I'm not normally an Opinel fan (they're just not my style), but there's something about these two No.08s in their D-Day livery. It's good to know that the Crapauds still give a damn about the Longest Day.
It may be hard to see in this picture, but the blade has three paratroopers under canopies etched onto it and the handle depicts two soldiers dodging obstacles in one of the beach landings. One is in khaki and the other is in OD green (more or less), and both the Virobloc (locking ring) and stainless steel clip-point blade are done up in black PVD. (I haven't seen anything to tell me what formulation of stainless they used, but they're both stamped INOX in the European fashion.)
Opinel is only making 1,944 in each of the two colors, and the blade is marked No.xxxx/1944 to indicate where it is in that lot. They come in a commemorative box that includes a card explaining the nature of the commemoration in four languages.
In honor of this being the day, I carried the khaki version today. Because it is a commemorative knife, I carried it in the case that came with another knife to protect it. Funnily enough, that case was for a Boker, so Germany was protecting a depiction of the invasion that led to Germany's ultimate surrender. How's that for some irony?
The blade, in addition to being a PVD-coated stainless clip-point, is super thin. Opinel doesn't list the thickness on its site and I don't have a measuring tool handy, but looks like it's less than 1/16" thick with a full-height flat grind. The blade is so thin that it's hard to tell, but it almost feels like the blade has a convex grind. It has a very keen edge, feels like it would be a super slicer.
The book on which the knives are resting is Dr. Larrin Thomas's The Story of Knife Steel. Thomas is the inventor of Magnacut, and is the son of Devin Thomas, who is largely credited with (re)popularizing Damascus steels. It seemed a fitting backdrop for a couple of knives.
It may be hard to see in this picture, but the blade has three paratroopers under canopies etched onto it and the handle depicts two soldiers dodging obstacles in one of the beach landings. One is in khaki and the other is in OD green (more or less), and both the Virobloc (locking ring) and stainless steel clip-point blade are done up in black PVD. (I haven't seen anything to tell me what formulation of stainless they used, but they're both stamped INOX in the European fashion.)
Opinel is only making 1,944 in each of the two colors, and the blade is marked No.xxxx/1944 to indicate where it is in that lot. They come in a commemorative box that includes a card explaining the nature of the commemoration in four languages.
In honor of this being the day, I carried the khaki version today. Because it is a commemorative knife, I carried it in the case that came with another knife to protect it. Funnily enough, that case was for a Boker, so Germany was protecting a depiction of the invasion that led to Germany's ultimate surrender. How's that for some irony?
The blade, in addition to being a PVD-coated stainless clip-point, is super thin. Opinel doesn't list the thickness on its site and I don't have a measuring tool handy, but looks like it's less than 1/16" thick with a full-height flat grind. The blade is so thin that it's hard to tell, but it almost feels like the blade has a convex grind. It has a very keen edge, feels like it would be a super slicer.
The book on which the knives are resting is Dr. Larrin Thomas's The Story of Knife Steel. Thomas is the inventor of Magnacut, and is the son of Devin Thomas, who is largely credited with (re)popularizing Damascus steels. It seemed a fitting backdrop for a couple of knives.
