Knife Question..... Do you carry one, and why

[david.tolan]

Than to need and not have.

A knife is cheap.
Doesn't require a lot of maintenance.
Isn't heavy.
Doesn't take up much room.

What's not to carry.

The down side of not having a knife (or other sharp cutty thing) if you do need it is pretty much infinite.

Would you drive around in a car with no spare tire ?

 

[MarkUK]

I have a small 3" blade knife strapped handle-down on my inflator hose on the left shoulder which is there all the time, in the Uk and abroad, but when in the UK, I also dive with a slightly larger knife 4 1/2" blade strapped on my right forearm.

Always better to be safe than sorry...

Mark

 

[SStrecker]

I carry a Rescue Cutter. It is a safe and practical knife/shears alternative device, that discretely mounts on a BC. It has not seen any practical use, so far (but you never know about the future).

 

[NineGill]

For you guys that carry both a knife and shears, do you find that you need the knife? What does your knife do for you that the shears can't?

I'm considering only diving with one or more shears. Do you think this is a mistake?

Thanks,

 

[Sasquatch]

I carry a big knife and a little knife. The big knife is for battling pirates and the little knife is to cut the ropes from the babe tied to the railroad tracks.

OK OK

I do carry a couple of strategically placed blades for all of the reasons mentioned in previous posts and because a blade is one of the "10 essentials" in wilderness travel. Submerged, I've used knives twice, once to pry an outboard motor away from the bottom and once cutting a tangled buddy from a thin, tough kelp strand/fishing line mess.

On the surface the knives are always used for something.

Sea ya!

 

[Nemrod]

Of course I carry a knife and it is big and sharp and pointy too. N

 

[Creed]

Yeah, I have a little knife and a big honking Dacor dive machete. Every open water dive is now accompanied by one or both. I've been entangled in monofilament without one, and that won't happen again.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Yes, I carry a knife in a sheath on my right leg. If there are entanglement hazards, it goes on the inside of my calf; if not, it's on the outside (easier to reach). What have I used it for over the last 40 or so years? Well, here's a sampling:

--Cut a net off a ships prop, which included cutting through a 4 inch rope that was holding the net. This was a mission ship, and our teenage dive club was in the area, so two of us cut it off after making sure that no one would start the engine.

--Cut parachute cord off a dead pilot who had been ejected through his canopy when his T-33 crashed into the Yellow Sea during my pararescue days.

--Cut through monofiliment line on many of my current river dives. I sometimes collect the fishing lures left in these masses of line on the bottom debries.

--One time I collected a live fish that had been caught, but was tangled around a root. The fisherman had to cut his line, and I came by some hours later and caught the fish that was tied to the stump's root. It was a nice 8" rainbow trout, and in my family I was the only one who caught a fish that day, and I wasn't even fishing.

I like a blade which is about 6 inches long, has a serrated edge as well as a knife edge (I used the serrated edge on the rope on the prop, and it works much better than the knife edge in that application), and is very sharp (which makes it easier to cut things). A sheers won't do some of the things a good knife will do. Mine is a Wenoka with the Z-lock system. I also like a bright handle (so I can see it if I put it down somewhere), and a one-handed locking system.

SeaRat