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Pros: Weight
Cons: Handle Feel, Lock Ease of Use, Pocket Clip
Low quality knife, outdated technology
This knife may have been good in WW1, but we live in the 21st century now, and vastly better manufacturing techniques, design, and materials have far superseded whatever it takes to make this Opinel.Let me tell you why this is a bad knife. I used to own 3 opinels and 'liked' them, before I really started to like knives.These Opinels use pretty terrible metal, and are definitely not *that* sharp out of factory, despite what marketing would want you to believe. They slice well simply by virtue of how thin the blade is, and the convex grind, not because of how sharp they are.A consistent flaw is about 1/3" of tip of blade not sharp from being dulled by hitting the wooden handle (from closing, or just from forces on the spine while knife is closed). You can't get around this, no, you can't 'mod' this out.The steel is not good, and rusts like crazy if you don't baby it, which makes kitchen/outdoor use annoying unless you get stainless, but then edge retention goes out the window (ok maybe not that much but still). Another flaw is if you get the knife wet by washing it or in the rain, good luck opening or closing the blade. The wooden handle swells and sticks the opening pivot. Enthusiasts have tried using oil to 'seal' the wood and make it water resistant, ok sure, but it only works like 30%, you're still gonna have swelling problems.For the 12$-15$ (depending on size) I'm gonna spend on a knife, there's no way I'll spend it on these antiquated knives if not for 'nostalgia'. I'll probably buy one of those Chinese-made knives that are ridiculously good in value for that price range.
