Dive knives when out with a DM

[BoltSnap]

Can you be more exact? I haven't found much on the cape for dive sites. I'm usually in cape ann or RI.

I really can't help you there since it has been a long time since I have been there. There was a guy with a boat out of Chatham we used a lot and a friend of mine who was doing wreck search on the North shore and had his own boat.

I dove in Cape Ann the most, I even lived there during the summer for several years. I did a lot of diving in RI too, Jamestown and Narraganset mostly.

 

[CT-Rich]

I carry a ceramic line cutter on my BCD and my BFK on my leg. I was using it at a dive picnic to cut watermelo and some newbie told me it was useless. I pointed out I was using it.

I carry it mostly for nostalgia, for drysuit diving, it adds weight to my calf and minimizes the bubble. It is good for probing, measuring, hammering and cutting (only as a last resort)

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Gotcha! good writeup, and interesting. But again, nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

I was responding to someone who said that shears wouldn't work for unfouling a prop, you needed a knife for that. Which is fair, but I thought we were talking about a piece of dive gear carried at all times to deal with a dive incident (entanglement). Prop unfouling requires a specific tool for a particular working dive. There are all sorts of tools that are useful for specific tasks - sledge hammers, chisels, dredgers - but I don't recommend that divers carry them on every dive just because they are great when you need them.

So IMHO, shears work MUCH better for freeing yourself from entanglement than a knife, because (1) they will cut through a VERY wide range of stuff, including steel leader, (2) they don't require a lot of directed force to cut, resulting in the sudden quick and forceful movement of a very sharp object through the water near the diver, (3) they are cheap, light and easily deployed.

The fact that they may be harder to use to dig a fouled line out from around a prop shaft doesn't seem to be relevant to this particular discussion.

DoctorMike,

I don’t think you watched the video I posted on this post too. It showed me using my dive knife to cut nearly invisible monofilament line that I had tangled with.

Now, about the shears, can you access them with one hand in under two seconds?

SeaRat

 

[Painter]

Can you be more exact? I haven't found much on the cape for dive sites. I'm usually in cape ann or RI.

I know of one wreck that is in about 80 feet off of Long Point in P-town. I think that there are others in the vicinity. There is a book someplace (that I haven't actually seen) that is all about the wrecks on the Cape. I don't know of any dive ops that take trips to them, so a boat would usually be necessary. There is a shuttle that runs to Long Point, so a shore dive would be possible there.
As for other dive sites, I have been to Corporation Beach and Hathaway Pond, and have talked to people who have died some of the other freshwater ponds.

 

[doctormike]

DoctorMike,

I don’t think you watched the video I posted on this post too. It showed me using my dive knife to cut nearly invisible monofilament line that I had tangled with.

Now, about the shears, can you access them with one hand in under two seconds?

SeaRat

Sorry, did you get the idea that I was saying that you can't cut monofilament with a knife? Didn't mean to imply that. Yes, I agree, a knife will cut monofilament line.

I think that I can pull out shears about as quickly as a knife.

 

[Bob DBF]

Wait.

There are tactical dive chainsaws? I can't find them on scuba.com or diversdirect. Who is carrying them?!?!?

OMMOHY

Stanley CS11 Hydraulic Underwater Chainshaw CS113NO

 

[GDHLEWIS]

Always. Because you never know when a self defense scenario will manifest. I don't know you, your son and your mental history what if your schizophrenia erupts on the dive and you decide to engage in mixed martial arts combat during the dive?

Also, actually lines are out there lurking to entangle you, so be prepared with a cutting device. Be prepared for the risks, don't just hope your guide is a hero.

This exact thing happened to a few of us this weekend. Two people caught in monofilament and I had to cut my guide line in a wreck due to loosing control of it. Both cases no issues in the end as we just cut the lines balled them up and placed them in our pockets for proper removal. A small knife really is a must for me

 

[pasley]

Self-rescue is the quickest to arrive on the scene. Is the DM responsible for your safety if they are in the water leading a dive, or are they a guide? If they are leading the dive, then there is a good chance they may not see a diver in trouble at the rear.

We all make our own decisions. I always carry a cutting tool, shears, and ceramic line cutter. That is sufficient and best for cutting fishing line and something thin (1/16 inch diameter or so), but if you are entangled in anything resembling a rope-like (yellow polypropylene line for instance) the diameter of the line may be sufficiently large that you can't get it into the shears sufficiently to cut it. So it is IMHO not a case of carrying one or the other, but both should be carried.

Now we are talking about a tool, not a machete here. It should be big enough but not too big. and very sharp.

 

[BoltSnap]

I always carry a cutting tool, shears, and ceramic line cutter. That is sufficient and best for cutting fishing line and something thin (1/16 inch diameter or so), but if you are entangled in anything resembling a rope-like (yellow polypropylene line for instance) the diameter of the line may be sufficiently large that you can't get it into the shears sufficiently to cut it. So it is IMHO not a case of carrying one or the other, but both should be carried.

Exactly. I carry three; knife with sharp and serrated edge, Shears and ceramic line cutter.

 

[gert7to3]

I always have a line cutter. Diving the Great Lakes one can easily get caught up in monofilament trailing off the marker buoy, left there by some guy trolling.