The Ricasso (unsharpened blade area), who else hates it?

manowar669 · Mar 16, 2010

On several knives I own, the ricasso is recessed or semi-circular. The mini-griptilian is probably the worst offender (I think). My problem with this is that it catches on plastic bags, and those air-pack packing "bags". Or, when cutting bundles of cordage, and sheets of thin paper or cardboard, this area catches/hooks the top cord or layer and is a general pain in the ass. Now, when looking at knives, I look for blades with a smooth transition from ricasso to edge. Does anyone else find this annoying?

BlueyM · Mar 16, 2010

Yes. It annoys me too.
I usually do a little careful belt grinder work to smooth the area out.
I have to qualify this however, by saying I have never seen a top quality knife with this problem.
Then again, a lot of my collection is junk. Cool junk, IMO, but junk never the less.

Chewy1 · Mar 16, 2010

I don't mind a small one, just to separate the sharp areas from the unsharpened. I don't like any but the small ones, though, and choils or whatever they're called are not worth anything to me.

H2H907 · Mar 16, 2010

Chewy1 said:
I don't mind a small one, just to separate the sharp areas from the unsharpened. I don't like any but the small ones, though, and choils or whatever they're called are not worth anything to me.

Seconded.

I like a separation just for ease of sharpening without dinging up the guard. The larger ones, the ones that you can "choke up" and put a finger in, I just don't get it. I think it's a bit silly to ever put your finger in front of the guard.

unit · Mar 16, 2010

I am pretty mixed on this one.

I hate having my material slip off the base of the blade and getting hung up in the ricasso while I am trying to cut, but I also dislike the difficulty associated with sharpening a blade without one.

It seems that either way, you are giving up some real estate on the steel that *could* have been sharpened. And either way, I have a small portion of the steel (nearest the handle) that either will not cut at all, or cuts less effectively due to my inability to sharpen it as well as I like.

I have come to accept the advantages and disadvantages of each (Ricasso, or no Ricasso) design.

Kaizen1 · Mar 16, 2010

manowar669 said:
On several knives I own, the ricasso is recessed or semi-circular. The mini-griptilian is probably the worst offender (I think). My problem with this is that it catches on plastic bags, and those air-pack packing "bags". Or, when cutting bundles of cordage, and sheets of thin paper or cardboard, this area catches/hooks the top cord or layer and is a general pain in the ass. Now, when looking at knives, I look for blades with a smooth transition from ricasso to edge. Does anyone else find this annoying?

If I understand you correctly, I believe you're referring to the choil area. Well, on the Griptilian it might be argued that that's not a choil, but it essentially does the same thing. I'm not a fan of them myself. Spyderco doesn't use them (outside of "finger choils" which are different) and I never have that catching issue with them. I can definitely do without them. But some knife makers design them in such a way that they don't catch and I'm okay with those. They make them slanted so that if something goes in to that area, it easily slides back onto the edge. I don't have any examples off the top of my head unfortunately.

nevermind35 · Mar 16, 2010

Kaizen1 said:
If I understand you correctly, I believe you're referring to the choil area. Well, on the Griptilian it might be argued that that's not a choil, but it essentially does the same thing. I'm not a fan of them myself. Spyderco doesn't use them (outside of "finger choils" which are different) and I never have that catching issue with them. I can definitely do without them. But some knife makers design them in such a way that they don't catch and I'm okay with those. They make them slanted so that if something goes in to that area, it easily slides back onto the edge. I don't have any examples off the top of my head unfortunately.

I also like when makers design the choil in such a way. 2 examples could be the Bradley Alias and the BM Rukus. I own both and have never had either hang up on anything, yet you can still sharpen them right down to the last millimeter. Very good designs!

manowar669 · Mar 16, 2010

Kaizen1 said:
If I understand you correctly, I believe you're referring to the choil area. Well, on the Griptilian it might be argued that that's not a choil, but it essentially does the same thing. I'm not a fan of them myself. Spyderco doesn't use them (outside of "finger choils" which are different) and I never have that catching issue with them. I can definitely do without them. But some knife makers design them in such a way that they don't catch and I'm okay with those. They make them slanted so that if something goes in to that area, it easily slides back onto the edge. I don't have any examples off the top of my head unfortunately.

Yes, you explained it a bit better than I did in the OP. I guess you would call it a choil, and some designs have a hook-like choil which catches and drags on everything. I don't mind a ricasso as long as it transitions smoothly to the edge with no step-ups or cutouts.