by exposing new carbides at the edge which give the blade a toothiness (not to be confused with a wire edge, which is not good and should be stropped off).

 

[Mutley]

Thanks alot, good information there.

How do I know it is sharp? From just trying to slice abit off wood and see if it is reasonable, all knives look sharp to me.

 

[Hoodoo]

A reasonably sharp knife will shave little scrapings off your thumbnail. An excellent way to test not only for sharpness but for geometry (not a problem with the opinel) is to see how well you can slice across the endgrain of a piece of wood.

 

[dtalbot]

Thanks alot, good information there.

How do I know it is sharp? From just trying to slice abit off wood and see if it is reasonable, all knives look sharp to me.

See if it will shave the hairs off the back of your arm, a very sharp knife will, or have a go at slicing a very ripe tomato (clean the juice of the blade quick or it can mark it though), You will soon know if it is sharp!
David