I’m an indecisive giant. Millie vs Chief!

[olywa]

I have the blurple S110 Millie and love it. I have re-scaled it in Micarta with a tip-up deep carry clip. It was perfect before and now it is perfect+.

I have the S30V Chief and though I like it well enough, I rarely carry it. I'll prolly move it along and stand by for the LW, which I think is going to be a gem, especially if it gets a Magnacut Salt iteration.

[anycal]

I just realized that I have somewhat lost interest in the Chief. Haven't used it in a while. Time to change that.

I generally don't EDC a large knife. But when I do, which is primarily outdoors, ergonomics trump carriability, lock type, or materials. Military, with its more filling handle, the softer choil, and more negative blade angle, work better for me. I guess one place whare the Chief may beat the Military is food prep on a cutting board.

As far as other knives go, for a smaller knife, the GB2 has a pretty generous cutting edge. Not necessarily a knife I would recomment to a stranger, but it is one of my favorites.

[vivi]

Chief.

+ four way clip
+ as much cutting edge as the Military in a more compact package
+ the knife stays closed better than the Military
+ thinner stock, thinner BTE
+ easier to carry

Both are great but the Chief has more going for it than the Military.

Military has the edge in ease of opening, and depending on your grip the ergos might be a little better - Chief wins every other category for me.

[dan31]

For a large general edc the Chief is hard to beat. If I knew I was cutting for a fair bit that day or wearing gloves, the Military gets the nod. If so had to pick one it would be the Millie.

[James Y]

IMO, the Chief is a joy to carry. Much more comfortable than the Military, which I also love. I also like the Chief's refined Golden back lock over the Military's liner lock.

OTOH, the Chief's extra-fine, delicate tip makes me especially cautious not to accidentally bump it or drop it, for fear of chipping the tip or snapping it off. The Military also has a fine tip, but it feels a bit less concerning to me than the Chief's during use.

Jim

[Tristan_david2001]

The calypso

[Evil D]

Man that is a beautiful duo. If I were into the CF/S90V family of sprints, I would square away my funds for a Military 2 version. I bet it's already in the production cue somewhere.

[Airlsee]

I prefer the Chief for urban EDC and the Millie for camping or rural work...

[Brock O Lee]

I normally prefer the Military, but I carried the CF S90V Chief yesterday. It’s beautiful and an excellent alternative large EDC, and it carries very well.

I’m nit picking here, but the Military gets my nod for:
- easier opening/closing action
- more hand filling
- smaller less defined choil
- negative blade angle and belly
- acute but less fragile tip

[bdblue]

I don't buy lockback knives and I own 2 versions of the Military.

[Scandi Grind]

Chief. If the Chief Lightweight had been a thing this last Christmas I would have bought it instead of my Endura. It is one of the few pocket knives I am still interested in getting even though I don't have any real need of it. I still may need a shorter pocket knife, and it is very likely to be the standard Native.

[capt.carl]

It’s amazing how well the chief carries. I love both but if i could only choose one it would be the chief for the reasons vivi mentioned

[TkoK83Spy]

This should have been a poll! Feels like it's been pretty even. Great question to ask Giant, been a good thread to read through so far.

[Skar]

They are both great.

The Millie (1) would be my pick between the two .
I think a bit of belly makes it more rounded for different tasks.

The chief looks more aesthetically pleasing, yet for use I think the Millie has more going for it.

[Drubieg]

I’ve had several of each in my rotations and chief works better for me. Millie isn’t as easy of a cutter. I slice and poke a lot. Chief is sleek and mean

[Doc Dan]

I have thick muscular hands and wear a 2xl glove. The Native series doesn’t fit or feel right to me though I like the backlock best. I’ve never had the Chief because of that. I like S90V better than S110V. I love the color of the blurple Millie but prefer the lock on the Chief. I don’t like the choil on the Chief but the one on the Millie is quite okay. I’d probably choose the military over the chief and I know it fits my hands really well. Now if the military two more to come out soon that might change things.

[Wartstein]

I have thick muscular hands and wear a 2xl glove. The Native series doesn’t fit or feel right to me though I like the backlock best. I’ve never had the Chief because of that. I like S90V better than S110V....

. I don’t like the choil on the Chief but the one on the Millie is quite okay.
.....

I´ll hopefully get to try and really use a Chief really soon, and am very curious how it will feel in hand!

I wear just XL gloves, and while my hands should also be muscular just from my lifestyle, I´d not call them "thick".

Still, when it comes to the Native 5, I have that Native "issue" (for lack of a better word, it´s not a real issue) I have been sharing here several times already. Namely, that the Native 5 feels perfect in my hand when just holding the knife or in light cutting, but in harder tasks it tends to get "unstable" and starts to roll or shift a bit. This is when I am choking up and I actually have to choke up on the Native 5 for a good four finger grip (Funnily, the much thinner and also smaller Chaparrall does perhaps not feel as comfortable when just holding it, but noticeable more "stable" in real, "harder" use).

Now I wonder how this will be with the Chief. Obviously on the Chief (differently to the Native 5) I´ll get a perfect and very generous four finger grip behind the choil, but when choking up it will probably be a grip that feels much like on the Native 5 - ?!

/ As for the choil: Said it already, the Millie choil is perfect for me! Shallower, more minimal (which I like a lot), does not eat up much cutting edge but is more in the handle than in the blade - the latter is rather the opposite with the Natives, and especially in a large handle, like the Chief offers, imo it would be a tad batter to use more of that handle (and not of the blade) for the choil, since there´d be a lot of space for that and the grip behind the choil would still be long enough for pretty much any hand size.

[Wartstein]

This should have been a poll! Feels like it's been pretty even. Great question to ask Giant, been a good thread to read through so far.

A poll would have been interesting indeed!

But even more so for both models in the exact same configuration, so that the just the design (and not steel, color or handle material) would come into play.

Also would have been interesting to see how many here actually really have tried and used both models (you have, I know! I will have hopefully too soon (so far just the Millie though)) - considering that such large folders seem to be not that popular these days (or many people will not carry such due to silly legal restrictions)

[Gtscotty]

I thought the Chief was comically oversized until I got one, then I realized the design just works, you get the blade length, but the ergos and weight make it handle like a smaller blade. S90v and CF is all the better, definitely one of the knives on my must have list. I don't have a Military, but I'll get one of the new compression lock variants coming out.

[Tristan_david2001]

I agree with airslee that both are pretty great just different. The military model concept came about as literally a folding utility and self defense knife for the scenario of someone going into the military, and in this case, part of sals inspiration behind the design was specifically from the question “if your son was sent to war- what folding knife would you give them?” If I remember correctly. Which I imagine may have boosted the passion in process and contributing to the excellence that was executed in the model. if that blade shape is more your style and you don’t mind the thicker handfilling handle space which bulks up the carry. Or maybe youre specifically looking for a folder this size that feels better geared towards some harder use stuff than the chief is. Then get a military. And like airslee said, if you want the cutting performance of a larger blade but something more slimmed down, slicey, and designed suitably for an urban edc environment of cutting work. The chief is a good option for that. My advice is firstly let the work decide your choice on a knife.