How many have legitimately used your knife/shears underwater in an emergency?

[Krazytomdiver]

As a dive guide,I had to cut a nylon SMB line that was wrapped around a customer's tank valve at about 30ft/10m other than that "nada" in ten years of guiding.

"living life without a hard bottom"
KT

 

[drbill]

Our island coast has many incredible dive spots that are also frequented by anglers. I don't know exactly how many times I've had to cut monofilament line that had entangled ion my gear. Certainly not frequently, but enough. Although fishing is minimal in our dive park (and will be forbidden as soon as it becomes a sanctioned MPA), I've even had to do a little cutting while diving there.

My preference is for shears since knives are all-too-frequently lost (I haven't bought one in 40 years... I use the ones I find even though they never have their sheathes!). However, my last two pair of shears have mysteriously left their fastened sheathes as well.

 

[g1138]

He actually thought about that, but being a male was far more concerned with other parts of anatomy ! Cut just enough to open the rest with his fingers. He said tearing was real easy and quick, when you think about it, it would be. The head-down part was probably just luck from that maneuver !

Don't think I'd be able to do that in time with my 7mm farmer john

 

[lmorin]

I used my dive knife once for underwater emergency surgery. Somehow, I acquired an urchin spine penetration and learned about it only when my hand started to hurt. Out came the dive knife and in a few seconds the spine was out, leaving only a trace of shark attractant in the water.

My wife once loaned her shears to a DM who used them to remove a large amount of monofilament from some sponges.

 

[aquaregia]

I've had to cut buddies free of mono line twice, but neither were particularly serious. I often clean up mono line that's wrapped around rocks and help, and the easiest way is to cut it. I've had three good cutting devices: stupid big SP knife on my inner thigh, shears in my bc pocket, and now a DIR knife on my waistband. The gigantic knife was the one I used in all the actual entanglements, and it served well, even if it might have been a bit scary for my buddy.

 

[Jax]

During rescue diver class, my instructor sent my buddy and I on a search pattern under a small pier in a lake with 2' vis. My buddy swam into a tangle of fishing line and got pretty badly snarled. He worked on his front with his knife, and I took my shears to his back. Good thing I was there, because he would not have gotten loose from the mess as it was hung up on the wood pier posts.

Also, lesson learned - he swam into it, immediately turned around and up, and literally tied himself in. Had he stopped, thought, and pushed backward from the post, there might have been just a strand or two. Furthermore, he kicked the holy carp* out of the 8-10" of soft silty mud.

<deleted - not pertainent to discussion>

*Purposeful

 

[MegToothMark]

I've had a few occasions where I or a dive buddy was in a minor tangle with some rope or fishing line on a wreck. I was able to quickly cut the line and make it only a 15-30 second dilemma. But, without the knife, it might have turned into an emergency situation.

 

[BTravlin]

The only time I've needed to use my dive knife was to free a stuck shutter button on my camera. Hope it never gets any more serious than that.

 

[boulderjohn]

One time my buddy and I were at the end of our planned bottom time and were trying to untie some cave line we had tied off to another line for reasons that would take too long to explain. We were in a hurry to start our ascent and decompression. My buddy decided that it wold take too long to untie it, so he produced a knife that he had carried for years but never used. It wouldn't cut through the line. I took out my Z-knife and it went through in one swipe.

I also used that Z-knife to cut some fishing line another buddy had become entangled in on a wreck.

Those are my only real uses of any cutting devices. The Z-knife is your cheapest alternative, and it works great.

 

[Roko]

During rescue diver class, my instructor sent my buddy and I on a search pattern under a small pier in a lake with 2' vis. My buddy swam into a tangle of fishing line and got pretty badly snarled. He worked on his front with his knife, and I took my shears to his back. Good thing I was there, because he would not have gotten loose from the mess as it was hung up on the wood pier posts.

Also, lesson learned - he swam into it, immediately turned around and up, and literally tied himself in. Had he stopped, thought, and pushed backward from the post, there might have been just a strand or two. Furthermore, he kicked the holy carp* out of the 8-10" of soft silty mud.

Fortunately, he dropped out of rescue class.

*Purposeful

Out of curiosity, did he have a bad attitude or was it something else the other diver did that made it fortunate he dropped the class, or was it just because he didn't react the way you think he should have when you weren't in his situation? Was there nothing more he could have gained by finishing the class? (A bad attitude would prevent someone from learning, especially if they won't admit they could have reacted in a better fashion)

I'm assuming the point of the rescue class isn't to teach someone to be a pararescue jumper and how to do HALO jumps into the middle of the pacific ocean to rescue people from a sunken submarine surrounded by Soviet frogmen itchin' for an under-water knife fight (now THAT would be a good Hollywood action movie!), but rather to give a diver an idea of what to do in an emergency situation.