Origin of the finger choil?

[Catamount123]

One of the features on many Spyderco folders I really appreciate is the finger choil. I’m curious, was this a Spyderco innovation, or does the origin lie elsewhere?

[JSumm]

Here is a thread Sal started back in 2006. Based on his OP I am not sure Spyderco was the first, but definitely an early adopter in folders. May have existed in fixed blades long before.

viewtopic.php?t=22593

[billdoier72]

i don't know where they started, but I freaking love them.

[skeeg11]

Choils have been around for quite some time. Some of the knives I purchased in the early eighties had them. Lakota Hawk, Lil' Hawk, Fishhawk and even some Gerbers like the Presentation Skinner.

[Bolster]

I'm fairly certain Conan the Barbarian had a prototype of a large finger choil on his sword...though he's not actually using it in the following photo...but he did use it when chopping tomatoes and onions for lunch.

[Evil D]

I bet it was literally made by someone who had a knife they liked but had a handle that was too small so they ground an extra finger groove into the blade and realized the potential.

On a folder I can see it being a more deliberate design choice. You wanna make a small folder, but you want it to have a full size grip so the only way that can happen is to grip part of the blade.

On a fixed blade, you can make the handle as big as you want, and I really don't buy into the "choked up grip" idea because if you're designing a knife from scratch you can make the grip however you want it so the handle positions your hand as close to the edge as it would be with a choil. Because of that I think the earliest choils on fixed blades were afterthoughts.

[sal]

The first time I saw it used was in designs by Moki Sakurai that he did for Kershaw decades ago.

sal

[WilliamMunny]

I guess a great grand father to the finger choil was a finger guard on old school swords hundreds of years ago. It allowed the user to place their finger in front of the guard for more dexterity.