Sharpening Choil on your Folders?

Do you Like Sharpening Choils on Folders?

  • Yes, I like them

    Votes: 2 100.0%

  • No, I do not like them

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • No opinion either way

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    2
Slider817

Slider817

Joined
Mar 26, 2010
Messages
1,736
I do not like them, on my EDC knives that I use allot, since they have small blades I find the Choil Catches things, and since I use them I don't really mind scratching up the blade a bit while sharpening.
Also, I want every last millimeter of cutting surface on a small folder

Not saying that I don't have lots that have them, but recently I have been geting annoyed with them,
 
Last edited:
stormyone said:
I do not understand the question.

Sharpening the Choils? Never heard of such.
Click to expand...

Some knives have a small cutout by the base of the cutting edge. This allows for easier Sharpening. Hence the Name Sharpening Choil
 
Last edited:
It is a major pet peeve of mine and often a deal breaker as to whether I'll buy a knife with that notch...

I posted this Thread a while back on the subject

As with most things, there are those in favour and those opposed.

Most of the Spyderco knives do not have that, thankfully :)

Some make a slight angle so material will glide up and out, so that's a compromise that will work.

But those that have a very sharp pointed start do cause frustration.

in this Thread it shows my Kershaw JunkYard Dog II
where I modified the sharpening notch so it became a large serration
and that kinda works...

G2
 
Oh, crap. "Sharpening choil." I thought it said finger choil for some reason. Yes, I like sharpening choils; imagine one of those NO votes is a YES.
 
Gary W. Graley said:
It is a major pet peeve of mine and often a deal breaker as to whether I'll buy a knife with that notch...

I posted this Thread a while back on the subject

As with most things, there are those in favour and those opposed.

Most of the Spyderco knives do not have that, thankfully :)

G2
Click to expand...

I was just thinking how almost no Spydercos that I have have that, except for the Leafstorm. And it sort of annoys me
 
It has not stopped me from buying a knife yet. But it is very annoying when I try to cut something and it catches. So I chose no.
 
I like it.

It lets me sharpen all the way to the end. It also acts like a big serration. Every knife should have it.
 
I prefer them, but it's not a deal breaker if it doesn't have one.
 
dont really care either way as long as it looks okay. I sometimes find with no choil the blade just doesnt mate well with the tang. I really like how the sebenza kinda avoids the situation by having the blade drop further than the tang.
 
It is called a sharpening choil and is not the ricasso. The ricasso is just the full thickness steel in front of the handle before the plunge line going to the primary bevel.
 
Thalestin said:
dont really care either way as long as it looks okay. I sometimes find with no choil the blade just doesnt mate well with the tang. I really like how the sebenza kinda avoids the situation by having the blade drop further than the tang.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Actually, most of my knives have bad joining of the edge and tang/ricasso. The edge isn't sharp right at that point, so there ends up being a concavity when I take the knife for sharpening. That's why I prefer a small notch.
 
I like them when they are done right but all to often knife makers both custom and production give little care to this area. I've never had a problem with it snagging on something I was trying to cut but IDK, maybe its just me.

I like it mostly because it allows a more even and clean sharpening of a edge. With knives that have a ricasso more attention must be paid to that area because minimal contact from the stone is made. Knives with a sharpening choil allow you to make full and even contact throughout the sharpening stroke, this makes getting a even scratch pattern and uniform edge quality much easier.
 
Honestly Strider folders have the worst sharpening choils I have ever seen. The low angle created by the shape of the choil between it and the blade looks like it was designed to snag on fibrous materials especially. Victorinox does theirs pretty well, allowing for plenty of sharpening to take place. My Buck Vantage Avid has a VERY nice sharpening choil which wont snag because of its obtuse angle between itself and the bade edge.

To me, the sharpening choil is a vital aspect of a knife, and I am disappointed that Spyderco often does not include them. They could easily cut one into the ricasso without reducing cutting surface and properly designed, it need not snag at all.
 
I love them. I can certainly live without them, but it's such a simple matter for a manufacturer to carve a little tiny choil in and it saves me a great deal of wear and tear on the edges of my benchstones. Generally, the knives I own that don't have such a choil get sharpened either on a ceramic stone or with the sandpaper/mousepad technique so I don't have to worry about mucking up my water stones. Even then, though, I find it quite difficult to get a consistent edge on the whole blade. Like I said, I can live without sharpening choils, but I'd rather have them given the option.

My favourite style of 'sharpening choil' is what Benchmade and Chris Reeve seem to use on most of their knives.

benchmade520.jpg


AAAACypZUoIAAAAAAEIDCA.jpg


To me, this style is ideal, because the position of the little choil sacrifices very little cutting surface, but still facilitates easy sharpening. What I dislike is this style of tang on folders, where there's just a useless little chunk of metal protruding between the handle and the cutting edge:

C10BK_L.jpg


Why not stick a little sharpening choil there, even a finger choil? It wouldn't be any more detrimental to the function of the knife than that little lump of useless steel.
 
Dorito Monk said:
Why not stick a little sharpening choil there, even a finger choil? It wouldn't be any more detrimental to the function of the knife than that little lump of useless steel.
Click to expand...

It's not useless, it's called a "kick". It prevents the blade from hitting the backspring or the inside of the handles. It's a design necessity on lockback knives (and slipjoints).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top