I also agree that the choil is excessive, and combined with the hugeness of the guard, it's putting your hand veeeeery far away from the cutting surface.
In your estimation, what would be the primary drawback of this design . . . difficulty in performing fine cutting tasks or something else? Or to put it another way, what advantages would a smaller choil and guard give a knife the size of the S5? And would the distance between your first and middle finger in choking up on the grip really present a problem as the poster suggested? If so, what might that problem be?
I would say you pretty much nailed my reasons for disliking large choils. There's also the simple issue of wasted blade - it's a decent sized knife, but if the choil wasn't that drawn out square thing, I could squeeze a bit more usable cutting edge out of it. Same thing goes for the guard. I also don't like grabbing my knives with a vulcan nerve pinch for detail work, so the big split between index and middle fingers is a pain. I've got a knife with a big guard between the choil and the handle, and it chafes the crap out of my hand if I try to choke up on it.
Naturally, I won't REALLY know anything about the ergonomics of this thing until I've held it in my hand (and oh yes, I will hold it in my hand... my... precious...)
wait, what was I saying? Oh yeah, I won't know the feel of it until I feel it, but from the pictures I can say I would be slightly happier if the choil and guard were tweaked a bit. The choil/guard combination does certainly make for a nice LOOKING knife, but I'm not a big fan of form over function.
