Finished Opinel Ebauche's

[avoidspam]

Hi folks.

I've just finished carving 2 Opinel Ebauche handles, both in Walnut. I've attached a pic of what they come like at the bottom. I really like Opinel's getting them in a 'raw' form enables you to shape the handle to your liking. Easy, even for me! Tony from Moonraker Knives kindly sourced them as they are expensive to ship, they come in a variety of flavours.















Thanks for looking

[Redeye]

Top one is absolutely lovely and looks very comfy, great stuff. Not so keen on the shape of the lower one if I'm honest.

Dunno why more people don't do these, a customized Opi is one of the sharpest, sliciest cutters you can get at any price.

[camperman]

Not come across them before.
Great idea.
Very nice job you've done too.
Must give it a try.
How much did you pay for the knives in their raw form?

[scrubber]

Splendid job you've done there, are these #8 Opinels?

[J D Wijbenga]

Very nice job you have done on those!

[avoidspam]

Thanks for all the kind responses

They're #8 Opi blades, I think they were around £10 from Moonraker (I couldn't see them listed on the site last time I looked but if you call/email Tony he's very helpful). So far I've tried the Maple and Walnut, with Cherry still to go. All were in Inox (12c27 stainless) but I know some come in Carbone.

I like the fact that you get enough wood to play with at the butt end of the knife. Anyone who's played with a standard Opi knows you are limited with wood removal before you start to effect where the end of the blade sits.

Each one took me 2-3 hours, roughing with a Roselli Carpenters knife before finishing with a med/fine wood file, sanding and finally an overnight dip in Linseed oil

[zorro]

Nice work chap.

[the laird]

I like them,I would never have given an opinel a second look until I found an old 'michelin' badged one, took me less than 5 minutes to turn it into a razor so I felt like modding it,I think I'll try one of these instead

[Gizmo]

I'm starting to think now that it's the handles that have put me off of Opinel up until now. These however look really good.

[scrubber]

Found a link to get those straight from the factory - just Google "opinel ebauche"

[avoidspam]

I did the same and got a couple of suppliers in the US which was expensive for shipping and seemed a bit mad to do as they're made in France! the French sites I tried were going to charge 15+ Euro's for shipping.