All liner locks should have a finger choil

M

mikemck

Joined
Sep 22, 2000
Messages
1,221
In my opinion, all liner lock knives should have a finger choil, like the Strider AR.
In fact, why not put a finger choil on every folder? A nice example is the Spyderco Native, which has a nice finger choil..in the case of the Native, the choil actually makes it possible to close the knife one handed.

With a nice finger choil it's very hard for the blade to close down on a finger. So, if your liner lock should happen to fail, it's not a problem, at least as far as having some fingers sliced up anyway.
 
I don't know about ALL knives, but I certainly like those designs that incorporate a choil. The Native is one of my favorites. The choil definitely increases safety and rarely diminishes the effectiveness of the cutting edge. Another effective design feature is the quillion, such as on the Spyderco Military which essentially accomplishes the same safety without a full finger choil. On a knife like the Military, the "choke-up" position is already designed into the handle, so providing a choil for the finger to drop into would be rather ineffective.

On smaller knives, such as those where the overall blade length is 2.75 inches or less, it seems the choil payback becomes less valuable, as the cutting edge length becomes increasingly more impacted. Also, on knives less than 2.5 inches, the blade is becoming so small, that it will be very difficult to make the liner fail because the blade is becoming rather small to effect such great leverage.

I just can't see putting a choil on a William Henry Lancet.
 
Good point Mike. I was looking at my AR just the other day and thought at the choil offered some nice finger protection in the event of an accidental blade closure. I wish some of my other folders had the choil as well.

S.
 
Yes. A Native-like choil would be welcome on a lot of knives as a useful safety feature. Another knife with a similar choil is the Buck Odyssey. I mentioned this idea in a previous post.
 
Yes, a safety feature is exactly what it would serve as, come to think of it.
I can't think of a downside, after considerable thought on the matter.
Not only does it look good, it's functional and handy to have for doing a bit of delicate cutting.

What I can't understand is why more folders do not have one, because honestly, I can't be the only one to have ever come to this conclusion..in fact, marty123 thought of it before me, and so on & so forth...
 
I just don't get the staunch opinions about locks. I generally carry a slipjoint and don't cut myself - ever. Knife safety, guys. Treat a folder like what it is (a folder) and use with due care.
 
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