I once watched a guy badly cut his finger plucking deer hair from a choil while performing the gralloch. Such a thing is a crutch for makers who can't sharpen knives and imbues nothing to the user.
Thanks for clarifying the reasoning.
In so far as the risks posed by a choil arise from butchering of animals then they don't seem a relevant risk for me personally to take into account when considering suitability of knife designs (for me) as I am most unlikely to be cutting up animals.
So it seems that the importance/relevance of both adverse comments on the Raven PK1 (regarding shape of the point, and prescence of a choil) depend on whether or not you are likely to be using it for butchering.
I have never had a knife with a choil and so can't comment - on basis of personal experience - if a choil, small or large, helps someone to sharpen a knife (which was the stated reason for having a choil in the Raven PK1)
As noted above in the edit in post 39, I found a view that a choil can strengthen the blade at what might be a weak point - the blade/handle juncture. However in the Raven PK9 the choil seems to be AT the blade/handle junction and so arguably might weaken it
Compare the position of the small choil in the Raven PK1 with that on the knives in post 52:
Although it may be that in both cases the blade is weakened because the blade in both knives is narrower, and so less strong, at the choil. Or is this point on choils weakening a knife a totally spurious argument?