Alwayslost,

That's exactly what I meant. If there's going to be a choil, it should be big enough to allow for it to be used to choke up on the blade. If it can't be done, eliminate the choil and bring the cutting edge back as far as safely possible. That rearward area of the blade offers a lot of cutting power - think about it, when you make a really tough cut, which portion of the blade do you use?

Use for the ricasso? Other than safe transition from handle to blade, I really don't know. It certainly would seem that a lot of manufacturers overdo the ricasso, wouldn't it?

M

For me it's important that the butt end of the edge not run right into the ricasso, and that's where I like the choil to work. This makes it possible to sharpen right to the end of the blade without interference from the ricasso.

As a "sharpening notch" the choil doesn't have to be very big. But a notch like that one on this knife, that's too small for a finger and doesn't terminate the edge seems useless. Maybe for a firesteel striker, but that's probably not a designed feature.

In general, a ricasso can help when sharpening, if one uses a jig or table system (like Lansky and EdgePro, respectively). It provides a flat reference plane for clamping or establishing a fixed angle.

Bear

Fears is a firearms writer. His book is decent. Wayne is just making a living like everyone else. If somebody likes his gun articles they are likely to buy his book and knife. If they get in a wreck and those two items untangle the user fine. I'm just a little jaded with the all to easily applied appelation of 'expert' I recently watched a gun 'expert' fail to withdraw the bolt from a Moisin-Nagant rifle at a sporting goods store. The more he tried, the more he sweated in his Orvis tweed ,leatherpatched shooting jacket ( in California June weather!). The teenage clerk was worried he'd break it, I'm standing there taking sinfull pleasure in both their discomfort. Anything Russian is usually 'robust and simple' to a fault:translation being a illitearte serf can operate and not break the people's property . I finally volunteered to strip the rifle and did so. I was the expert. I walked ouside and my friend's new BMW wouldn't start. We've both pushed wrenches on various cars. But this one was towed- to an expert. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />