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Opinel

Summary

It was in a corner of this workshop, a corner that was given to him by his disbelieving father, that Joseph Opinel developed his closing knife. Daniel Opinel believed in the craft of edge-tool making above everything because making tools was serious work. Of course, to keep customers happy, sometimes you could "knock together" a few pocket knives. But was there really a future in manufacturing them? Joseph thought so.

Where to buy?

Amazon (Stainless Steel)
Amazon (Carbon Steel)

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Staff note (Timothy Norton) :

If you'd like to add your own review, please have the first sentence be "I give this _______ X out of 10 acorns."

COMMENTS:
 
Steward of piddlers
Posts: 5921
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
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I give this company 10 out of 10 acorns.

Opinel makes knives. The price is low but the quality is high. The knife comes in. the three times I have purchased a knife at least, razor sharp right out of the box. The blade locking mechanism is simple but effective. You can get a variety of different sized knives usually in either stainless steel or carbon steel depending on your needs. I use my folding knives in a variety of tasks throughout my day. I have one for work(carbon steel), I have one for gardening/outdoor tasks (stainless), and I have one in the house (carbon steel). The No. 8 is your average regular sized pocket knife for everyday tasks. I would also encourage any foragers out there to take a look at their mushroom knife as it seems to be a handy little knife. I really couldn't come up with any reason to ding any acorns with the products that they provide.

I highly recommend spending the money and trying it out. It is a reliable tool to have on hand.

3knife2.jpg
Opinel being sharpened on a stone.
Sharpening my No. 8
 
pollinator
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I second that emotion

Been happy with mine for a long time.  I derive a singular fascination while paring apples and pears while holding the comfortable pear wood handle...
 
rocket scientist
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Location: in the Middle Earth of France (18), zone 8a-8b
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My all time favourite knife.
The Opinel is my favourite kitchen knife for cutting onions, garlic and cleaning the ends off from root vegetables.
It's my go-to for any outside-the-kitchen-jobs requiring a safe (!), sharp, strong knife.
I'd give the Opinels (comes in a variety of sizes) indeed 10 out of 10 acorns.

In comparison: in Finland we have the traditional Finnish knife, puukko. It's the knife for 'everything', just as the Opinel.
Big differences are:
Opinel has a thinner blade than the puukko, making it more suitable for slicing onions etc.
Opinel folds inside its own handle (puukko goes into a leather sheath), so it fits in the pocket whereas a puukko has to dangle on the belt or live in a basket if you're outdoors.
Opinel tends to stay sharp for a longer time.
I feel like a traitor, being Finnish... but the French Opinel wins!
 
pollinator
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Many years ago, my sister in France gave me an Opinel with the ring that you can twist around to lock the blade. I still have it and use it. It doesn't look fancy, but it works better than some more expensive knives.
 
Posts: 7
Location: San Francisco, s. Belize, s Louisiana
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I give this knife a 10 out of 10. I got my first Opinel number 8 carbon French peasant knife as we called them back then in about  1972. It was given to me by Louie on his 3,000 acre farm that I was living at up in North western Pennsylvania. We use these knives for everything. Back then we mainly ate deer meat during the winter of 70. We had a hind quarter hanging on front porch of the house that we built. It was called Frank's cabin and we built the whole house for $5. Mainly the cost of some used windows and a busted up wood cook stove. We've got most of the wood on our sawmill and plus there were donated items as well. It was a beautiful little cabin. I don't know what happened to that knife but years later I bought one at a flea market for $5. That was about 15 years ago and I still have it to this day. It's a beech handle number eight carbon steel. I've sharpened it many many times and it still looks straight and all together there. I lock the knife in place with this sliding lock that comes with a knife so many times that I wore it out. So I wrote Opinel in France and ask them to fix it since they offer a lifetime guarantee. But they refused. So I managed to slip the spring steel locking mechanism off and bent it and barely managed to slip it back on and now it works quite well at locking the blade. It's pretty essential if you're using it you don't want it to close it on yourself and cut yourself. I use the knife for just about everything. I'm a big gardener and I use it for weeding and for cutting strings to tie up my tomatoes or a thousand other uses. I always keep it in my right pocket. And being in the city it's good to be packing a knife. I have bought a few knives directly from Opinel now over the years as gifts and they even will engrave a name or slogan on the side of the knife so they make excellent gifts. I gave my daughter and grandson each one among other people's. The wooden handle is a real plus. That's what really makes the knife. Mine is made out of beech. If you get fancy woods the price goes way up. It used to be $17 but now $19 for a number eight size basic knife with beech or olive I think. If you want Ebony or other fancier woods or steels like Damascus etc the price goes way out. The company offers also all kinds of cutlery from French chef knives to fairly inexpensive pairing knives. They also manufacture wooden handled garden tools. Lately they've been making plastic handled knives. I can't believe they would go that route. But it's a growing business and it seems like they're doing quite well. I hope they don't forget about their roots though.
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Opinel #8 carbon steel beech handle old style lock
Opinel #8 carbon steel beech handle old style lock
IMG_20211024_204239761.jpg
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gardener
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I give the wood handle folding Opinel knife 10 acorns out of 10.

I like its simplicity.  The locking ring works to keep the knife closed or open.  Both are important, I don’t want the sharp blade opening in my pocket.  I don’t want the sharp blade closing in my fingers.

I prefer carbon steel to stainless in a knife blade, and it is getting harder and harder to find them.
 
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I give their mushroom knife 10 out of 10 acorns.

I was gifted a mushroom knife. It is good. I just used it yesterday for these black trumpets.

OpinelTrumpets.jpg
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knushWcase.jpg
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