Opinel

[jerryd6818]

A friend of mine had a Citroen.

Ugliest car that ever "graced" the roads.

[jmh58]

I think Opies are cool!! And besides the French gave us french fries!!! John

[zeke/pa]

I am a great fan of Opinel knives especially the Carbon Steel offerings.
Easy to sharpen , good edge holding and the price is right.

[cb51]

For the past 25 years or so, Opinels have been my main carry knife. I love the things. Simple, effective, and cuts like the hot knife through butter. They're kind of like a folding version of the Swedish mora knives. I used to prefer the carbon blades, but since 2000, Opinel has been using 12C27 and seem to be taking the hardness up a bit. The stainless ones now seem to hold an edge a bit better than the carbon. I like to sand off the factory finish and reshape and stain the handles. I've collected them from the little number 2 keychain size to the number 12 that I use as a coat pocket knife. Opinel folding saws are great on camping trips too.

I love the single bladed European style knives like Opinels, and the Mercator K55's. I rarely need more than one blade, and I like a lock.

[cb51]

.....I will say one thing about it:
The French definitely make better knives than cars.

Reminds me of a few jokes re what FIAT meant.
1. Feeble Italian Attempt at Transportation
2. Fix It Again Tony

Supposedly the reason Columbo loved his Peugeot 403
so much was because his first car was a FIAT.

Hey, don't knock the Peugeot, they were good cars.

My pop had one when I was growing up in New Jersey, a 62 404 station wagon. He'd load up me and my brother and take us canoe camping in the Pine Barrens, and with the boat on top and all our gear in the back, it got it done. Pop drove that thing for 16 years before it went belly up, and then only because pop had some vague ideas of vehicle maintenance. Maybe he'd change the oil once in a while. Amazing it lasted that long.

But French auto makers did have some weird ideas of body styles.