The Cognin factory in 1916.

   The collar is cut into soft steel strips : the little trapezoids are made into their conical shape by stamping, and a press gives them their definitive aspect.
   The handles are made from beech or cherry wood from the region. Automatic machines shape the handles and a slit is made. The wood shavings are used to heat the factory as are the driers used for drying the handles. This technique, which has been employed since 1970, has become even more interesting since the rise in the price of oil, as 200.000 litres of fuel is saved each year as a result. The mounting of the blades and collars, which is carried out manually, follows the varnishing of the handles. The knives are thus ready to be sold throughout the world.
 

   As with all successful quality objects, the Opinel knife has sometimes been copied, but without a great deal of success! Know-how cannot be improvised. The user cannot be hoodwinked for the Opinel is easily recognizable. The sizes from the last century have been preserved : N° 2, with a 35 mm blade for a handle of 45 mm, N° 12 and its blade of 120 mm, and even an exceptional N° 13 which, even with keeping to the regular classification of the series, should be classified as a N° 24. But do not forget the special models : knife with a pointed blade, a curved blade, stainless steel, a tapered blade; de luxe series with a handle made out of high quality wood, with a specially «polished-ice" blade; a closable saw ; a Bicentenary knife with a Phrygian cap handle; and finally one with jewels, where white and yellow golds are mixed with lapis lazuli; with onyx or with vermeil.
   Who else could have produced the Olympic knife for the Winter Olympic games of 1992 apart from Opinel? The Savoyard knife for the Savoie games. In the white and red lacquered livery is depicted the Olympic flame and the inscription «Albertville 92», without any longer having to mention the name. On the blade was simply written «Savoie, France».