First thanks and let me stress my respect for your constructive reply! A great example for the general tone on this forum and why it is such a good place to be.ugaarguy wrote: ↑Sat Nov 23, 2019 12:13 pmMy apologies for forgetting you're not a native English speaker. Your English is far better than my German is, or ever will be. Also, further apologies for projecting my own background onto you. I spent quite a bit of time working in group therapy. One of the things we teach participants to do is to say "I" instead of "you". It's become a pet peeve of mine.
That aside, you asked a valid question. No, I can't choke up on the ricasso of a Delica. The ricasso area is too short for my wide forefingers to fit into safely.
As fr handle length / blade length / cutting edge comparisons: The picture in the third post of this thread - viewtopic.php?f=2&t=80516#p1249299 - illustrates that the Delica's ricasso can be converted into a choil without any loss of edge length. The Byrd Meadowlark squeezes the same length blade as the Delica into 6mm shorter handle, adds a choil, and only loses 4mm of edge length. The Medowlark just isn't available in nicer steels. The Sage series has a 3mm longer blade and 2mm longer cutting edge, but in a 2mm shorter handle than the Delica. I'd love to have 2.5mm blade thickness Sage. Maybe a liner-less Sage 4 XL slim lightweight? :D
/ As for "choking up on the Ricasso":
Without meaning to be offensive by any means, may I ask: Do you actually know (by experience) that you "can´t choke up on it" or do you just assume so?
Of course my L to XL fingers are a lot wider too than the actual Ricasso, (so they extend over it), but still it is absolutely no problem to choke up, even rather comfortable and I do it all the time (actually it is my most used grip and my fingers never even touch the edge),and I am not alone in doing so (viewtopic.php?t=85026&start=20)
And that is true for most tasks, not only "detailled work" (whatever that means). I would not do harder stabbing utilizing that grip probably, but that´s something I don´t have to do anyway. The knife often times feels "more balanced" held choked up on the Ricasso
So maybe you´d like to try choking up on the Ricasso? I assure you, it is NOT dangerous (and I really would not want that you cut yourself of course), and at least for some tasks (whittling for example) rather usefull, and still gives you a knife with a generous actual grip area that places your hand still close to the edge when not choking up.
It works best when you put your thumb not on the spine but rather on the side of the blade.
/ As for the "choil mod" on the Delica and the Meadowlark: I had the latter and also can see how the Delica-mod would work.
Still, the possible loss of edge length (which would not happen with that mod anyway) is not the real disadvantage of a choil for me, but more so that the existence of a choil puts the hand further away from the edge when NOT choking up.
So for me personally a Ricasso gives me "the best of both worlds":
A generous actual grip area on the handle with the hand already placed rather close to the edge
Plus: I can choke up on the Ricasso just like on a choil without any problem
So I am hoping the Delica will never be "cqi-ed" into a "choiled" knife, since there are already several in that size range.
I rather see features people like in the Endela transferred in those other models (for example a 2.5 mm blade stock Native or a slighthly larger Chaparral), but keep the Delica as it is...