Opinel VS Opinel

[old4570]

So I own a few Opinel knives ..
What I'm going to do , is compare a Opinel No9 in Stainless against another No9 in Carbon . ( That's blade steel ) .

Initial impressions ...
Well the Carbon seems to sharpen a little better than the Stainless , and strop a little better .
And the Carbon feels a little better slicing paper .
Both knives were sharpened on the 60 grit wheel ( wet stone grinder ) , same angle , and stropped the same .
The blades are very thin and flex quite a bit , which can be a little problematic . ( Too much flex )
Opinel knives are held in high regard by many , so which is better ?

 

[Le Loup]

So I own a few Opinel knives ..
What I'm going to do , is compare a Opinel No9 in Stainless against another No9 in Carbon . ( That's blade steel ) .

Initial impressions ...
Well the Carbon seems to sharpen a little better than the Stainless , and strop a little better .
And the Carbon feels a little better slicing paper .
Both knives were sharpened on the 60 grit wheel ( wet stone grinder ) , same angle , and stropped the same .
The blades are very thin and flex quite a bit , which can be a little problematic . ( Too much flex )
Opinel knives are held in high regard by many , so which is better ?

I am surprised that your Opinel blades flex, mine do not flex at all. I have an 8, a 10, & the largest folder they make. I daresay I could make them flex if I tried hard enough, but in normal use or even testing by hand, these blades have very little flex at all.
Good knives though, simple & nice to use.
Keith.

 

[old4570]

Yeah , you really feel the flex when stropping ..

 

[old4570]

HRC testing
Both knives were on the softer side for blade steel .. 55HRC file bites and 50HRC file skates .
Both knives took about the same effort to strop back . And both knives lost edge at the point of slicing rope , about the same ( Feels like )

Now ..
The edges were fresh 60 grit ( wet stone grinder ) ground edges .
Both got the same effort etc .
In the past , I simply dont remember ... ( Edge retention ) But I was not overly impressed with a conventional edge .

60 grit ( wet stone grinder )

Stainless steel failed at 250 slices .. The edge just faded away without rolling .
Where the big surprise was , the carbon blade just blew my mind !
Carbon blade failed at some 500 slices . Yeah ............. ! It just faded without rolling .
That carbon blade just loved the 60 grit wheel ! ( Hell , I love it too )

And it took about the same effort stropping to restore both edges ..

So ?