My personally customized Opinel No. 8 carbone knife, and how I made it look so cool

in #photography6 years ago

Many of those that follow me here on Steemit know that I love to take photos, so much so that it is actually what I do for a living! However I'm not sure how many of you know that I actually grew up in the Rocky Mountains of Canada and spent a large amount of my life hiking and camping in the woods, fishing in the rivers, climbing trees, riding bikes, getting dirty, having camp fires and generally living a mountain life, but I did!

Despite living in the city for many years now, I still often yearn to get out into the woods with nothing but a knife in my pocket and just go walking. Maybe sharpen some sticks, just because, my grampa called it whittling, where you just shave bits off of a stick until it's sharp, I used to do it a lot.

Camping 2016 Day 1-12.jpg

Well about a year and a half ago I bought myself a little Opinel folder, a number 8 to be precise. That little number 8 you see in the photo above to be SUPER precise. It's a classic knife in a classic shape that Opinel has been making for centuries I think. The only thing is that I just hated the look of it straight from the factory.

The handle was the worst thing really. I guess they called it Beechwood or something, but basically it was orange. Some people may like that, but I hated it. I also hated how it had a gloss finish on it, it just made it look strange and cheap to me, which is funny because if anything I probably have made it look like it is worth much much less now, haha.

I (stupidly) didn't take a photo of it brand new, but here is one I found online of the exact model I bought:

number8.jpg

And for a reference, here is a pretty similar photo of mine:

Camping 2016 Day 1-16.jpg

I'll let you be the judge of which one you think looks cooler, but I know which I would pick in a heartbeat, my customized one of course! I really like the color of the handle now, which was achieved relatively easily with some sand paper, a little lighter and some good old use out in the woods.

I started by sanding off the shiny finish so that the wood handle would be able to absorb the oils and dirt from my hand when I used it, but I am a modern kid and wanted immediate results, so I took to doing a little burning as well. I ran a lighter along the cut where the knife folds into, along the handle in a few places, and made a specific effort to burn any noticeable edges slightly. This gave it (in my opinion) some instant character and a whole new look in regards to color.

You can see some of the burning on the bottom of the handle there.

Camping 2016 Day 1-11.jpg

You'll also notice that the blade on mine is quite strikingly different than the original, it's much darker, black in fact, and everyone knows that black is the coolest color. I did this by doing a process called forced patina, and I actually did it for more than just making the knife look cool (but it does make the knife look cool). I also did it to protect the carbon steel blade from rust. You see I love knives but I'm lazy at taking care of them, so I like to make them last by putting in a bit of work at the beginning and then just using them.

The process of doing a forced patina is VERY simple. You just take your blade, open it up, put it in a coffee mug or cup and fill the cup with vinegar until the blade is fully submerged. You then take that vinegar and heat it up until it boils, then pour it back into the cup and watch it etch the blade and turn it black! Take the blade out, wipe it down a bit with some paper towel, then repeat the process until you have a blade you are happy with.

The patina will protect the blade from rust and it makes it look super cool and old too!

Camping 2016 Day 1-15.jpg

Camping 2016 Day 1-13.jpg

Other than those few little tweaks, all I did was use the knife and get it dirty and worn in. By using the knife after I had sanded it and burnt it with the lighter it smudged the charred parts into the rest of the wood and darkened up the bright orange color. It also softened the feel of the handle a lot as well and just made it generally more pleasant to hold. Using the blade the way it was meant to be used also causes the patina to wear in unique ways on the blade and gives it it's own characteristics which add to the look of it.

Camping 2016 Day 1-9.jpg

I hope you enjoyed taking a look at my customized Opinel! It's a beauty of a knife and you can pick one up for the ridiculous price of $11.95 or €10.15 off of Amazon, you truly can't beat that for a carbon steel knife that will likely outlive you :)

As always if you enjoyed this post feel free to drop one of those sweet, precious, juicy upvotes on me! And be sure to follow me @dexter-k on Steemit to keep up with all of our travels and see new original content every day.

You can also see our professional photography work if you want to by heading over to our website dallaskphoto.com and dallaskolotylo.com.

Thanks for reading!

Dexter

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I'd agree yours is 1000 times cooler looking... I might just have to try it myself! Following and resteeming. Super cool project ( :

Thanks @jayjayjeffery, glad you like it! I think I did an ok job :) I would totally suggest trying it yourself as well, it was a really fun project to see the knife transform.

Good Photography Of Opinel Knife By Your Brilliant Thoght.

Thanks,

Thank you for the inspiration to share. Follwed.
Please tell me you think about
https://steemit.com/photography/@themda/cosplay-handmade-dagger-game-of-thrones-inspired
Any idea how to bleach these things?

Best post about a knife I've ever read. Just hope the R&D guys from Opinel will never see it :-)

Congratz, your post has been read, approved and resteemed by a human!
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great shot's those are :)

Funny enough my best friend came to visit and he just got one of these Opinel knives. I showed him this and he's gonna try it. Because the coincidence was so perfect I ordered one too, should be here in a day or two. Will certainly be making it cooler with your how to ( :

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