In 1565, King Charles IX of France ordered that every master cutler affix an emblem on their manufactured items to attest for the origin and quality. To follow in this tradition, Joseph Opinel chose the Crowned Hand as his emblem in 1909. The blessing hand is that of Saint John the Baptist, taken from the coat of arms of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne, the nearest town in Albiez-le-Vieux, the birthplace of the Opinel family. Joseph Opinel added a crown as a reminder that Savoie was a duchy. All the blades on Opinel knives and tools have been stamped with The Crowned Hand ever since.

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Originally, the Opinel knife had four components: the blade, the fixed ferrule, the rivet and the haft. The fixed ferrule was needed to firmly rivet the blade to the haft. In 1955, Marcel Opinel, who had been working on improving the safety of the knife, invented the Virobloc® system. He added a rotating ferrule which slid onto the fixed ferrule, closing the groove and thus locking the blade in the open position. The idea was simple enough but hard to achieve. In the 90’s, the Virobloc® system was modified to lock the blade in the closed position. This feature was added to all models in the early 2000's.

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The Opinel knife is a popular everyday item whose aesthetics and functionality have won over generations of users. It has remained unchanged for over a century, with a design that is one of the most successful of all time. For this reason, Opinel was recognized by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1985 for the best-designed items in the world alongside the Porsche 911 and the Rolex watch.

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Joseph Opinel died at age 88 on January 29, 1960—the 34th anniversary of the devastating Cognin fire. In a remarkable coincidence, three decades later, on January 29, 1990, his son Marcel would also die.

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Source: opinel-usa.com