Thoughts on BFK? Big F-king Knife while scuba? Video included.

[Texasguy]

Video: https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&video_id=6IdM4IfFCko

Pro BFK opinion: The Politically Incorrect Blade

Thus, thoughts? Useful or not?

PS: While I chose my fav knife, Buck 120, about $60 on Amazon, there came an uncertainty how to carry it. The fake leather sheath that comes with it is not proper for scuba or salt water. Thus, I decided to get a custom one. Decision landed on ones made of kydex, a strong plastic moldable by heat. First I wanted to do it myself but decided to pay a DIY know-how person. There are sites where holsters and sheaths are made custom. I talked to the owner of one such site and asked him to make the holster to my specs. It holds the knife very well, as you see, when I dive retention wise, the handle is down, yet it remains securely in.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Hi TexasGuy,

Like you, I am a solo diver and one of the PADI self reliant diver requirements are to carry TWO cutting tools. My wife and I seem to be the only two divers to carry a knife on all of the dive boats we frequent.

In the last four years we have yet to see anyone else carry a knife. My main knife is one of those BFK ones. The wife carries a slightly smaller mini BFK.

 

[northernone]

Nice knife. I'd feel bad using it for all the things my BFK get used for underwater though. I'll be interested to know how you like it.

In Canada river drift diving I carry a big knife and it's a great tool. In the Caribbean or the caves I carry nothing or small blades/line cutters or shears.

BFK is particularly suitable for easy deployment and an easy grip. Fumbling with a little cutting tool is inconvenient in an unpredictable environment.

I've cut myself out of a blanket in nearly no viz in a river entangled in high flow with 5mm gloves on. The idea of successfully doing that with a pair of trauma shears or a cute little DIR knife without dropping them in a timely fashion is unlikely I'm afraid. Prying a jammed bolt snap free was useful. Using it as an anchor is handy. Cutting heavy rope is also easier. Dragging myself across a high flow clay bottom river is handy. Though a hoe would be more useful than a knife in that context. I've also used it to open tinned stew for a post dive supper. A big course fixed blade knife is useful under water as on land.

Come to think it it... It's similar really. I have uses for a huge knife on land. But for society, convenience and practical need is carry a 3" folding pocket knife, not a Rambo blade when I'm heading to mail a letter. Same goes for the Carribean, I don't likely need a huge smashing /slashing /prying knife with me. It isn't practical around clean net free coral in good visibility. I can imagine a situation where I'll need it but the need isn't pressing. So it stays at home.... About 6 feet away from my machete, bayonet, fillet knife, butcher knife, hunter knife, SOG "army knife". All of which the average daily land living human would also say doesn't have a logical place in every day carry life. Divers too feel that way generally about the BFK and I have to admit the probably true.

Regards,
Cameron

 

[msinc]

........The fake leather sheath that comes with it is not proper for scuba or salt water.

Neither is the high carbon stainless blade or the aluminum spacers on the handle. I guess if you rinse it really good every time you dive it might be okay, but the blade, while called "stainless" will still corrode and the aluminum parts of the handle will definitely oxidize. The way the knife is made water will get in the handle and rust will eventually creep out.
It is a great knife, don't get me wrong. The fixed blade Buck knives are my favorite all around outdoor knives. I have just about every one of them ever made, some date back to the 60's and the thing I like best about them is the ease that they can be refinished and kept looking brand new {with normal intended use}.
While it is high carbon stainless, 440HC is an excellent steel and just as they advertise, it will for sure hold an edge very well. It is hard to get that edge though and I have to use an edge guide type sharpener on mine. I just don't know about using it for a dive knife though. It also seems like you might want a handle that is not quite as slippery when wet as fixed blade Buck knives. Good luck.

 

[Damselfish]

Choose the right tool for the job. If you do dives where a BFK is potentially useful, great. If you dive where shears, line cutters, or something else small makes more sense, well then maybe that's what you should be carrying. Some people find a cut off steak knife in a simple webbing sheath to be useful, cheap, and easily replaceable.

If you want to carry a BFK just because you like to, whatever (my husband does, not sure it's ever been used.) But I would suggest just buying a knife and sheath suited for the job and environment. I enjoy DIYing things too, but for this I think it makes more sense to buy something designed for the job, rather than trying to make a sheath that works well, for a knife that may not work or last as well in the diving environment.

 

[divad]

While I chose my fav knife, Buck 120, about $60 on Amazon, there came an uncertainty how to carry it.

I'm more interested in where than how. Where do you carry a 12" long knife?

 

[TMHeimer]

I have a small knife and can't personally see a use for BFK with the type and location of my diving (haven't used it in my 12 years). But it depends on what you do. My brother had one of those to dig up clams in L.I. Sound (used it for decades until he lost it on a dive 2 years ago).

 

[Sam Miller III]

Re Buck Knives

Al Buck, made the original Buck Knives was from the San Diego, California area.
sdm

 

[Doctorfish]

By all means carry a BFK. If someone breaks a leg during a dive, you can use it as a splint.

 

[Ghetto Diver]

If you don't mind a rough sheath, make it out of pvc pipe. I have made a couple and will make one for a large Scubapro abalone knife. Tbe large one would compliment my vintage equipment and the gravey would be that iit will po many who lay tbeir eyes on it.
Pvc pipe + heat gun + saw = ghetto [diver]