esee 5 choil

W

wgrabia

Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
134
alright,
I may upset some people, and I may make some people think this is a good idea. But i feel like people will get upset with me.

I want to make a choil for my esee5.
I feel like it would get A LOT more use, if I could choke up on it a bit. I know the 5 isn't made for using like that, but I want to use it for that.


obviously I would do it properly, not just fucking bench grind it and make it look shitty. I would shape it and file it properly and make it look nice.

I guess i was just wondering if anyone has tried this, or has attempted, or thought about it, or dreamt about it, or anything.
tips? thoughts? comments? angry words?

thanks again
 
Why not get a different knife, Ontario Afghan, TOPS Mountain Lion, Ontario RD series, and I'm sure there's others.
If you do a choil, keep it cool, and show pics!
 
The Esee 6 comes with a nice choil, maybe pick up one of those and keep your 5 the way it is.....
 
but its a lot more money for the six, and I like the length of the five. I feel like the six would be too long for me. Im not used to handling something longer than five inches ;) lol
 
I'd put the 5 up on the exchange and then get either the 6 or better yet get the LaserStrike when it is released.
 
I would like to keep my 5, and kinda make it my own knife in a way.
maybe you guys would tell me if this would fuck up the steel. I would either file it down by hand, or put it in a drill press and drill it very very cool and go very very slowly, as not to heat it up too much.
 
I wouldn't use the drill press unless you used a small drum sander and kept the heat down. As long as you keep the heat low you won't hurt the steel though. Hand filing while tedious would be the best way for the results you want.

take pictures as you go.

take it easy
cricket
 
wgrabia said:
but its a lot more money for the six, and I like the length of the five. I feel like the six would be too long for me. Im not used to handling something longer than five inches ;) lol
Click to expand...

Ha Ha!! A Dremel tool might work to get the majority of the material then fine tune/shape it with files. To even slightly distort the blade, you'd have to get it pretty hot.
 
I recommend a dremel tool for the roughing, and a drum sander on a drill press for the "fine tuning." A file will be very slow going, if it even does anything. For a file to work, it'd have to be harder than the blade. Also, unless you use a carbide tipped drill bit, it'd be very difficult to drill. I drilled a hole in the tang of a Cold Steel SRK while doing a rehandle on it. Since that part of the tang was hardened, I drilled one hole, and the drill bit was done.

As others have said, take pictures when you start working on it!
 
Good luck with your modification, personally I wouldn't do it. Like some others have mentioned, maybe pick up a blade that better fits what you are looking for.
 
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wgrabia said:
but its a lot more money for the six, and I like the length of the five. I feel like the six would be too long for me. Im not used to handling something longer than five inches ;) lol
Click to expand...

Six's run much less than 5's do. I'd wait for the laser strike or get a six.

If you're set on doing it, I don't see that it's impossible, just going to take a long time. I'd email mike or jeff, he's mentioned that it's a good idea to check with them before modding a knife to make sure you don't mess up the geometry and cause a breaking point.
 
It's meant to be a very strong knife, to cut thru aircraft. You would be making it weaker. And, getting it "hot" with a drill or dremel may not warp the metal, but it will change the temper.
Rowen has a great heat treatment, you don't want to alter that. Meaning, the edge next to your choil may not sharpen, stay sharp, or be too soft or too brittle. I'm no knife expert, but I'm just saying watch what you do.
You don't want to F%&k up a great knife.
 
Due to the blade thickness you would need to remove a lot of material to do a proper choil. As others have mentioned the heat caused in grinding it off could alter the heat treatment which you surely want to avoid. You probably would need to use the dremel very carefully and give it lots of time to cool off in between. The whole blade might not get too hot but the part you are grinding on will surely be very hot very quickly with a dremel. My experience with a dremel is that due to the high rpm it creates heat very quickly. The energy you create while grinding has to go somewhere.. mainly it goes into heat. I also recently used my dremel to cut some hard plastic.. it went through it like butter but it got so hot that the cut just instantly glued the pieces together again..

Did you already think of just flattening the edge for an inch instead of a full choil? Might not look as cool and you would have to take care of your fingers when using it, but depending on the use you have for the choil it might be enough..

But as others have said.. I would much rather go with a 6 instead. It is only a little longer than the 5 and surely the better knife if you do any tasks which you need a choil for.
I love my 5 as it is, what a great knife!
 
Knife Dude said:
Due to the blade thickness you would need to remove a lot of material to do a proper choil. As others have mentioned the heat caused in grinding it off could alter the heat treatment which you surely want to avoid. You probably would need to use the dremel very carefully and give it lots of time to cool off in between. The whole blade might not get too hot but the part you are grinding on will surely be very hot very quickly with a dremel. My experience with a dremel is that due to the high rpm it creates heat very quickly. The energy you create while grinding has to go somewhere.. mainly it goes into heat. I also recently used my dremel to cut some hard plastic.. it went through it like butter but it got so hot that the cut just instantly glued the pieces together again..

Did you already think of just flattening the edge for an inch instead of a full choil? Might not look as cool and you would have to take care of your fingers when using it, but depending on the use you have for the choil it might be enough..

But as others have said.. I would much rather go with a 6 instead. It is only a little longer than the 5 and surely the better knife if you do any tasks which you need a choil for.
I love my 5 as it is, what a great knife!
Click to expand...

+1 Totally agree with this.
 
Knife Dude said:
Due to the blade thickness you would need to remove a lot of material to do a proper choil. As others have mentioned the heat caused in grinding it off could alter the heat treatment which you surely want to avoid. You probably would need to use the dremel very carefully and give it lots of time to cool off in between. The whole blade might not get too hot but the part you are grinding on will surely be very hot very quickly with a dremel. My experience with a dremel is that due to the high rpm it creates heat very quickly. The energy you create while grinding has to go somewhere.. mainly it goes into heat. I also recently used my dremel to cut some hard plastic.. it went through it like butter but it got so hot that the cut just instantly glued the pieces together again..

Did you already think of just flattening the edge for an inch instead of a full choil? Might not look as cool and you would have to take care of your fingers when using it, but depending on the use you have for the choil it might be enough..

But as others have said.. I would much rather go with a 6 instead. It is only a little longer than the 5 and surely the better knife if you do any tasks which you need a choil for.
I love my 5 as it is, what a great knife!
Click to expand...

i'm with ya, changing Rowen's HT is something i would definately want to avoid. they got that shit dialed in :D

however, i think if the OP is dead set on doing this, changing the HT might be EXACTLY what he needs to do. rather than trying to avoid it, which would mean spending days basically "sharpening" a choil into the blade. would it be more pratical to anneal the steal, remove the area for the choil, then RE-heat treat (harden) it? is this line of logic wrong? i mean, i know it's far from cost effective. we're talking about turning a $140 knife into a $500 custom (made out of 1095), but IF someone was determined to go through with this, wouldn't that be the right approach?
 
Take it to a machine shop. Have them put it on a Bridgeport milling machine with an end mill bit of the same diameter as what you want your choil. Tell them you do not want any heat buildup that would alter the temper. They will more than likely use a high speed fast cut which will not build up near as much heat as slow speed.


Good luck.
 
I hate choils, however I do see the need to choke up on bigger knives. I have owned my 5 since it first came out, and I have just recently recieved and started using my Junglas.

I find that ESEE designed the knife with no choil, however they have a large thick ricasso. I have no problem choking up with my index finger over the ricasso for fine work.

Putting a choil in a knife designed with with no choil will most likely weaken the knife. You will also loose cutting edge. It is your knife, so you can do what you like. I am just giving my oppinion.
However, I just hope that if you do put your own choil in the knife and the knife breaks; you won't be one of those guys that send it in under warranty.

Again, just my oppinion.
 
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