titanium knifes

[NAUTICAL NOBLE]

Is it worth getting the titanium knife over the others?

[Walter]

Food for thought - I find lots of knives while diving. If I find so many there must be lots of them lost. I personally wouldn'y want to spend more money than I have to on something there's a fair chance I'll loose.

DSSW,

WWW™

[Ontario Diver]

Gee - not starting with the easy questions are you :D

I think the metal is primarily a religious debate. First find a knife that you are comfortable with. Look for
1) monfilament line cutting notch
2) a serated back edge with one flat ground side (so you can sharpen it yourself)
3) a blunt tip
4) a good smooth edge with a good belly (curve)

and (My personal issue)

5) get a handle that fits your hand and put a wrist loop on it

as for the metal - take care of your knife properly it will last, don't take care of it and it doesn't matter what it is made of.

Use silcone grease and rinse it and the sheath

(personally I expect to buy more knives due to losing them rather than them rusting out - so go cheaper is my theory)

Oh and check out EMT shears


matt

[jmsdiver]

Hmmmm....to carry a knife or to carry shears.....?

I have yet to find a knife that works well in multiple situations, thus I use a combination of a Z-Knife (from DiveRite) and EMT shears. Of course, neither one seems to hold up well against salt water, need to replace the knife blade (razor blade from a hobby shop) and EMT shears (about 4 bucks). As often as I have had to use a knife, I do not believe in speading a lot of money on something that can get lost.

[NAUTICAL NOBLE]

I have lots of EMT shears.....Have a Blue tang by Underwater kinetics(hope I dont lose it ) guess I will carry one or the other depending on the dive ...if titanium does not make that much of a diff......thanks all!

[luvdiving]

Nauticle Noble

I had a stainless steel dive machete (big knife) by Wenoka for years and years. It was great. It had everything I needed: blunt tip, big comfortable handle, steel butt on the handle for tank banging, the knife locked into the sheath, great leg strap buckles.... you know... everything. Then one day the tang broke :-(. I had a friend weld it, but he said it wounld'nt be as good as new. Well, after another few months diving, the tang broke again. After a period of mourning it was time for a new knife. Of course Wenoka no longer made the knife that I had.

I did some looking and research on the new styles and blade materials and wanted to try the new titanuium knives because they needed minimal care. I finally bought the blunt tip titanium model by Ocean Master. I thought it would never need cleaning? Everything is titanium except the acorn nut that secures the blade to the handle. Guess what? The acorn nut rusts! Next time... I go back to stainless steel. I could have bought two stainless steel tools for the cost of my titanium. Live and learn.:boom:

[Tavi]

Hi NN,
Starting out I just had a small $35 knife. My son bought one of those $105 titanium knives. Nice knife, well made. I was really thinking about getting one, but I wanted one a little smaller than his. Then we were diving in Lake Erie and I came up without my knife. It was one of those sheaths with double locks, almost impossible to lose. But it was gone.

I bought another inexpensive knife. I also carry EMT Shears.

Tavi

[watergal]

A huge 'thank you' to everyone one here for relieving my mind. In the past five years the grand total of my lost dive gear has been reduced to one hat, one snorkle, one pencil, and 3, yes III, yes THREE knives! I thought it was just me doing something moronic--I am overjoyed to find out it is a common problem! I love you guys!

JMS, I like your system too, but there are some places you need a standard blade like if you are going to have a dpv around any kind of line/monofilament; shears won't untangle a prop. I know this for a fact. You see, I have this friend.... :rolleyes:

[Ontario Diver]

I use the Ocean Master blunt tip as well - but in stainless. Excellent form and if you use it to spread Peanut Butter, you can barely taste the silicon grease <G>. It was the only knife that fit these huge hands o'mine. (My dive buddies wear little cute knives - so we refer to mine as the "dive Machete"as well)

I'm getting EMT shears for Christmas.

[rebelrph]

I have an unusual set-up probably..
For my recreational diving I use 1 knife and 1 pr.
EMT shears the knife is an old hand-me-down from my brother's diving days.
For my rescue BC (local FD) I carry 4 knives and 1 EMT shear . Each knife is located in a different quadrant in case of entanglement and I cant get to 1 certain location. It may seem like over kill but usually in zero viz I don't want to take chances.

BTW I haven't lost one yet but have found 2 while diving.

Todd

[Scottri]

Buy a steel one with the highest number of stainless. Knives are too easy to lose or get stolen. Not worth the money.


Scott

[large_diver]

With a little TLC, a high quality SS knife will last for several years and will cost you 50% or less than a titanium knife.

[Lost Yooper]

In all honesty, I have yet to take my little knife out of the sheath underwater. I wouldn't spend a lot money for a knife. Shears are probably the best option ($5).

Mike

[Scuba1]

Well I use a ss- knife one has to rinse all the other gear anyway, so it is no use to save those 30 seconds it takes to rinse the Knife as well. Apart from that have you ever tried to sharpen a titanium knife ...... it takes a lot longer than rinsing the thing.
And yes they do get blunt to.

[Warhammer]

I like my Gerber Gator. It wasn't designed for diving, but it serves the purpose just the same. It has good steel, easy to sharpen, and hasn't rusted yet. It's a lockblade, so it folds up nicely for tucking into a BC pocket. I also carry EMT shears, which see more use than the knife. Knife is only for carving intials in coral. :) Just kidding guys.

[Uncle Pug]

I've got this dandy little paring knife with a 2.5" curved blade that whittles a fine point on my pencil and is sharp enough (before pointing the pencil) to shave with....don't shave much UW though....

Made a little scabbard for it out of a piece of weight belting folded over and hand stiched.... friction fit...haven't lost it yet.... thing sets front and center on my waist strap.... I ground the point off and made sure it was nice and dull...wouldn't want to stab myself putting it back down there....

EMT shears live in my left pocket and work great for cutting SS downrigger wire and also double as pliers on the backside of the pivot....

My *real* dive knives all live in the garage... but I am thinking they would probably enjoy getting out .... maybe a trip to ebay...

[CGoheen]

I bought a titanium knife, because I can. Didn't really need it, haven't lost one this year but I've seen one go dropping by in deep water. I thought about buying one of those pairs of "special scissors" but I haven't recently been trapped by a penny :-)

What I have learned (through scientific friends and a titanium camping pot) is that if you mark the titanium with a "magic marker" then expose it to hot and cold, the result is the metal breaks down and will deteriorate. Kinda like rust, but without the red part.

Why would anyone mark their equipment with a "magic marker"? Well, I have lost things, and every now and then they make it back to me.

[Rick L]

Hey I found a ocean master titanium Knife two months ago :-)
Its a boot knife double edged type its ok!
My knife i use is the old scubapro with the 6 inch marks on the blade. I dont see any reason to spend a lot on a titanium knife!

my 2 cents Rick L.

[jmsdiver]

Originally posted by watergal
JMS, I like your system too, but there are some places you need a standard blade like if you are going to have a dpv around any kind of line/monofilament; shears won't untangle a prop. I know this for a fact. You see, I have this friend.... :rolleyes:

They don't punture a body bag real well either (don't ask), whereas a blade can.....soooooo, my search continues for a blade I can be proud of that doesn't take up a lot of profile space. My old Wenoka is way to big, but it's not a machete......