Choils, when do they make sense?

[Etna]

Will this be considered a choil or a ricasso?

 

[LG&M]

Choil, the ricasso is the area between the handle and where the grind starts. Where the "M021" is.

 

[Duane Sanders]

A ricasso is the unsharpened part of the blade just above the handle. Yes it is. Choils can be above the ricasso or below it. A choil can not be the ricasso. It is either before or after the ricasso. The diagram with the red writing is wrong. There is a sharpening choil, a ricasso and a finger choil.

Just because one knife has a ricasso and another blade has a choil in the same spot does not make the choil a ricasso.

 

[Sosa]

All these technical terms sound fruity.

 

[AntDog]

Stop rubbing your ricasso on my choil. Well, then you stop complaining about my total length.

 

[WuGod]

"Sharpening choils" and "elf choils" can go straight to hell IMO. At work (all day long) I use my knives to poke into packs of plates and zip them open along 3 edges. The packages are basically cardboard impregnated with aluminum. The parts of the blade I use the most are the tip (to poke the packs) and the 1 - 2 inches just in front of the handle (to cut them open).

Any kind of choil just gets hung up and in the way. They hinder the hell out of what is an easy task with a knife with no choil. With no choil I don't even have to pay much attention to it. Just poke, zip, zip, done. With a choil it's poke, snag, zip, snarl, damn I better look what I'm doing...

I used to feel the same way about sharpening choils then I read a tip over in MTE to sharpen the sharpening notch. I was like duh! Used the diamond rod serration sharpener on my smiths pull thru to make them all sharp, and now I hate them much less.

 

[bodog]

I would honestly need to hold and use them knives before I could give an opinion. Going by the pictures the top one looks useless. The one with the sharpening choil I could live with. The next two are just thrown into the knifes design just so it can claim a feature. The choil does not line up with the rest of the handle for a good or comfortable grip. I would pass on them blades no matter who makes them or how premium the materials are. The one on the bottom looks more useful but the blade looks like it's designed to do heavy work, the tip looks to be designed to be extremely tough. Fine work could be done with it but will not be as easy as a thinner blade could do. It also looks tough enough that it might do some pry work. I've seen the choil on thick blades break at the choil when used like that. So unless the last one is nice and thin I would pass on it too.

I have two knives with a finger choil and both are designed to be functional and aren't there for looks. The first one is a Spyderco slip joint I got as a gift a couple years ago. It has a very short thin blade and slices real good. The choil actually locks the blade in from closing on you and gets you more grip and control on it. However when I do carry it (use it as my gentlemans blade) and end up using it I find the huge hole in the blade makes for a great purchase with the pinch grip. If I need to dig in with it I use the choil. Neat little knife. Would be nice if it were larger.

My other one is my buck reaper and it's a light weight thin blade and it is a super knife for whacking down brush and small limbs in the woods, like last weekend when I was trimming back my shooting lanes. It also chops above its weight class. The overall geometry really bites in and the steel holds a shaving edge for a long time when I trim and chop with it.

I agree that some are pointless if designed wrong but when it's designed to be a functional feature they work great. Just as important to me on my large finger choil blade is the thumb ramp. It locks the thumb in with the jimping and gives even more control. Without the thumb ramp it would be a bit tougher to remove dense material with less thumb support. Once again though, it was designed with a choil as a functional feature, not just for looks.

To touch back on blade thickness. I, in my opinion think a finger choil on anything thicker than 3/16" is pointless. Just my opinion.

Makes sense to me. I feel pretty much the same way except that I don't see a need for a large finger choil on really any knife except for purposes like the small slip joint knives where putting your finger on the blade helps keep the blade open. I don't see many people wanting to stab or anything with a slip joint so having your finger up next to the cutting edge wouldn't hurt.

I think spyderco generally does a good job with their finger choils. They take up minimum space on the blade itself and are generally made where they won't catch random crap being cut. I don't ever use them, but they don't negatively impact the design, either. I can see someone using them, though.

 

[Chris "Anagarika"]

I used to feel the same way about sharpening choils then I read a tip over in MTE to sharpen the sharpening notch. I was like duh! Used the diamond rod serration sharpener on my smiths pull thru to make them all sharp, and now I hate them much less.

Yes, this is what I do. I add a sharp sharpening choil. To those interested further why it's advisable, check out Unit's YT on sharpening notch.
[youtube]VMvE-b4259A[/youtube]

Singularity also posted his Bradley with similar notch.

 

[bodog]

Yes, this is what I do. I add a sharp sharpening choil. To those interested further why it's advisable, check out Unit's YT on sharpening notch.
[youtube]VMvE-b4259A[/youtube]

Singularity also posted his Bradley with similar notch.

Thanks for the video. I'm gonna try the small diamond file. I've done it with the corners of my stones but it wears them down pretty quickly.