I got an email from my brother in Canada yesterday in which he told me that.....

When we were in Quebec we visited a French fort in Chamberly where, among other excellent historical displays (don't the French do these things well!), it showed the tools and weapons issued to a new recruit. And there among them was an early version of the opinel knife! There was no locking metal collar of course, but what was there was indeed the nose (a rather rounded nose), which a knife with a wood squeeze fulcrum should have against the stiffness when the knife gets damp. I pulled out my own knife and flashed them at each other! ...............

Now I will not go into a major exposition about Opinel knives (I could but there is mountains of information, and opinion, on the web - and their own site is rather good, in a very French kind of a way) - but I will tell you that I have had an Opinel knife in my pocket since 1986.

This is not the one but an identical replacement - an Opinel No 7.

I bought the one, that this one replaced, in the marche in Lezay, Poitou Charantes, France in August 1986 during a memorable family holiday.

Now, as you may know, I was in Canada in June when I discovered that my brother also always carries an Opinel knife in his pocket and we vied with one another as to who could 'draw their knife' fastest at the numerous picnics in the Rockies.

I do not know who started to do so first, or whether one of us copied the other, but, in as much as my brother's visit to the museum reminded him of this coincidence of habit, his email to me set me thinking about my own relationships with Opinel knives.

As I say, I bought my first Opiel in France in 1986 and it remained with me until 2009.

It was mislaid or went missing on many an occasion, one time for over a year down the back of a friend's sofa, but it was one of those possessions that I could (and would) waste hours, even days, searching for when it was missing.

And indeed, in 2008, when I was working on the leaky, Mill roof, I dropped it and it slid off the roof into the tail race.
Needless to say I spent the rest of that day, and much of the following one, plunging my arm into the murky water - but to no avail.

I mourned its loss and did not (could not) forget it so, in the end, I went so far as to hire a metal-detector to see if that would lead me to it! - But it didn't.

In 2009 I found myself, once again, with my arm in the tail race.
(The water in the tail race is semi-stagnant and behaves in a not dissimilar manner to that in the Marais Poitevin - not far from Lezay, from whence the knife came - in that, when disturbed, it exudes bubbles of foul-odoured methane.) - And this time I was successful!

It took weeks to dry it out and to get it functioning again but, in due course, it was back where it belonged - in my pocket.

However, I'm afraid there is a sad ending to this tale.

Not long after we were reunited my Opinel and I were working on cleaning a loft in the mill.

Unbeknownst to me, Opinel fell into the detritus and was removed to an (illegal) bonfire where it was burned - burned to death!

And here it is today - poor Opinel!

(Now true aficionados of Opinels may note that the locking device on the old (1986) knife (as rferred to by my brother) can be worked both left and right whereas the 2009 version is notched and works only one way.

Finally, I have a second Opinel No. 7 and I have notions that, one day, I will set about transferring the handle from it to my old, adored, blade.

(The quality of the steel in the blade of this knife is very poor and, again, experts may note that the markings on it are different, which may signify that this is an inferior Opinel or perhaps even a fake! - I'm sure that if I spent time on the web sites I mentioned, I could answer this conundrum for myself but I really must go and do something useful!)