choil alterations

M

mister_wilburn

Joined
May 23, 2006
Messages
410
I was wondering if anyone has ever put an edge on their choil. I was looking at it today and wondered what, if any, use could be made if it were sharpened on either side. Seems like with the round design, it would make a good rope slicer (ect). Or would it just get in the way?
 
It sounds like a nasty surprise for someone if they were to use your knife, expecting to put their index finger there, for leverage. :thumbdn::thumbdn:
 
I agree with Ken. I notice my finger inside the choil sometimes depending what I'm doing, and sometimes I do it and don't even notice. I vote for no sharpened choil. :thumbup:

-Dan
 
I remember that Bravado (I think) had an old school SJ for sale with a sharpened choil. I almost nabbed it but I like using my choil. If I remember correctly he stated that the previous owner told him he sharpened it for a specific task. Skinning? But I forget what it was. :) I am sure he could give you some feed back here.
 
+3 for Blunt Choil.

I move my grip up to use the choil often when I'm working with a knife for detail work. :eek:
 
I can certainly see where it would get in the way what the choil was designed for. Just wondered if anyone had ever seen it done.
 
More practical would be three to five serrations situated right up next to the choil and spaced close together.
 
Tyrkon Lawson said:
I remember that Bravado (I think) had an old school SJ for sale with a sharpened choil. I almost nabbed it but I like using my choil. If I remember correctly he stated that the previous owner told him he sharpened it for a specific task. Skinning? But I forget what it was. :) I am sure he could give you some feed back here.
Click to expand...

lol, I'm the one who sharpened that. I am about as adamant a naysayer of choils as you will ever meet. I hate em. HATE EM!!! :D

I sharpened it because I was tired of things snagging in it when I used it. I index my fluffy material (a lot of fabric bunched up, plastic bags, carpeting) by putting it on my index finger, then putting it on the beginning of the edge. that way I don't have to visually see my knifes edge, I know that its on the edge by feeling it. not so with a big ol' crappy choil waitin' for me. so instead of being able to index my material by feel, I would end up putting it in the middle of the blade, then sawing it. inevitably I'd end up with at least a small portion of the rolled up plastic or fabric getting caught in the choil, so I'd have to lift the material off the blade, then reset it on the blade again so that I could finish my cut.

when I'm in a hurry, the last thing I want to have to do is look at my hands, make sure everything is in place, then make a detailed cut. I want to be able to grab, saw, and get the hell out of there. and I want to be able to do it blind, with as solid of a grip on the handle as I can get.

thus I sharpened the choil.


after that particular knife (and its sister .220 le sj) I never did it again. in order to get a really functional "non catching" choil, you need to smooth out the corner between the choil and the edge. kind of like whats seen on the extrema ratio shrapnel, where the choil tilts into the edge, rather then creates a 90 degree corner.

the way I did it worked, but you had to pull backward against the material kind of hard, and I didn't like the way that worked as much as I had hoped. I'll never use a choil - I'll always grab the back of the blade if I need to do detail work. and If I need to power through things, holding the choil is a compromised grip - something I also will never do if I have a choice. so a sharpened usable choil is better then a normal non-usable choil.

If I ever do something like that again (hopefully I wont, since I ordered custom choiless pieces from the custom shop :D ) - I'll end up reworking the edge into a very wide recurve to get rid of the choil completely.
 
I'm a heathen blasphemer on the name of busse for the mod's i've done :rolleyes:

I put grooves in a handled police recruit. thats a seriously rare blade I defiled. had I realized how rare, I would not have done it.

and then the nick I cut down, and the (two) satin jacks I sharpened the choils on...

and then the one of three active duty variants I sharpened... sigh... I am so gonna burn for all that.

attachment.php

attachment.php
 
Guyon said:
More practical would be three to five serrations situated right up next to the choil and spaced close together.
Click to expand...

I'm down with that.:thumbup:

I see Last Visible Choil's;):D point, but I am adamant in the opposite direction.
 
Last Visible Canary said:
I'm a heathen blasphemer on the name of busse for the mod's i've done :rolleyes:

I put grooves in a handled police recruit. thats a seriously rare blade I defiled. had I realized how rare, I would not have done it.

and then the nick I cut down, and the (two) satin jacks I sharpened the choils on...

and then the one of three active duty variants I sharpened... sigh... I am so gonna burn for all that.

attachment.php

attachment.php
Click to expand...

LVC,

I personally think that sharpened choil is kinda cool. I dig it :thumbup: Just send me all of your modified stuff f you don't want to burn for doing those mods.

I really dislike choils on smaller knives because I think they just waste alot of usable cutting edge on a already small blade. I am fine with choils on larger blades because it does help control and balance the larger and blade heavy stuff. This isn't a issue for me with the smaller knives so I prefer not to have if I had a choice.
 
I'm only really okay with choils (and I'd still rather they not be there) at the 9" blade or longer mark. if the knife is dedicated to chopping, I'll probably have something smaller on hand for small cutting tasks, so the choil doesn't really come into play.
 
Last Visible Canary said:
I'm only really okay with choils (and I'd still rather they not be there) at the 9" blade or longer mark. if the knife is dedicated to chopping, I'll probably have something smaller on hand for small cutting tasks, so the choil doesn't really come into play.
Click to expand...

I personally think they do more good on a larger blade because it makes the large knife more versatile. The choil makes it easier for the large knife to do smaller fine detail tasks. A large knife can do smaller knife work but not the other way around.
 
Last Visible Canary said:
sigh... I am so gonna burn for all that.
QUOTE]

NAH, sometimes too much is made of the legendary scarce blades. They are only good when you use them and if you modify them to fit your individual tastes, so be it. I much prefer the posts of a well worn knife to the safe queens. Its like having a gun you don't shoot. I know a lot of folks that do but I don't have one that I have not shot, nor do I have a knife that I would not use. Just my take on it though. Safe queens are not really "safe" at my house. USE EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
 
dialton said:
NAH, sometimes too much is made of the legendary scarce blades. They are only good when you use them and if you modify them to fit your individual tastes, so be it.
Click to expand...

:thumbup::thumbup:

SHBM.jpg
 
anyone who has ever quested after a one off from busse, like trying to find the third hatchet :rolleyes: at very least gains a respect of just how rare a particular model can become. it is try that the same model can be made at any moment, that the materials still exist and the skill is still present in the busse show to make anything you want, but still, I understand what a truly limited resource is like to have for someone who really cares about such things.

that being said, I want really specific things out of my knives, and I will bend them to my will if they don't quite fit them, regardless of how rare they are :D
 
I have eyeballed the choil on my GW, but changed my grip a little bit and we are getting along better now. At one time I was thinking about making the choil on my GW into a tooth. I don't hate choils, but I do think that either a really small choil like the GW has or one big enough to get your finger into are the only ways to go, anything in between seems like a waste of space.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top