The shape of the handle of our traditional Opinel knives has remained unchanged since Joseph OPINEL created it in 1890.

The wooden handle of the knife has a large slit. Only strong woods are suitable for shaping and wear-resistant. This is why the wood mainly used is beech, locally called “fayard”, which comes from the neighborhood Jura. It is a fine-grained and uniform wood offering very good mechanical resistance.

Some ranges use more noble woods such as olive-tree, oak, walnut, boxwood… As for the birch or hornbeam trees, they are light and slightly grained and are used for colored handles.