Cutting sharpening choils

3D Anvil

3D Anvil

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Oct 4, 2021
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Spyderco's lack of sharpening choils is really starting to chap my a$$. I'd like to give them small sharpening choils and I have a Dremel. Anyone have advice on the best way to proceed? Should I buy some cheap diamond Dremel bits on the big river? Diamond files? A combination? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
Spyderco's lack of sharpening choils is really starting to chap my a$$. I'd like to give them small sharpening choils and I have a Dremel. Anyone have advice on the best way to proceed? Should I buy some cheap diamond Dremel bits on the big river? Diamond files? A combination? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
 
3D Anvil said:
Spyderco's lack of sharpening choils is really starting to chap my a$$. I'd like to give them small sharpening choils and I have a Dremel. Anyone have advice on the best way to proceed? Should I buy some cheap diamond Dremel bits on the big river? Diamond files? A combination? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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I agree 100%! After I did some research I found a video of Alistair Phillips who designed the Redback which is what the Spyderco Kapara is made after he recommended using a round diamond file and in the video he actually adds a sharpening choil to a Kapara. Since then I’ve done this on at least 5 of my Spyderco knives. Just have to go slow at first to make sure the file doesn’t skip down the blade and stays where you want it.
 
I have a set of Columbia River Knife and Tool cylindrical diamond files that are perfect for cutting choils. Any cylindrical diamond file, in the desired diameter, should do what you want. I wouldn't use a Dremel. But then again, I look at sharpening choils as just another place for things to snag upon.
 
I have added these with round diamond files as well, works just fine, only takes a few minutes.
 
I've used a Dremel and grinding bits to produce sharpening choils in several knives. But it takes a STEADY set of hands, patience (got to go slow to prevent overheating the steel), and the blade needs to be secured to something.

I used a 3/8ths" aluminum oxide bit for this one below. For smaller choils I use Dremel chainsaw sharpening grinding bits.

If you go with round diamond files you'll want multiple grits, including very fine to finish with so that you can get a choil with crisp edges. Another way of finishing a choil is to wrap fine sandpaper around a steel rod or the rear end of a drill bit and use that to sand the choil smooth.

No diamond bit was required for this choil. And it's pretty hard stuff, D2 with an RC of 59-60.


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If you have a Dremel then I would use a very small fine diamond cylinder to grind it in, which is what I do. Powered is faster than doing it with a file. I also like to grind bevels on the choil so they will cut what they catch, it makes them less annoying in use.
 
Gut hook with a choil shape. It is tricky to do being so small though.
 
3D Anvil said:
Spyderco's lack of sharpening choils is really starting to chap my a$$. I'd like to give them small sharpening choils and I have a Dremel. Anyone have advice on the best way to proceed? Should I buy some cheap diamond Dremel bits on the big river? Diamond files? A combination? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
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Depending on why you want to add a sharpening choil, I would urge you to consider options other than grinding a divot into your edge. I for one would not consider purchasing a knife from someone who has ground a sharpening choil in, as I very much dislike (hook and catch on things when cutting in heal area of edge, plus simply looks like a bad solution to issue with alternate options).

Example:
Photo below of my 10V K2 sharpened at 15dps and also to remove the OEM unsharpened transition area just fwd of ricasso.
K2 No-Choil.jpg

It is your knife ..., and a Dremel makes short work of removing steel when needed/wanted but ya can never put it back.
 
Why can't people just sharpen the whole edge? This senseless push for sharpening choils is driven by those not using proper sharpening technique and knife makers following trends that result in knives with annoying snag points. A Spyderco or any knife with similar flat grind like seen above in Spey's picture is a much more useful cutting tool, imo. You can bring the object being cut all the way to the hand and maintain control as the racisso acts like stop/guide for the cut. It simply has no value to add a choil into such a blade.
 
Jason, appreciate the follow up.

My primary reason for even commenting here is because over the last 5-8 years there seems to be a growing consensus that sharpening choil is a solution to make sharpening easier and manufacturers have begun to do this shit OEM to potentially cut their production time (less grinding precision at the transition, belt wear, etc.), and also sell as a feature (NOT !##!). Somehow this has started to become a feature some strive for.

There have been a number of OEM knives that I took a pass on because of this, and it SUCKS.
Just wanting to make sure folks understand there are options.

Just Say No to Sharpening Choils

EDIT: if I remember correctly, the first use of sharpening choils was because folks were not understanding why they were grinding a small recurve into their edges a stones width forward of the ricasso. They couldn't collectively understand what the issue was, how to correct, and presto the sharpening choil became a bane on the industry :-(
 
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If you guys don't like sharpening choils, that's cool. I happen to like them. And not because I don't know how to sharpen a knife (been sharpening just fine for over 4 decades now). Nor have I ever had a problem with them snagging on anything.

Some people believe "To each their own. Like what you like. Whatever works for you and makes you happy".

Some people believe "If I don't like it then it sucks, and no one else should like it either. And if you like it then you don't understand knives".

I'm a member of the first group.
 
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killgar said:
If you guys don't like sharpening choils, that's cool. I happen to like them. And not because I don't know how to sharpen a knife (been sharpening just fine for over 4 decades now).

Some people believe "To each their own. Like what you like. Whatever works for you and makes you happy".

Some people believe "If I don't like it then it sucks, and no one else should like it either. And if you like it then you don't understand knives".

I'm a member of the first group.
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Appreciate your reply !
I agree with everything you wrote, and personally in first group also.
Also agree with your comments in Post#8 above, and would have wrote much the same related to using rotary tool to create.

Considering sharpening issues are not the reason, what is it that you like about these choils?

I did my best to offer options including how I address the issue, some of what the issue is to me, and also recommended the use of a Dremel for OP in my first post should they choose to proceed. I hope you can help enlighten my ignorance based on your experiences.

Understand, I am truly interested in your reasoning and experiences.
Thanks,
 
Spey said:
Appreciate your reply !
I agree with everything you wrote, and personally in first group also.

Considering sharpening issues are not the reason, what is it that you like about these choils?

I did my best to offer options including how I address the issue, some of what the issue is to me, and also recommended the use of a Dremel for OP in my first post should they choose to proceed. I hope you can help enlighten my ignorance based on your experiences.

Understand, I am truly interested in your reasoning and experiences.
Thanks,
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And I appreciate your response to my post.

On some of the knives I have purchased, ones without choils, I didn't like how the edge ended. I could have ground them even, but I like the look of choils.

So not only do I solve the issue of the end of the edge being janky, but I get to fix it by adding something I like the looks of.

I own knives without choils, with perfectly ground factory edges, that I have not, nor will I ever, add a choil to. I think they're fine the way they are.

And the knives I did add a choil to would have served me just fine without a choil.

So for me it's simply a matter of aesthetics. Which is one of the many things that I look for in any knife I have ever bought (I have to like the "looks" of it), including the knife I posted above (which served me well through several years of hard use).

I also like fullers for the same reason (purely looks), even though I don't think they serve any practical value (I know they are supposed to reduce weight, but I don't think it makes that much difference on a "small" knife.
 
I've done choils on some of my knives with both my Dremel, and with a round diamond hand file. Personally, I prefer doing it by hand as it gives me more precise control and no risk of overheating or slipping and making a mistake.
 
I appreciate the aesthetic argument, and certainly there are some blades I wouldn't mess with for that reason. As for practicality, I don't understand how a sharpening choil is any more snaggy than a right angle ricasso that butts right against the sharpened edge. Of course it is possible to sharpen the heel of the blade without a choil, but it's certainly a pain the arse and if you're using stones it puts a lot of wear-and-tear on the edges of the stone, which is the only place you can use to get that last 1/4". This will quickly wear out the edges of a diamond plate, for example. It's also impossible to reach that area with a guided system without reclamping. As far as just not sharpening that area, that's a bad option too, as it eventually creates a recurve well beyond the last 1/4".
 
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