Opinel No 5 folder idea ?

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Forest fella

Full Member
Jul 2, 2008
3,167
293
Gloucestershire
I lent one of my No5's to a mate to try as a edc keychain knife lastweek and yesterday he came round to see me and he'd nicked himself slightly with it.
I asked how and he said he forgot ''Meaning'' something he shouldn't of been cutting no doubt.
Has anyone tried somehow to make a quick fix to turn this into a jerry rig short term lock knife.
Cos I've tried to use a piece of Kydex to slide down over the blade basically a reverse collar ring and ducted taped it on the handle before and it sort of worked.
And yes I know that they aren't meant to lock or be used for any heavy job that would require it, let alone there are better options but I'd thought of putting 1 of these into a survival kit decades ago thats when I tried the Kydex collar idea out.
Any idea's If you can make sense of all the above.
Cheers
 
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Oh, do you mean to keep it open ... no so much to keep it closed?

I assumed your friend had just put their hand in their pocket and encountered a partly open Opi #5.
 
I assumed your friend had just put their hand in their pocket and encountered a partly open Opi #5

That's a tap with a hammer repair. I have a couple of No.5 and they'll only close on my finger if I'm prodding with the tip. Cuts with them, and SAKs are part of the learning ;)

I'll have a think on a temporary lock. Anything, such as kydex, that doesn't fully encircle the choil, is likely to ping off. I'm looking at my No.5 now and reckon I'd tap the pin out and use a dremel to make a slot so the existing collar could be twisted.

Not temporary though, it will have become a locking knife.
 
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Don’t mean to sound glib but:
buy a #6. And drill a hole for the ring.

A pig ugly quick fix is a little Jubilee clip around the booster - with apologies to pigs everywhere.

By the way, I am in the process of creating my own tiny locking Opinel style knife from plumbing parts.
 

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