Picasso used it in his workshop, Ellen MacArthur and Eric Tabarly took it out to sea. From a blacksmith’s forge in France’s Savoie region, the simple Opinel knife has come a long way.
Today Opinel is a household name and style icon, with its own entry in the main French dictionary and New York’s Museum of Modern Art catalogue.
Each year, from a single factory in Chambery, 3 million of the knives are sold worldwide.
The story of how the wooden-handled folding knife eventually helped Picasso carve his sculptures starts with Joseph Opinel in 1890, “a simple man who had his eye on the future,” grandson Maurice Opinel said.
Joseph Opinel had wanted to assert his “independence from his father, a very authoritarian edge-tool maker,” the 82-year-old grandson and company president said.
In 1909 he registered the trademark — bearing the emblem of a crown and a hand — “at a time when this was not common practice” and began exporting the tool to northern Italy and Switzerland using a network of wholesalers.
A fire completely destroyed the factory in 1926 but a new one was built a year later and son Maurice quickly developed the knife into an industrial tool. Before World War II, 20 million knives had been sold.
From artists and mariners to mushroom pickers, all are loyal users of the sharp and solid tool.
“It has saved the lives of seamen and mountaineers,” one of whom told Maurice Opinel how he managed to escape a sinking vessel by carving steps in the ice with his knife.
There are many pearls in Opinel’s proud history of use, but a few black spots, too.
“Unfortunately there are some criminal uses which we are not happy about,” Maurice Opinel said, recalling French serial killers Guy Georges and Francis Heaulme in whose hands it became a murder weapon.
The absence of a serious competitor and a policy since the 1950s of protecting the trademark around the world have both been key to Opinel’s success.
Opinel retrieved the trademark that had been registered illegitimately by the firm importing the knives in Japan.
A present challenge is the battle against cheap replicas being sold in countries including China and Pakistan.
Maurice Opinel also worries about a “resurgence” of what he calls “the anti-knife spirit” that began in the 1990s and was symbolized by knife detectors being installed at the entrance of some buildings such as schools.
“Today we do not give a knife to a seven-year-old, but we would do better to offer him one and teach him how to use it properly” said Opinel, who has founded a national federation to protect the profession.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
PUBLIC SAFETY: The premier said that security would be tightened in transport hubs, while President Lai commended the public for their bravery The government is to deploy more police, including rapid response units, in crowded public areas to ensure a swift response to any threats, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after a knife attack killed three people and injured 11 in Taipei the previous day. Lai made the remarks following a briefing by the National Police Agency on the progress of the investigation, saying that the attack underscored the importance of cooperation in public security between the central and local governments. The attack unfolded in the early evening on Friday around Taipei Main Station’s M7 exit and later near the Taipei MRT’s Zhongshan
RSS