Equipment Dive Knife in an emergency
- Thread starter Trevor JC Brown
- Start date
This Thread Prefix is for incidents caused by equipment failures including personal dive gear, compressors, analyzers, or odd things like a ladder.
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LI-er
Contributor
Who blindly cuts into their life support gear with shears?
That's like saying you should never use a drill because you might put a hole in your hand.
If you've only got a knife and you've got an entanglement behind your head and you're wildly slashing with it behind your head you could cut your hoses just as easily.
coldwaterglutton
Contributor
Where I dive in cold water there's fish line and mono all over the place. Entanglement is a common issue.
The key is multiple cutting devices in multiple places because you never know what appendage(s) may be bound up. I carry one knife and EMT shears in a BC pocket. A trilobyte on a BC strap and a second one on my console hose. And a second knife and a wire cutter in my drysuit leg pocket on the opposite side of the BC pocket.
Adding I am not a fan of strap on knife mounts as they just become another place to snag things, I like to streamline as much as possible.
The key is multiple cutting devices in multiple places because you never know what appendage(s) may be bound up. I carry one knife and EMT shears in a BC pocket. A trilobyte on a BC strap and a second one on my console hose. And a second knife and a wire cutter in my drysuit leg pocket on the opposite side of the BC pocket.
Adding I am not a fan of strap on knife mounts as they just become another place to snag things, I like to streamline as much as possible.
davinajmyers
Registered
Ok, this thread has convinced me it's a good idea to add at least one cutting implement. Sounds like between line cutter and shears that the shears are probably the most practical. As long as they are stainless hopefully they last...
I typically carry a line cutter strapped to my wrist computer, a knife on my waist, and EMT shears in my pocket. I have used both the line cutter and shears to cut fishing line. Both worked, but I found the EMT shears were easier to use, since I didn't need to loop and tension the line. Never actually used the knife underwater.
Most shears will rust after a while, but slowly. The rivet will go first then at the joint with the plastic handle. They will stay sharp for years. But you can get a 3-pack for $8 on Amazon so just replace them every couple of years.
Either place your cutting tool where it can be reached with either hand, or have two tools, one for each hand. A single tool on your (for example) left BDC pocket flap is probably useless if your left hand is entangled.
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