Sharpening choils are a psyop.

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KnightAspirant

KnightAspirant

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Ever try to slice something open like a package of potting soil or anything that should be extremely easy for a nice blade to glide through, only to have it get hung up in the "modern" oversized "sharpening choil", forcing you to switch to a pinch grip on the blade to prevent the material from getting into the choil again?

Sharpening choils can be so annoying in practice its like they are a psyop.

The Finnish had it right with pukko's where the sharpened steel begins directly at the top of the handle. They actually use their knives!

My microtech LUDT has such a large mouth choil area that its almost unusable unless you use a pinch grip on the blade. My thing is this- if I have to move my hand off the handle to make the knife cut well, its not a good design. For what is a handle made for? Your hand.
 
KnightAspirant said:
Ever try to slice something open like a package of potting soil or anything that should be extremely easy for a nice blade to glide through, only to have it get hung up in the "modern" oversized "sharpening choil", forcing you to switch to a pinch grip on the blade to prevent the material from getting into the choil again?

Sharpening choils can be so annoying in practice its like they are a psyop.

The Finnish had it right with pukko's where the sharpened steel begins directly at the top of the handle. They actually use their knives!

My microtech LUDT has such a large mouth choil area that its almost unusable unless you use a pinch grip on the blade. My thing is this- if I have to move my hand off the handle to make the knife cut well, its not a good design. For what is a handle made for? Your hand.
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I do not like them either. That is all I have to say about that. . .
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I've been using this knife hard for two decades on my homestead. I've never had it hang up. I've never had a problem with the sharpening choil, which does make the blade easier to sharpen.
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KnightAspirant said:
Ever try to slice something open like a package of potting soil or anything that should be extremely easy for a nice blade to glide through, only to have it get hung up in the "modern" oversized "sharpening choil", forcing you to switch to a pinch grip on the blade to prevent the material from getting into the choil again?

Sharpening choils can be so annoying in practice its like they are a psyop.

The Finnish had it right with pukko's where the sharpened steel begins directly at the top of the handle. They actually use their knives!

My microtech LUDT has such a large mouth choil area that its almost unusable unless you use a pinch grip on the blade. My thing is this- if I have to move my hand off the handle to make the knife cut well, its not a good design. For what is a handle made for? Your hand.
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People have Really good reasons for wanting them..........just nobody has properly been explained them to me?
 
Crag the Brewer said:
People have Really good reasons for wanting them..........just nobody has properly been explained them to me?
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Without a sharpening choil, you get an area (right by the stress riser on this Manix original) and is difficult to sharpen without leaving some kind of unsharpened area and/or scrapes on the ricasso.

If you look at this Benchmade Skirmish and Spyderco Manix 1, I don't see how you'd think the Skirmish would be most likely to hang up.
2v2ZSSEVNxAWtWs.jpg
 
I’ve never understood the need to plunge the entire blade into something to cut it. Of all the animals I’ve processed, meat and vegetables I’ve cut along with all other knife related chores I’ve done over the last forty some odd years, I’ve never had an issue with a choil and I prefer knives with them.
 
Twindog said:
Without a sharpening choil, you get an area (right by the stress riser on this Manix original) and is difficult to sharpen without leaving some kind of unsharpened area and/or scrapes on the ricasso.

If you look at this Benchmade Skirmish and Spyderco Manix 1, I don't see how you'd think the Skirmish would be most likely to hang up.
2v2ZSSEVNxAWtWs.jpg
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I never understood that point about how you would have to leave a bit unsharpened without a sharpening choil. The sharpening choil part is unsharpened anyway so what do I care? 😁
 
WedgeAntilles said:
And yet, when Spartan made the Harsey Folder, people got upset there was no sharpening choil. People always gotta be mad about something.
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I don't think it was the lack of a sharpening choil as much as the way the grind and sharpening was poorly finished in the area in front of the plunge line.

(However, my own example is actually quite good in that regard. But it took me some time before I found one that I liked.)
 
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😁 Just having a little fun with the topic. Some people seem to REALLY hate sharpening choils. Hey, you like what you like, and you don't like what you don't like, nothing wrong with that, it's a big knife world. And if you can't complain about the stuff you don't like on a knife forum, then where?

My advice to the OP, sell the Microtech and buy a Finnish Puukko, problem solved.

Personally, I've used several different knives throughout my life, some with choils, some without, and I've never noticed an issue either way. On a few occasions I have created choils on knives that didn't have them (pics below), but that was more about looks, I just didn't like the way the end of the edge looked from the grinding and original sharpening.

Both of these were work knives and saw a lot of cutting, both before and after I added the choils. And like I said, I never noticed a difference.

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