Opinel Mod!

[AJB]

Hi,

I remember reading a post from someone (sorry don’t remember who) about their Opinel opening in their pocket and going up their thumb nail when they tried to get it out. Geeze, it make me squirm thinking about it.

I’m sure someone else has probably thought of this, but I was looking at my knife last night and a very obvious mod occurred to me and 30 sec with my Dremel fixed it. I cut a small notch out of the bottom of the locking ring, so it now locks the blade closed as well as open, simple!

AJB

(Apologies if this is old news!)

 

[Pignut]

New news to me!

Good work Fella

 

[MartiniDave]

The last opinel I bought - about 2 years ago - had this feature on it from the factory. Maybe the one you've got is older stock?

Dave

 

[morch]

My #8 has the 'locked shut' ring too, straight from the box.

 

[AJB]

Mine is an old one, so that explains that. At least great minds...

 

[philaw]

I was thinking of drilling a little hole through the wood (of my 3 inch blade no7), but didn't want it hanging around my neck with the hinge at the bottom - are any of you familiar with the Darwin Awards? - I'll adjust the lock first like you guys suggest and then do it. One question, though; Did you just bend the locking ring off, or grind it in situ? I'm worried that it might not go back on properly, and that I'll destroy the knife if I don't take it off. Thanks in advance.

 

[AJB]

Hi pilaw,

I used a cutting disc on a Dremel.

If you open the blade and lock it, you can then fit the disc into the slot in the handle where the blade goes. That gives you the cut parallel with the blade. Then I just made a cut perpendicular to the blade with the disc (I used a small disc to reduce the chance of an over cut) and a little rectangle of the locking ring popped out. Literally, it took 30 sec! If you tried to take the ring off, I can’t imagine it would go back neatly.

AJB

 

[jim_w]

The ring on oppies is made of some kind of nickel alloy, so it's very stiff - I've taken mine off half-arsedly (using pliers rather that sirclip pliers) several times, and it's a good now as when new. The best way I've found (apart from shelling out for sirclip pliers!) is to use needle-nose pliers, wedge the body of the knife between the knees, and use both hands to lever the ring open, then ease it up gently. Smaller pliers seem to work better that larger.

 

[philaw]

Thanks for the help, guys!