Choil or No Choil?

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Received my Boker Hyper earlier this week - great little knife for the price. Am so used to my Paramilitary 2 and Sage that I nearly cut myself chocking up on the Hyper (no Choil). This got me thinking that I think I prefer a finger Choil as it gives you a fuller grip on the knife - I can only get a 3 finger grip on the Hyper but can get a 4 finger grip on the Sage with room to spare (in fairness the Sage handle is ~3/4" longer than the Hyper). The other thing that is nice about the finger Choil is because you can choke up on the handle you can cut with quite a bit more force.

When you buy a knife is a finger Choil a preference, mandatory, irrelevant or a feature you avoid?
 
It obviously depends on the knife, however, in general I try to avoid choils. Choils seem like a good way to slice of your finger. I reject them in favor of full guards. Like you noticed, the handle has to be large enough. Examples of great knives in that respect:

Al Mar SERE Operator 6"
SpyderCo Temperance
Fallkniven A1

For folding knives the guards are even more important especially if the grip is smaller. Take the ZT0562 for example: I would not worry about cutting my fingers even if I stab it into a tree full force with wet/slippery hands. On the Military, however, I would worry of slipping into the blade.

This is probably an unpopular opinion as finger choils are useful 99% of the time. They just represent more of a threat to me then a feature.

- T
 
A choil becomes a factor if I'm buying what I know is going to be a hard user. I have maybe 7 or 8 of those.

Generally though, if I like the knife itself I give a choil very little, if any, consideration.
 
Good question.... Choil or Choil-less? It tends to depend on the knife and handle size. I tend to like a choil as I sometimes choke up on the blades for detail cutting and it gives me a safe place to put my fingers close to the sharpened edge. I am a fan of Blackjack classic knives and they certainly have a choil. IF you don't like the choil, you probably won't buy one. Just got a new one a couple days ago.
 
Tiny choil like on a BK2, nope, looks like it is more of a designed weak point and I've seen many blades break at the tiny choil. A finger choil with no ricasso, nope, weakens the blade as well from what I've seen and super sharp edges not blocked off from the finger, not for me. I will use a puukko with no finger guard if I need to get that close to the blade and the small light weight puukko won't let you try to do some big blade task because it won't tempt you to.

A finger choil with a ricasso between it and the blade, looks ugly but is the most functional of all the finger choils I've used. Don't matter what it looks like if it's what works best for me and doesn't serve as a designed weak point.
 
The choil on the Kershaw RAM and the Cold Steel Tuff Lite are the only two I've ever really liked. Any other choils have been resented and/or tolerated.
 
I have not found myself using a choil when i had one. I like having on for sharpening though.
 
There was a time when I didn't think much of finger choils. But after trying a few Spydies for myself, I can vouch for the usefulness of a good finger choil.

As always, YMMV.
 
I love the choil on the Boker XS. If the choil is part of the blade and nice and close to the edge like the XS, then its a potential selling point to me. Not overly keen on choils in the handle, especially if the blade has a ricasso because it dictates you hold away from the blade, and kind of defeats the purpose.

Can't understand the arguement that it weakens a blade Boris, doesn't impact the structural integrity of the steel and can't really see in any sensible circumstance you could snap a blade. Not having a pop mate, just don't.see your angle on that one.
 
Fixed blades, Yay; folders, Nay. There are exceptions in both categories, though. I like the '50/50' choil that Spyderco uses (I don't know the correct term) on the PM2, Manix 2, and many of the newer Glesser designs. But they aren't really necessary on a blade under 4", since that size is fairly easy to control from the handle. A choil is a bit handier on fixed-blade knives with 6-7" blades like the CRK Pacific, and become almost essential for certain tasks when you're relying on a single big knife like the Bark River Bravo III. The BK9 is a knife that I would have liked more with a finger-choil. Smaller fixed-blades, under 4 or even 5 inches, would be better off with maximizing the cutting edge... IMO. All of the above bullshite is mere personal preference. My favorite color is Cerulean Blue, and I would gladly die defending my color (that could sound bad out of context) :D .
 
I don't really like finger choils.
I do really like sharpening choils.
But the presence or absence of either is not a deal breaker if I like everything else about the knife.
 
George.W.W said:
I love the choil on the Boker XS. If the choil is part of the blade and nice and close to the edge like the XS, then its a potential selling point to me. Not overly keen on choils in the handle, especially if the blade has a ricasso because it dictates you hold away from the blade, and kind of defeats the purpose.

Can't understand the arguement that it weakens a blade Boris, doesn't impact the structural integrity of the steel and can't really see in any sensible circumstance you could snap a blade. Not having a pop mate, just don't.see your angle on that one.
Click to expand...

There is a thread here on BF that displays what I have seen.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1035485-Stress-Fracture-and-Test-Break

See the crack at the choil? I've seen blades develope that kind of crack over time and or just snap one day. I prefer the blade to run into a ricasso then into a choil. Otherwise from what I've seen they have a better chance of breaking right at the choil if they don't. Just going by what I've seen over the years. Nothing more.
 
Depends on the knife for me, but if the OAL is approaching 9 inches then I have to have a choil.

Big knives (as in length) need it in my opinion, they feel small for tasks that require more 'fine' cutting if you like/need/want to carry a big knife.
 
I like a choil. It helps me plant my fingers very firmly, and I know that I can go as hard as I want and i won't slip or anything.
 
For me it depends on the knife style I think. I love the 50/50 choil on my PM2. It just feels like its glued to my hand and that I also could do more precise cutting if I needed to.
 
I normally hate them and certainly wouldn't want one on a folder, anymore than I would want one on a paring knife. But let's not confuse choil (giant inefficient divot) with a sharpening notch, like that seen on traditional folders and fixed blades from makers like Tom Krein. Those I can tolerate.
 
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