Knife Blade Length

[onfloat]

Thats not a knife...
What will I use that for? it cant even cut a banana..
If being DIR means bringing a knife handle and no blade, I wont ever be DIR, that much is for certain..

I can't think of a time when I had a banana so hard that it had to be cut while I was diving.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

My DSS rig came with a Dalton Safety knife. After careful study of it i have decided that it's replacement should the need arise will come from Dollar General. And it makes it nice for traveling by air. All I need is the sheath and a stop at any dollar store. Hey maybe we should start a blade exchange at popular spots. Stop in w/a $5 dollar deposit, get your knife, drop it off on the way back to the airport and get your 5 bucks back. Just bring your sheath with you for fit.

 

[do it easy]

I got a package of 10 steak knives with serated edges at the dollar store for $3.

I think you got ripped off at the dollar store.

 

[Tigerman]

And we will miss you when your gone.:Kissy:

Your either Doing It Right or your not.

Milo

Yeah, well, my idea of doing it right might differ from yours. A rugged 3-4 inch sharp blade can do anything a broken steak knife can do and it can do it better.. So why is it so bloody wrong to bring a knife you can actually use for more than cutting fishing line?
I hardly think the extra 50 gram or so of weight is going to kill me..

I can't think of a time when I had a banana so hard that it had to be cut while I was diving.

Makes the banana so much easier to eat when you slize it up
Altho the point was that there isnt much you can really do with a 1" steak knife..

 

[Soggy]

Forget the knife. Bring EMT Scissors. They cut everything better and can be used one-handed.

 

[SparticleBrane]

Yeah, well, my idea of doing it right might differ from yours. A rugged 3-4 inch sharp blade can do anything a broken steak knife can do and it can do it better.. So why is it so bloody wrong to bring a knife you can actually use for more than cutting fishing line?

Right, but do you NEED all that? No.
The knife is only to cut yourself out of an entanglement situation.

 

[rjack321]

Yeah, well, my idea of doing it right might differ from yours. A rugged 3-4 inch sharp blade can do anything a broken steak knife can do and it can do it better.. So why is it so bloody wrong to bring a knife you can actually use for more than cutting fishing line?
I hardly think the extra 50 gram or so of weight is going to kill me..

Because when you're done with all that prying, sushi chef school, and frozen banana cutting...

your blade may or may not actually cut net or line in one swipe.

Knives are for saving your entangled bacon, that's it.

 

[james croft]

I wouldn't be caught dead slashing an airhose with a busted kitchen knife and I'm not even allowed to run with scissors, let alone swim with them. Gimme something that can let me take about 5 pounds of my weight belt.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Since no one has yet attempted to answer the OP's question, I'll give it a shot.

Is there a specific length for the knife? All of the pictures I have seen show them very short - maybe an inch or so. It seems to me, obviously with no dir training I am likely to be wrong, that a 1" to 2" blade would be less usefull for sawing through anything of moderate girth than a longer blade. Thanks.

The answer is no ... there is no specific length for a "DIR" knife.

It should be small enough to fit on the waist strap of your harness ... such that you can reach it easily with either hand. It goes without saying that it should be sharp ... that's pretty much the case for any knife you actually want to cut something with.

The overpriced titanium knife that Halcyon sells has a 3-inch blade ...

http://www.halcyon.net/acc/accessories02.shtml#knife

... as do many other commercially-available and DIR-acceptable dive knives.

Making a knife from a steak knife is fine if ...

- you're into do-it-yourself type projects
- you're cheap, and don't want to spend the money on a commercially-available product
- you really, REALLY have to be like George
- you actually take Rule 6 seriously

Neither of the two most widely-used books describing the DIR configuration (The Fundamentals of Better Diving, and Dress for Success) even discuss the dive knife.

All this obscessing about minutae is silly. If you want to be DIR, get a knife that suits your needs. Mount it on your waist strap. And go practice your skills ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[onfloat]

Making a knife from a steak knife is fine if ...
... Bob (Grateful Diver)

- you're into do-it-yourself type projects Yep.
- you're cheap, and don't want to spend the money on a commercially-available product Yep
- you really, REALLY have to be like George Oh, Yeah!!
- you actually take Rule 6 seriously You don't?!?