greencobra
NES Member
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- Jul 2, 2011
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i was thinking about a guy i worked with a couple of years ago, a guy from italy. first, any knife person probably owns or had owned an opinel folder. even i have a #6 i use for cutting fruit, stuff like that, nothing heavy duty. they're cheap, beechwood handles, carbon steel blades.
this guy overhears me and some work friends talking about knives, comes over and mentions opinel and how he had an uncle who worked for opinel in france. i guess this uncle retired from there after 25 years. he said he had some knives his uncle had left to him. it was an interesting story.
the next night he brings up to dinner a canvas bag and inside was a beautiful black walnut box with gold colored hinges and latch. we open the box and inside was a set of 10 opinel folders, #'s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8, 9, 10 & 12. with curly maple (I think) handles, the blades done in 440c steel and marked as such. the little twisty locks were gold colored and on the handles, where it's usually printed on the wood handles "opinel, savoie, france", it was pressed into the wood and gold filled. i'm working from memory here, it's how i remember them.
it turned out this set was presented to the guy on his retirement from who i believed to be the opinel company. there was a plaque on the box lid, in french, with his name and years of service. seriously, a beautiful set of opinels. the photo below is from the opinel catalog of a normal set they offer currently. just to give you an idea of what the gift was. wish i took photos, i never remember i have a camera on my phone.
just thought i'd tell about this unique set of knives.
this guy overhears me and some work friends talking about knives, comes over and mentions opinel and how he had an uncle who worked for opinel in france. i guess this uncle retired from there after 25 years. he said he had some knives his uncle had left to him. it was an interesting story.
the next night he brings up to dinner a canvas bag and inside was a beautiful black walnut box with gold colored hinges and latch. we open the box and inside was a set of 10 opinel folders, #'s 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8, 9, 10 & 12. with curly maple (I think) handles, the blades done in 440c steel and marked as such. the little twisty locks were gold colored and on the handles, where it's usually printed on the wood handles "opinel, savoie, france", it was pressed into the wood and gold filled. i'm working from memory here, it's how i remember them.
it turned out this set was presented to the guy on his retirement from who i believed to be the opinel company. there was a plaque on the box lid, in french, with his name and years of service. seriously, a beautiful set of opinels. the photo below is from the opinel catalog of a normal set they offer currently. just to give you an idea of what the gift was. wish i took photos, i never remember i have a camera on my phone.
just thought i'd tell about this unique set of knives.