Mounting Knife to BCD help

[2 Bar]

I am trying to mount my Oceanic Spinner knife to my Dacor Nautica BCD. On the outside of each pocket there is a thin flap. The flaps do not cover the tops of the pockets, they're on the outside. And no air fills this part of the BCD.

Is it safe to put holes in this for the mount? If it is, do I need to use grommets?

Here are four pictures that should illustrate what I am thinking. Thoughts? Warnings? Blessings?

[DivingGal]

First sorry no pics, so hopefully words will be able to describe what I'm trying to say.

On my jacket BC, I have two "slicers". A knife and a pair of Sea Snips. Even though I too have pocket flaps I've fastened them in other areas (I'll explain why in a moment).

The knife I've fastened on the low inflator hose with zip ties. The snips I've used a combo of groments and zip ties to the alternate shoulder strap.

No problems with either -- though the groments are now rusting (and I'm in fresh water).

Why I fastened them "up" rather than around my waist area. I figured less chance of entanglement. Less chance of accidently unfastening the item when visiting wrecks. I find I pay much more attention to the shoulder/head area than the waist area. Also I use my pockets to store things (john line, emergency signal stuff) and I might release something when I shouldn't.

[DA Aquamaster]

I've done something similar in the past with several BC's. Mounting a small dive knife on the pocket flap like that has it's advantages, particularly if you can reach it with either hand.

You just need to burn two holes appropriately spaced to accomodate the screws in the backing plate with a small soldering iron or heated nail.

It will easily punch the hole and at the same time will seal the fabric and prevent it from fraying or unraveling. This will eliminate the need to use grommets. Obviously you want to be careful not to burn a hole in the bladder while you are putting the hols sin the flap.

Measure/mark twice and burn once to avoid extra holes but otherwise it is not a real complicated process. If you sell the BC later though, plan on selling the knife with it.

[jbichsel]

should work fine. However, I would also add the grommets. Be sure to use brass or stainless steel to avoid the rust/corrosion issue.

[WVMike]

One word of advice my instructor told me. " Make sure you can see your knife with your mask on and in the water". It is different than putting on your BC on the surface and checking it out.

[DA Aquamaster]

Depending on how the knife sheath and backplate fit together a grommet may or may not be desirable.

On many smaller knives the backing plate and sheath create what amounts to a clamp that holds the sheath tightly to the BC and speards the stress over a relatively large piece of fabric. Gomments can adversely affect this as their thickness means that this clamping effect does not occur and as a result all the stress is concentrated on the two grommets. While intended to protect the hole from fraying, they can actually aggravate the situation and act as stress risers. Whether they improve the situation or not just depends on the specific application.

[Rick Inman]

I actually have mine clipped onto the middle strap of my BCD so it rests right below my sternum. Easy to reach, hard to get intangled, no permanent holes.

[learn-scuba]

I have my backup knife attached to the pocket flap on my BCD, too. My knife had a backplate that fit on the inside of the flap, so no grommets for me... it's actually attached with braass screws to to the frame of the knife. If your knife can not be screwed down as such, then yes, use grommets to prevent tear-out in the pocket flap and make sure you use non-corrosive materials -- stainless steel or brass -- for the grommets and attachment.

And as someone else pointed out... measure twice and mark twice so you only cut/burn once.

[2 Bar]

Great advice, all. Thank you. From this board I expected no less.