Incredible hack. I just tried it myself. One more thing I would like to mention - if the radiator is turned on it seems to work even better. A nice side effect is that the room temperature increases - as I think I have found out. Very impressive. Thank you very much
Hello Dan. I just liked & subscribed. Why? First, I love your presentation. Second, your video helped me. My Opinel #8 walnut, was troubled. While cleaning fish, I accidentally (stupidly) dropped the knife in a pan of water, and didn’t realize the error of my ways until around 10 min. The wood swelled and almost impossible to open & close blade. I was really bummed. So, I discovered this video on you tube. This morning I turned the oven temp to 150 Fahrenheit. Cooked the knife in oven for 10 min. Turned off, waited 5 min, then placed knife back in warm oven for around 20 min. Now my favored knife is 100% perfect, thanks to you. Thank you very much. After discovering how walnut wood reacts to moisture, it’s fish cleaning days are over. I’ll stick to the best, Dexter-Russell. The fish were great.
Honestly drying the wood in this fashion after the knife is made is silly. It will only keep shrinking and crack. Regular use and a little oil will get the most life out of this knife.
locks closed. A pre-2000 or 2019 production then.👍 In 2019 or 2020 Opinel changed the ring so it only turns in one direction to lock the blade, added an index pin to limit how far the ring can turn, eliminated the locked closed feature, changed the angle of the locking cut-out so the blade could be closed if locked open and enough force is applied to the spine (this may have been fixed) No idea why Opinel made the changes to the ring. The original ring (no lock shut feature, but could be turned either direction to lock the blade) and second version of the lock ring (added the lock closed feature) worked just fine from 1955 until the latest changes were made. (from 1895 to 1955 none of the Opinel had a lock ring. Since 1955 only the N°6 and larger have the lock ring. The N°5 and smaller don't have one.) What I like about the lock ring is you don't have to use it if you don't want to. You can even remove it, if you want, with no ill effect to the operation of the knife. Remember, for the first 60 years, Opinel didn't have a blade lock on any of their knives, large or small. Users were not known as "4 (or 3) fingers". Liability Lawyers got the ring added to the larger knives, and every modification to the ring since. 😡🤬 In some jurisdictions now days (France an England, for example) the locking blade makes the Opinel illegal to carry! (an excellent reason to pop the ring off) Yes, drying the wood on the heater or using a hair drier (and leaving it out in an air conditioned room) will make it open and close easier. You have to be careful though. Too dry and the blade will flop half open when closed, or half closed when open, just from gravity. Melt some petroleum jelly or wax, and soak the pivot end in it for a while. That will prevent the pivot end of the wood handle from swelling and contracting "thanks" to changes in humidity. The model number on all Opinel knives always has been, and likely always will be, the blade length in centimeters. Opinel makes one of the best slicing knives in the industry. There are high-end expensive paring knives and other "kitchen" knives that cannot slice or peel as well as an Opinel. Is your N°9 "Carbone" or "Inox"? I prefer the Carbone, since it can/will patna, giving the knife class/individuality, and neutralize the fingerprint and smudge magnetism that mirror polished blades suffer from.
Wow, man. Thanks for that opening tip. I just bought this knife, and I am not able to open it with my nail. It is too tight + the little notch where you put your fingernail is not engraved in 90 deg. angle to have the best support while pulling. I still probably dismantle whole knife and sand the wood to make it easier to open. Because even if I dry the wood at home, once I bring it for my hike trip, the moisture will its way back.
i think it's amazing you're talking about the environmental footprint and how we should buy less! i think we should blame the government and the free market for being able to buy so much stuff when it's often useless and built to break. cool tip aswell. for how long do you keep the opinel on the heater? do you repeat it daily?
Thanks for this. I agree about the way successive governments have driven the free market doctrine - essentially a prehistoric economic model. It feels like there's very little we can do as individuals. The basic idea of "enough" has to find its way into our way of doing economics. Thankfully people cleverer than me are working on that: it's worth reading Kate Raworth's "Doughnut Economics". She's a brilliant scholar but the book is a very easy read. I would keep the Opinel there until you can feel the blade moves as freely as you want it to. It won't hurt it to store it on a radiator over winter, so you could keep it there every day, but if there are small children about then make sure they are safe above all else.
@@danpapworth6430 thank you for the amazing answer! i'm gonna check out if i find a german version of the book other wise i'll read it in english :D i've recently read a german book called "Das Ende des Kapitalismus" by Ulrike Herrmann in english it'd be something like "the end of capitalism" i'm not sure if there's an english version mainly because it's quite new. it's about a brief history of capitalism and why most of our economic systems won't work against climate change, partly because capitalism is based around growth but in an finite world there can't be infinite growth, which is very concerning and scares me a lot.
So if it's hard to open, the little "beak" at the base of the handle, is meant to be knocked against a table or board to help open it, just knock it against the table and it'll open the blade just enough to grab it and open it fully.
Yeah, if you're lucky. Lots of them will open very slightly using this knock technique. One of mine just about requires a tool to then grab the blade and open it fully. Been like that since new. Here trying to find a solution.
some dude on the internet said put a little candle wax in the knife end of the handle and heat it until it absorbs it, if what he said works it solves the problem of drying it again and again.
@@danpapworth6430 I just done this on my new opinel and it worked wonders, I rubbed a candle continuously to the wood while heating it for about 4 minutes and after that I put a thin layer of shoe conditioner wax everywhere else on the wood heated it again until wood absorbed most of it. Now I can submerge it and it comes out almost dry. Keep in mind that mine is stainless so no varnish in the handle you should only put the wax where it isn't varnished. I recommend candle waxing the tip %100 it opens smooth and easy but not loose because the wood is still pinching it.
i removed the blade and sanded mine. if I ever had to fight it open I wouldn't carry it. sanded my entire knife thinner to be more comfortable in my pocket, took some off the front to make the blade easier to open, treated it with tung oil so it wont swell as much anymore and its a darker color. I love the knife but I don't love its basic form for carrying around. now i can open it one handed and its more comfortable in my pocket and weather resistant. I carried a case knife before but i carry this instead now
After drying handle always become wet again, but there's one cheap and simple solution of this problem. just heat a linseed oil(50-60 cel.) in a bowl settled inside kitchen pan with boiling water, and put dried knife into bowl. you will see how little bubbles begin come up, then wait until this process stop. after that turn off fire and leave knife inside linseed oil for 2-3 days. then pull out knife from bowl, clean up excess oil and put it at sunlight for polymerization process for week. after this procedure your beech, walnut handle became waterproof.
What you showed only dry the knife once. I put the knife in a plastic bag and sprayed the handle of the knife with Ballistol on all sides, after which it lay on the radiator for a day, after which I repeated for another day (then I put it in the oven at 150 ° C for 30 minutes, but in my opinion, this was not required). If this is not acceptable for you because of the bad impact on the environment, generously grease the tree near the axis with petroleum jelly, and lay it down as you suggest.
l'Opinel est toujours dur à ouvrir pour des raison de sécurité. La lame reste bien dans le manche en toutes circonstances (si ce n'est plus le cas il faut l'ouvrir et le resserrer. Ce que vous sembler ignorer c'est qu'un Opinel s'ouvre en le frappant. Vous le tenez entre le pouce et l'index coté de la virole et vous frappez l'excroissance du manche à l'opposé sur n'importe quoi d'un peu dur ou même le talon de votre chaussure ... et la lame sort suffisamment de façon à pourvoir l'ouvrir facilement. 3:30 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d26rZStWtTQ.html
Have you tried just putting it in the fridge? Generally the humidity is really low in the fridge so I think it would remove the moisture from the knife fairly quickly
No, I haven't tried that Mark. The cold would make the blade temporarily contract, which would also loosen it but might not be lasting. Worth a try though, thanks.
Depends on the temperature you set the oven at. The 120~125° Farenheight "keep warm" setting won't affect the temper any more than keeping it in the car's glovebox or on the dash during the summer, parked in the sun with the windows rolled up. That will out the wood, but not affect the temper of the blade.
Not sure why you think eco-thinking is left wing or why you think it isn't on subject. I wonder what you think the subject is. Maybe you should check out the rest of my posts and if you can't cope with my thinking you can choose to not follow. I should warn you though: there are over 7.5 billion humans on planet earth, so there;'s a good chance they won't all agree with you about everything.
