Joseph Opinel, a Frenchman, passionate about new technologies and photography, works in the family cutting workshop in 1890. His passion for machines and manufacturing processes will make him want to make an object using these new techniques. Against the advice of his father, who loves crafts, Joseph spends his free time making a small pocket knife, thus giving rise to Opinel. Joseph has the idea of making his knife in different sizes suitable for large or small hands and dedicating himself to various uses. Thus, in 1897, he developed 12 sizes numbered from 1 to 12.
Opinel's aesthetics and functionality have conquered generations of users, unchanged for more than a century, its design is one of the most successful, appearing in 1985 among the hundred best-drawn objects in the world along with the Porsche 911 and the Rolex watch. according to the "Victoria and Albert Museum".
