If you want to take the collar off an Opinel

Locking blades run into legal problems in some locales, mostly outside the United States.

Are you referring to the UK that restricts carry of locking blade knives to lawful purposes like work or recreation when a knife would be expected to be used?
 
That collar removal technique is much easier than the one I employed.

I've disassembled one of my Opinels and driving the pin out after the collar was removed proved quite difficult. The pin had apparently been bent slightly during installation. I did finally get it apart, but I may or may not have had to motivate the pin with colorful language in addition to applying standard pin removal techniques...
 
Are you referring to the UK that restricts carry of locking blade knives to lawful purposes like work or recreation when a knife would be expected to be used?
UK, several other European countries, Canada and Australia all come to mind. I can't say for sure but I believe some of those countries treat a locking blade knife differently than a non-locking blade knife in some contexts.
 

You'll need to provide some documentation on that since IIRC Canada's last restriction on folders was to prohibit knives that open by centrifugal force, when, with a simple and brisk outward flick of the wrist, or a flipper. Locks weren't part of that silliness. WRT Australia, they follow the "lawful purpose" rule for carrying a knife in public.
 
You'll need to provide some documentation on that since IIRC Canada's last restriction on folders was to prohibit knives that open by centrifugal force, when, with a simple and brisk outward flick of the wrist, or a flipper. Locks weren't part of that silliness. WRT Australia, they follow the "lawful purpose" rule for carrying a knife in public.
Dude it was an offhand comment/guess. I was reading on a multi-tool forum where we were discussing the reason for one of Leatherman's new multi tool not having locking blade and other tools and the reasons given was to make it easier to sell in several European countries. I don't remember any more specific than that. From that I made the guess as to why someone would remove the lock from an Opinel knife.
 
I've taken the collars off of a couple
of my older ones to grind a bevel in
one lower edge like newer ones have
to twist and keep the blade shut.
They sometimes will open slightly in
your pocket after they get old and
loose and dried out, then when you
reach in your pocket for your knife,
your fingertips will get a surprise you
didn't want.

I just used a pair of my internal/external
snap ring pliers, and carefully open it
up enough to slide the collar off .
You can squeeze it somewhat to make
it tight if desired
Then just snap it back on after you've
done what you wanted to do
 
Are you referring to the UK that restricts carry of locking blade knives to lawful purposes like work or recreation when a knife would be expected to be used?

Since we're trying to be more precise, the UK does not explicitly recognize "recreation" as a defense for violations of section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act of 1988. Those are enumerated as:

(5) Without prejudice to the generality of subsection (4) above, it shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that he had the article with him—
(a) for use at work;
(b) for religious reasons; or
(c) as part of any national costume.

See https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/33/section/139

It's possible, even likely, that certain forms of recreation would constitute 'good reason' to have an otherwise banned knife, but that would be at the discretion of the courts, per
https://assets.publishing.service.g...and_offensive_weapons_information_GDS_FAQ.pdf
 
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