alternatives to knives for escaping monofilament?

[TSandM]

The Trilobite line cutters rock.

 

[txapacheguy]

I normally roll with a Z-knife and a serrated knife on my harness, and a pair of shears in a pocket. I have never had to cut my way out of monofilament, but I would expect that the z-knife would be the easiest tool to use for said purpose. I have one of the benchmade strap cutter hooks from my work. My fear of taking that tool diving would be corrosion. I really like benchmade products, but I doubt that it would deal well with constant immersion in salt water unless meticulously cared for between dives, especially once the coating wears off the blade...

 

[Liquid Pleasure]

I carry EMT shears and a knife.

 

[g1138]

I consider rescue hook-type line cutters, safety cutters. You have to orientate it a certain way to capture the line and make a cut. This makes it less likely to cut yourself but it can also be troublesome since you can't just dive in and cut from any angle. With a knife, your attack angles are less limited. If you want heavy duty cutting capabilities, you rely on EMT Shears.

Don't get me wrong though, for cutting monofilament, most of them work much better than plain edge knives. Their equally as good when compared to serrated knives.
However serrated knives hold an edge over shears and rescue hooks when cutting rope. You can also pry and dig a little bit better with a knife, although those situations are specific and far in-between, for me at least.

My usual knife of choice is a Dalton (DIR) Safety knife. It's basically a sawed-off serrated steak knife with 2inch of blade rounded off at the end. Very small and easy to work with as opposed to some of the bigger knives out there.
The usual sheath is just a 17in piece of webbing folded in a Z-pattern and then stitched/glued. Fits on any 2in webbing belt/strap, friction works to keep the knife from slipping out. And it does an excellent job in that regard.

Best part is you can make the pieces yourself using files, bolt cutters, and your neighbor-hood cobbler. I'm in the process of finishing some up myself. I can give out the instructions if you want.

 

[DevonDiver]

I use a small ti-knife on my BP&W waistband. Saw a demo of the EEzycut recently and absolutely sold on it. This'll be added as soon as I can source one where I live.

 

[BAMA6977]

Which one is going to get through air port security/TSA??

 

[SDAnderson]

EMT shears - they're highly effective (nothing cuts through Spiderwire like they do) and inexpensive. Hooks knives are OK (though not much good on Spiderwire) but corrosion can significantly reduce their effectiveness and there are problems with the gap size on many of them. Standard knives are for prying...or making chum of your buddy.

 

[Rich Keller]

A knife sharpened specifically for cutting mono film should be all you need. Do not sharpen with a stone, use a bastard file instead. This will create a fine serrated edge along the blade and produce lots of burrs. You want the burrs, they are a microscopic saw blade that will cut through mono film line by just touching it.

 

[Sheri SGR]

Eezy cut makes a great, small super sharp cutter. Its design lends itself to easy use and super affordable @25$

WET TESTED / EezyCut

 

[Saxatilis]

I have a bunch of EEZYCUT TRILOBITE cutters (EEZYCUT TRILOBITE with Wrist Pouch EEZ-202-B *Buy EEZYCUT at DIVESEEKERS.com 888-SCUBA-47). I have two for diving, one mounted on each wrist. I also have one in my car in case I ever have to cut myself out of my seatbelt. I also carry one Halcyon 2" blade on my waist. Needless to say the places I dive have a lot of entanglement hazzards. I hope this helps you.