What part of a knife is called the "choil?"

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geothorn

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Sorry for asking a stupid question, but I haven't ever heard the word "choil" before until I became a BladeForums member. I started reading the poll-containing thread concerning the sharpening of "choils," but, if I don't know what the heck a "choil" is, I am not going to understand what I'm reading.

Thanks for your help,

GeoThorn
 
Here's a diagram with all of the wonderful sexy parts of a knife.

Knife Anatomy 101--click on it:

 
A choil is a cut-out out of the blade on the "edge side" right were the tang is (right in front of the handle), usually to fit a finger when you are choking up on the blade, or to catch a blade when knife fighting (which isn't really my thing) (the Swamp rats all have pronounced choils). Spyderco referes to their choils as 50/50 choils since the choil is actually half cut out of the handle and half cut out of the blade (check out the Manix as an example). Sometimes there is only a small notch right at the transition between the edge and the tang. Some refer to this notch as "Spanish notch" but I have heard others say that is incorrect. To them a spanish notch is more of the size of a choil but differently formed and presumably had a defensive function in catching an opponents blade. I don't think the nomenclature is overly strict.
 
Thank you, very much, for your helpful replies!

While you were replying, I was out taking a photo, illustrating what I *thought* a choil was, before I read your replies:

Choil.jpg


Thanks for confirming it. :)

GeoThorn
 
Um, one more thing...are there more types or styles of choil than just a single one? The choil on my Buck 119 looks like a great place to put a finger for fine work, but, is there such a thing as a "sharpening choil" available on some knives?

I need to read more books on knives....

GeoThorn

Other Thread Link
 
I would call, what you indicate a choil, yes.

Take a very close look at the Chinook II here:
http://www.spyderco.com/catalog/details.php?product=22

you will see that it has a 50/50 choil, but in front of the finger choil it has a very small notch right were the edge ends. I would refer to this simply as notch but I think this is what the thread that you indicate refers to as sharpening choil. As I said the nomenclature is not that strict.
 
Thanks again, Mr. HoB! That link to the Spyderco Chinook was a great illustration. Hm, if there's a whole line of "choils" in the edge could that also be called 'serrations?' ;)

Sometimes I wish that the nomenclature was stricter.

GeoThorn
 
Thanks underage, but I am no knifemaker. I am hardly the last authority on this. Simply trying to make sense of what I read, and found that people use different terms to very similar things like tang and ricasso (tang:blade behind pivot and ricasso blade between edge and pivot. To distinguish them on a folder is pretty simple on a fixed blade it seems to depend on how you want to make the handle.

But serrations are definitely not a series of choils. There is one VERY important distinction: choils are NOT sharpened! ;)
 
But...that other thread is about sharpening choils...this is *so* confusing! ;)

After re-examining all of my knives, it seems that I subconciously don't prefer "sharpening choils," as I have two (of six) that have sharpening choils. None have a wedge-shaped choil like that Spyderco example you showed, but two had the round sharpening choil as appears on the Benchmade example, in the other thread.

Now at least I know that there are "finger choils" and 'sharpening choils' and the difference between them (I Think).

Thanks again!
GeoThorn
 
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