Cliff- A question.... Choil space...

Marion David Poff

Marion David Poff

Joined
Oct 8, 1998
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Cliff,

I remember you had said that you found choils, on smaller knives, where one could place their finger ahead of the handle of limited, if not negative, value in your experience.

Could you expand on that? Specifically comparing the choil of the Moran...

bestknives_1704_44021042


With the ricasso on a knife such as a puuko or something like this...

smersh1-4.jpg


or

ranger1.jpg


What do you think the effect of an edge that basically runs into the handle?

Heck, just fire away with Stampinator Scattergun on this one.
 
MDP, Let me but in here. A common choil is cut out of the blade creating a local depression or waist just forward of the handle. This serves no very useful purpose. The Moran blade that you show is more of a ricasso with the blade widened (or edge extended) beyond the basic blade width. What that gives you is an edge that projects closer to the line of your knuckles.

The extended edge helps to give you hand clearance when cutting deep into solid muscle when skinning or boning a large animal. It also helps when cutting things that are on a cutting board or similar surface. The cut-away choil section makes it easier to sharpen the edge at the heel end. This prevents the edge from becoming concave with repeated sharpening. This insures that the blade can chop on a cutting board without a gap in a concave region.

It is best with this blade design if the choil meets the edge at a 45-degree angle or less. Otherwise the choil/edge boundary can snag on material when cutting.
 
Having a choil on a knife has a number of significant drawbacks :

1) The choil isn't sharpened, that is basically what makes it a choil, and thus you can't cut with it and therefore you lose edge length. You can't cut as deep into thick material, nor will you slice as deep on a stroke as you would on the same knife that was fully sharpened. The difference is also greater than just the choil length, as you can't cut right to the choil or you will get hangups. On a very small blade, this difference is much more significant than on a large blade, just consider the percentages of a half an inch choil on a three inch knife as compared to a ten inch one.

2) You are forced to cut out along the blade, the contact point is further away from your grip. This lowers control as you lose precision, and it lowers power as it induces a torque disadvantage. If you work with the point you are also at a disadvantage as it is further away than it would be on a fully sharpened knife with the same edge length. This again lowers the control and the power. It makes you exert more force to get the same level of cutting ability, and this loss in efficiency is compounded by the loss of precision.

Now you could argue that can't you just hold the blade up on the handle, around the choil. Now you would be cutting right infront of your grip just as you would if the knife was fully sharpened. Well yes you can. However the ergonomics and security in this grip are rather poor compared to holding onto the knife by the actual handle. The contact pressure is five to ten times as much, so extended work isn't practical.

Jeff as usual made some very strong points as to the advantage of such a choil. On a cutting board in the kitchen, puukkos do not work well because you have to have the blade at an angle to keep your hand off the board. This is why traditional chef's and utility kitchen knives have dropped blades. Puukkos however do excel at paring knife chores in the kitchen, as like paring knives they are fully sharpened. For most "camp" type food prep, I don't use a cutting board, as I don't carry one on me, and the food is mainly pared up in hand, which is optimal with a fully sharpened knife, puukko style, edge right back to the handle.

-Cliff
 
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