I found these old Rotring Tikkys in a drawer. One clip is stamped with "W.Germany", which suggests it was made before 1989, while the others just say "Germany". The bodies look identical, but there are differences in the details: the 0.9 mm versions have engraved rings on the metal tip, whereas the 0.5 mm versions have smooth tips without rings. There are also a few different variations among the endcaps.
I had to shorten the handle by about half a centimeter and further shaped it with my mora carving knife to have proper proportions. For the pattern I simply used a round file.
The blade might be a little long for this slim handle but the tip would have been above the handle if I shortened it. But I modified the blade a bit by removing the slight curve upwards towards the tip because it looked a little agressive to me especially with it being a gift for my girlfriend. I also widened the gap a little bit so the blade moves way easier.
I was a little bit disappointed that the tip of the blade wasn't sharp at all but fortunately its really easy to sharpen and for 11€ I definetly won't complain.
Im still not 100% sure about the way I want to finish the handle. The easiest way would by to simply oil it but I think it would also lok great with a bit of colour. My idea would be to paint it pink, maybe transparent enought to still see the wooden texture and then dry brush the ridges with a dark blue. What do you think about that?
I got this Opinel knife as a gift when I was like 10 years old. When I grew out of its tipless blade shape, I at first started to modify it by carving its handle to fit my hand perfectly but still never used it because the blade wasn't usefull. When I went through my collection the other day, I decided to finally alter the bladeshape and make it useful again. A little filing and sanding later I achieved this beatiful look and after burning and oiling the handle I would say its the most elegant knife of my collection.