Suggestions for knife attachment

I'm curious if anyone out there has any suggestions for attaching a knife to a BC? I've had a old Zeagle Tech BC but can never seem to find a comfortable place to attach a knife. I'm not a fan of the leg strap placement. My BC is an older one that doesn't have pockets or anything so I'm at a loss on attaching things and still remaining streamlined.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jake

Why not on the top waist belt webbing strap on your left hand side?

Cable tied upside down to the convoluted hose. (Being careful not to crush it too badly of course)
Or perhaps "Commando style" upside down on the right shoulder (puncture the BCD material and cable tie there. Again, exercising care not to puncture the bladder)

Locking carabiner to a d-ring.

I have always attached mine upside down on the left side strap with zip ties, about a quarter way under the the velcro strap that folds down the low pressure inflator. I do a lot of salvage work as well as instruct down here on the Gulf and I always want it where I can get at it easily.

Why doesn't anyone put on their leg ala MIKE NELSON style? I do. I like it there. A SOG pup...oh yea

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Why doesn't anyone put on their leg ala MIKE NELSON style? I do. I like it there. A SOG pup...oh yea

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Because if I'm entangled, the odds that I can reach a knife on my torso with either hand is significantly greater than trying to reach something on my leg.

ah ha...that's why I have a mini-knife on my BC as well . i stilllike my MIKE NELSON style knife on the inside of my 'weak' leg. I' m right handed and can reach it when needed...

I have always carried at least 2 cutting devices and usually 3 all placed in different areas. depending on the rig it can be hard to find a good place but something all BCD's have in common is a hose for adding air.

I use Zip ties (at least 3) to tie the knife upside down to the ribbed hose and this has been a common place from what I have seen for others to put their knife.

other places I have seen include waist straps, in/on ds/bc pockets, right shoulder strap, on a reg/hp hose, attached to the side of your canister light head, or any other light, attached to a pony/stage/deco bottle(slung), sideways on a chest strap, attached to your reel, attached to a helmet, clipped directly to a D-ring, arm/wrist mounted, on the back of a console, on a weight harness shoulder strap, on the bottom of a backplate horizontally, etc.

Although many of those options would make replacing or even finding the knife difficult IMHO that doesn't stop people from getting creative. I would suggest whatever you decide to get your gear on in a pool or something with a buddy to assist and make sure you can remove and replace the tool without damaging gear or hurting yourself with your thickest gloves on. Being able to reach the tool with both hands is also important especially if its your only knife.

T

I have my knife on the right side of the waist belt. It's close to the secondary and if I reach down without looking and get the reg I know the knife is right above it, and vice versa. And, I can see the area well enough even wearing a hood that I can securely re-sheath the knife. It's trickier to get the knife back into the sheath properly than to deploy it, which is why I don't use the shoulder straps: too hard for me at least to see clearly with a hood on (and forget about doing much by feel with heavy gloves).

A place I would have liked to use would be the instrument console, but mine just doesn't have the right attachment points. Yours might be better this way however.

If you can't slide the sheath over the webbing, plastic wire ties and velcro straps work well to attach stuff to the BCD and are available in various sizes and colors from (in North America) Home Depot and Lowes. Also, why not add pockets to the BCD? LeisurePro and Scuba.com carry quite a variety so you can set things up the way you want (your LDS may have some you can actually try out before buying).

Eric