Opinel N°04 keyring

The first Opinel knife was made by Joseph Opinel in his father's workshop in the small village of Albiez-Le-Vieux near Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France. From 1896 onwards, with three employees, he produced around 60 pieces a day. By 1901, the original workshop was no longer sufficient, so Opinel built a new one, employing fifteen workers. Eight years later, Opinel registered a trademark with the company's logo: the hand with the crown (main couronnée), which has marked all knife blades ever since. The knives were first sold by travelling salesmen, and later Opinel itself began exporting its production to Belgium and Italy. In 1911, one of his knives won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Turin.

In 1920, production expanded to a newly built factory in Cognin near Chambéry. By the beginning of the Second World War, the company had sold 20 million knives. The company is still owned today by the founder's family. There is also a museum (Le Musée de l'Opinel) in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. The company employs around 100 people at its plants in Cognin and Chambéry and produces between four and five million knives a year.