Opinel Knives
Cross Media? More like cross-vegetables!
Knives have nothing to do with cross media. However, my 8-year-old Opinel jack-knife deserves a mention here. I just can’t resist. Every time I pull this well-crafted utensil from my kitchen drawer to pare a vegetable, slice some mushrooms or a chunk of cheese, fond memories of of French life return. I thought I would only be able to buy the knives when in France until I stumbled across the Opinel website tonight at https://www.opinel-usa.com. The jacknife, for $22 is money well-spent.
The stainless steel or carbon blades are superior and only need to be sharpened every so often. On the website you can order custom engraved knife handles. My knife, bought in a hardware store in Trebes, is as fresh as the day I bought it. And I use my kitchen chef’s knife regulary.
As I’m slicing or dicing with my larger Opinel knives images I recall hanging out with fly-fishermen in the Southwest of France. I was a terrible fly fisher-person but had fun and the men were then quite charitable and even encouraging of my clumsy efforts. We broke for lunch by a stream where earlier during WWII, the resistance tried to blow up the bridge. The Nazis caught them and they were mowed down.
Now, decades later, my grizzled new friends popped out their Opinel jack knives and sawed off junks of salami and cheese for their meal with the elan that only the French can pull off. It was like a scene from a film made by Truffaut.
After my fishing expedition in France, I bought some Opinel kitchen knives in Carcassonne to take home as presents for friends. However on a flight from Toulouse to Paris I packed them with in my carry-on luggage. After my bag passed through airport security, I was nabbed. The officers clucked and playfully chided me as they pulled three knives from my luggage.
“Mademoiselle,” they asked, “whatever were you thinking when you tried to carry these on board a plane?” However, they complimented me on my good taste as they confiscated my knives. They all owned up to having owned an Opinel knife at one time or another.
They then told me that they would hold the knives for me in a a special room in the airport to retrieve within that month upon my return. However the vellum envelop was too small to fit them. So the Chief of Security left to retrieve scissors from his office and carefully fit my knives in two envelopes, taped together. He handed me a receipt.
Two weeks later, returning from Paris I retrieved the knives.
Vive La France!
The company was founded in the French Alps in the 1890’s and the quality endures. An exhibition of the 100 best-designed objects in the world, held at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum in 1985, placed the Opinel ‘No 8’ knife right up there with a Rolex and a Porsche. Opinel knives are said to be used by the French Foreign Legion, where an 8-carbone was issued to each recruit in boot camp. It was one of Picasso’s most beloved tools. In the French Conection 2, head French bad guy Charnier, is opening and eating oysters with one. In one You Tube video , “Nimbus the Wizard “ promises “to show you how to turn a Opinel Knife No. 09 into Professor Dumbledore’s Knife from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince!”
There is even a Facebook group called “Opinel Enthusiasts” where users debate the merits of stainless steel vs. carbon blades, laud the patina on their carbon blades and post artful images of their knives in use.
Great storytelling, Stephanie. I feel like I have been to France and back again. Itching to open their website! Debbi