Opinel - Les Forgés 1890 Fully-Forged Dimpled Santoku Knife – Premium 18cm Japanese Profile Master Culinary Knife

Opinel - Les Forgés 1890 Fully-Forged Dimpled Santoku Knife – Premium 18cm Japanese Profile Master Culinary Knife

The Opinel Les Forgés 1890 Santoku Knife represents a magnificent convergence of traditional French hot-forged metallurgy and iconic Japanese culinary design, masterfully engineered to deliver incredible slicing fluidity, structural weight distribution, and lifelong durability. Belonging to Opinel's flagship collection, this ultra-premium kitchen instrument is completely hot-forged from a single piece of premium European steel. This process ensures optimal structural density, absolute balance, and a seamless transition from the full-tang blade to the handle bolster. Outfitted with an 18 cm dimpled Granton edge and an ergonomic, water-resistant beech wood handle, it functions as the ultimate preparation tool for slicing, dicing, and mincing with professional-grade speed and precision.

Best For Professional chefs, gourmet home cooks, culinary purists, and high-volume meal preppers seeking an unyielding, fully-forged master knife that delivers lightning-fast chopping performance and flawless ingredient release when handling delicate or sticky foods.

Key Features

• 100% Hot-Forged Structural Integrity: Forged from a singular, glowing-hot rod of steel at 1200°C, producing an unbreakable, continuous grain alignment that creates unmatched mechanical strength and perfect physical balance in the hand.

• Premium X50CrMoV15 Stainless Steel: Forged from elite European alloy steel enriched with Chromium, Molybdenum, and Vanadium, ensuring maximum resistance to corrosive food acids, oxidation, and heavy mechanical wear.

• Dimpled Granton Blade Surface: Features precision-ground hollow indentations along the cutting belly that create small air pockets between the steel and the food, effectively reducing surface drag and stopping starchy or fatty slices from sticking to the blade.

• Precision 15° Double-Bevel Edge: Hand-finished to an ultra-keen **15-degree angle per side**, allowing the razor-sharp profile to pass through dense root vegetables and delicate proteins with absolute tracking control.

• Stabilised Thermo-Heated Beechwood Handle: Crafted from natural European beech wood subjected to a specialized high-temperature baking process, establishing high water resistance, dimensional stability against shrinkage, and a comfortable feel.

• Intelligent V-Grip & Ergo-Profile: The continuous full-tang construction is wrapped in a smooth, contoured timber handle that fills the palm perfectly, reducing hand clenching, while the specialized V-grip bolster naturally guides your thumb into a professional pinch grip.

Specifications

• Blade Length: 18 cm

• Handle Length: 11 cm

• Overall Length: 29 cm

• Blade Profile: Traditional Japanese Santoku Silhouette with Scalloped / Dimpled Face

• Blade Construction: Full-Tang, Fully Hot-Forged from a Single Piece of Steel

• Steel Composition: X50CrMoV15 Premium Grade Stainless Steel

• Rockwell Hardness: 57 - 59 HRC

• Edge Bevel: 30° Total (15° Ground on Each Side)

• Handle Material: Thermo-Stabilised Natural European Beech Wood

• Collection Series: Flagship Les Forgés 1890 Collection

• Manufacturing Origin: Masterfully Crafted by Opinel France

Ideal For (Culinary Applications)

• Flawless Seafood & Sashimi Slicing: Gliding effortlessly through rich, fatty proteins like fresh salmon, tuna, or kingfish fillets, where the dimpled blade prevents the delicate flesh from tearing or sticking to the steel face.

• Precision Vegetable Push-Chopping: Utilizing the flatter Santoku cutting belly to perform rapid, uniform vertical push-cuts through columns of zucchini, crisp cucumbers, starchy potatoes, and dense sweet potatoes.

• Wafer-Thin Meat & Poultry Prep: Slicing raw chicken breasts, beef tenderloins, or pork loins into perfectly uniform, tissue-thin strips for stir-fries, hot pots, and gourmet hotplate grilling.

• Mincing Aromatics & Herbs: Comfortably processing large amounts of garlic, fresh ginger roots, shallots, and leafy green herbs into fine, presentation-ready cuts with complete steering accuracy.

Pro Tip & Les Forgés Maintenance: The 18cm Santoku Knife is a precision instrument designed to elevate your knife skills, and with traditional culinary care, it will comfortably outlast generations. It must never be placed inside a dishwasher or left soaking in water. Simply wash the blade under warm running water immediately after use with a soft, non-scratch sponge, and dry thoroughly with a towel. Storing it on a magnetic wood knife strip or inside a slot block protects the hand-ground 15° bevel from rolling or chipping against other steel cookware. An occasional light application of food-safe mineral oil onto the beautiful beech wood handle will enrich the grain, prevent ambient drying, and preserve its stunning satin finish for decades to come!

Oversized Item Delivery Options

Oversized, heavy, and structural goods ship via specialist freight. Freight is calculated at checkout from estimated packaged volumetric or physical weight. Carrier depot audits may adjust the rate — if the increase exceeds 10%, we will contact you before processing.

Available options include:

✔ Delivery to your closest depot for pickup — default method
✔ Direct delivery — requires an operational forklift on site unless Tailgate Delivery has been specifically requested and quoted (contact us — this cannot be selected at checkout)
✔ Tailgate hydraulic lift delivery — must be specifically requested; contact us for a quote (not available as a checkout option; extra fees apply; required if you do not have a forklift)
✔ Forklift loading at our warehouse (no extra charge if you arrange your own freight)
✔ Direct truck delivery (available in Victoria)

Important Notes:

• Shipping costs vary by location and method
• Any carton or consignment over 25–30kg (or over 200cm) must be palletised
• Without a specifically requested and paid Tailgate Delivery quote, palletised freight requires a forklift on site — otherwise the carrier will redirect to the nearest depot
• Bulky and oversized items cannot be delivered to a PO Box — provide a physical street address
• Failed deliveries, locked gates, unattended sites, or incorrect business/forklift declarations may incur carrier redelivery, demurrage, and restocking fees as set out in our Terms & Conditions

Business Delivery:

• Selecting a business/commercial delivery rate warrants that the address has an operational forklift and certified operator during business hours
• If the carrier cannot unload, the consignment may be redirected to a depot and secondary fees may apply
• Additional fees may apply for failed delivery attempts due to lack of appropriate unloading equipment

See our Terms & Conditions (Article 8) for full freight and delivery rules.

Important Note on Availability & Shipping

Our warehouse is a logistics hub, not a retail showroom. Listing a product online does not mean it is stored at our Thomastown warehouse — many lines ship from supplier hubs (split fulfilment may apply).

How lead times work:

• Product page ETA: The Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA) / lead-time badge shown on the product page at checkout is the agreed delivery timeframe for that order under Australian Consumer Law.
• Metro baselines: Advertised ETAs apply to standard metropolitan zones. Regional and remote addresses may take longer and may attract surcharges.
• Peak seasons: Orders in March–May, August–October, EOFY (June), Black Friday/Cyber Monday (November), and Christmas/New Year (December–January) may automatically add a 2–4 week buffer beyond the product page ETA.
• Supplier-dependent / backordered items: If stock is delayed, we will notify you with a revised ETA. You then have 7 days to accept the new timeframe or cancel for a full refund.
• Adloheat: Custom-made products from Adloheat (Pakenham, VIC) may take 4–12 weeks depending on the order.

Full fulfilment, cancellation, and freight rules are in our Terms & Conditions.

Biosecurity & Interstate Shipping Restrictions

Due to strict state biosecurity regulations, we are unable to ship some products to certain states and territories:

• Potting Mixes cannot be shipped to Western Australia (WA), the Northern Territory (NT), or Tasmania (TAS).
• Seeds cannot be shipped to Western Australia (WA).

Orders placed for these items to restricted states will be cancelled and refunded. It is the customer's responsibility to ensure that the items being ordered can lawfully be delivered to their state or territory.