Interesting. I just measured my Battle Rat and my Ranger RD9 (these were made from 5160 using the old SHBM as a blank). There is definitely a difference if you measure from tip to the start of the edge - I got 8" for the BR and a little over 8.75" for the RD9. However, from tip to the start of the handle, both were almost exactly 9.5". As you said, the choil and ricasso accounts for the difference. Not sure how much difference this results in for chopping performance.