Introduction

I’m a pretty big fan of Opinel. For over 100 years, they’ve been able to output decent knives for a decent price. So, it goes without question that when I was looking for a budget sharpening stone, I checked if Opinel made any. To my surprise, they did. Today, we’re reviewing the Opinel Sharpening Stone.

Specs

Dimensions: 4″ x 15/16 x 3/16

Weight: 1.3 oz

Place of Manufacture: Lombardi, Italy

Cost: $9.95 (pretty consistent among online retailers)

Packaging

When I was looking to buy this sharpening stone, Amazon was out of stock, so I bought it off of eBay. The seller was from France though shipping ended up being quite quick and cheap. The packaging, however, did not fair that well. The stone fits well and I still reuse the box to hold the stone when it is not in use.

Fit and Finish

The stone appears to have nice straight edges although this is not true. As seen from the pictures, the stone’s edges are a bit jagged and there is a taper. I believe this is due to the fact that this is a natural stone. While the dimensions of the stone are not perfect, the surfaces are all pretty flat (not a lot of lapping was needed) and there was nothing beyond cosmetic issues with it.

Functionality



As stated before, the stone came pretty flat. I lapped it on sandpaper for a bit to get a flatter edge though.

Through experimentation, the stone is best used wet. I usually use water although mineral oil worked all right as well. I’ve mostly used the stone to touch up blades. It does a pretty good job and a few strokes is all that’s needed to bring a knife back. I would estimate the stone to be equivalent to 800 grit.

Conclusion

I would say that this stone has a big advantage in portability, but that’s about it. I have no complaints for it nor do I have anything too spectacular to say for it. I’ll keep it in my drawer for when I need to touch up some knives or throw it in my backpack if I’m going somewhere and need to sharpen some knives (although I’m not sure if this is actually ever a possibility).