This comment from another thread is one of the core reasons I'm against choils, on top of them snagging on things. The qouted opinion was not stated in regards to choils, but it's a good example of when design and human interface makes a difference in tools.
It becomes very apparent very quickly why orange handles are great on knives. Towards the end of the day you're so exhausted that you make mistakes like setting the knife down and forgetting where you put it. Under those conditions, you're also going to abuse the knife by not using it correctly, torquing it too much etc. I actually BROKE a Mora out there using it to process firewood. Its one thing to use a knife around your back yard when you're well rested, paying attention and doing everything correctly. Its quite another to use one when you've been hacking through the jungle all day, spent 2 hours building a swamp bed and have been without food for 2 days. You MUST bring a sturdy knife.
The farther away the edge is from your hand, the more leverage you have to apply to it to get the force from your arm to the edge. This will wear you down, and it will make you use force in an unweildy way when you are exhausted - a formula that increases the likelyhood of you slipping and potentially cutting something you don't mean to. If you choke up you get the better mechanical leverage, but you get to hold a flat piece of metal meaning your index and thumb are going to be working twice as hard as they need to to keep the knife from torqueing as you apply pressure. You'll end up using more energy that you simply don't have to waste.
We're a pretty resourceful lot... and a few are very anti choil, has anyone sharpened there large choil? to make it like an oversized single serration, so that any line strap etc that was stuck there would likely be cut first or at least more easily by the curved edge and point created where the straight edge meets toe curved... just a thought....
Edit: just saw LVC's post any pic's of a sharpened choil?
Here is an example of a SHSJ I sharpened the choil on, which ended up being not worth it because when things caught in it, I ended up having to reset the edge anyways. To get over the corner you'd have to pull hard, and the material would jump out of the edge with the built up pressure and it just wasn't worth it. I don't want to have to think about my knife when I'm using it, and I don't want to have an edge in my choil if my finger is going to be in it. (Ignore the top knife, it's a thin NICK I cut down and further modified later on)
In order to get it to not do that, to get it so the media would simple slide into the edge as though it were choiless I would have to do a drastic reprofiling of the choil to create a straight line or a very shallow slope, something like what I did on the pendleton hunter from CS. I really don't want to have to carve into the knife this much, I'd much prefer to just avoid it all together and go with the choiless version. Back when the SHSJ was around I didn't have an option, but now theres no way I'd ever buy or carry a choiled version. It's just not worth the hassle for me.
Look at how far away the edge is from my index finger:
This is most important when your exhausted and your hands are shaking from exertion. Look at how the edge creeps away from the hand in this series of knives:
The comparison isn't fair to the BJ vs. CBJ since the B11 has extra handle material in it. so heres an edited photo to show a gaurd to gaurd line up of the two
That 1/2"-3/4" distance is significant when your trying to shave hard wood shavings. Also, I've never had a problem getting my hand closer to the edge on the choiless version:
