Antonini Old Bear Walnut Carbon Folding Knife

I was going to buy a high carbon version of my Opinel INOX for camping, but decided to spend a small amount more for this high carbon Old Bear with a more solid type of locking mechanism and nicer wood handle. This is a great knife for the money if you like a useful yet unthreatening outdoors traditional style folder. My EDC is a Spyderco UKPK so the Old Bear is for camping and garden use where a locking blade is "valid" or non-public under UK law and won't fold up on me.

The small size is handy and carbon blade keeps its edge.. prob not as sharp as it's french cousin but the locking mech is better.

Beautifully designed & made knife. Extremely affordable, just an all round decent piece of kit. Super fast and efficient service from HH, as always.

This knife is ridiculously well finished and engineered for a cheap (relatively) utility knife. A few coats of Osmo thin oil and it’s ready for the great outdoors (not absolutely necessary). I got the carbon blade option for ease of sharpening in the field. Very happy. And as usual HH provided a great service... (please use their notification service as to when stock will be available... it really works)

Great design, sturdy locking mech, holds a good cutting edge. I'm going to drill a lanyard hole in the stock.

Bought as an alternative to an Opinel. Nicely made knife that looks good, feels good and has a decent edge out of the box.

As another reviewer has observed, this is a nice alternative to an Opinel, of which I have many. I bought the medium, which is roughly equivalent to the Opinel number 8, but note that the blade length is actually 8.0cm, not 8.4cm, so it very slightly shorter than advertised. If you were to compare like-for-like (SS and Walnut), the Opinels are slightly cheaper, but I like the option of carbon steel and better (Walnut) wood. Also, the figuring of the handle is very nice and similar to the photo “ Opinel's Walnut is rather plain, IMO. It's clearly hand-finished, with very slight imperfections, but this just adds to its character. Minor imperfections in the blade grind and handle finish, but I'm being very picky. The locking system is logical if slightly 'agricultura'l, but works very well, both open and closed. The collar appears to have been machined from solid (not pressed) brass “ impressive. No blade-play and well-centred. The handle benefits from a few coats of linseed oil, then it's good to go. I think I'll buy more of these!

I have about 70 knifes and many of those are decent pocketknives but this is the one I carry most. Useful at work, at allotment and round the house. The lock is easily opened with side of thumb and feels good in the hand. Better system than opinels and other similar knives. Blade really holds an edge and sharpens easily. For £14 it's a no brainer. Get one !