My Dive Knife Is Bigger Than Your Dive Knife!

[sabbath999]

OK, that's a lie. My dive knife is SMALLER than most.

I admit it, here and now and in public. I use a short, stumpy dive knife.

It's a DIR sawed off stainless steel kitchen knife, with a sheath made out of 2 inch webbing. They are available here (if you don't want to make your own):

Deep Sea Supply Dalton Safety Knife

The reason this came to mind was a recent cavern dive. We were diving in a cavern and a cave diver came out of the darkness reeling in his line. We both waved politely, and he swam past and is was absolutely amazed by the knife he was wearing on his leg (which is a Sheck Exley no-no to start with... knives on legs bad, according to Sheck). The knife was one of those "I am going to kill a great white shark with my machete" kind of knives. It reached from the bone knob in his ankle to his knee, probably 18 inches from hilt to SHARP tip. It had a huge round ball on the top, inch and a half across at least...

I did feel much safer knowing that he had this thing strapped on and would be able to protect us from any cave sharks (as long as he didn't die from the entanglement risks from that sword).

OK, spill the beans. What are you diving with?

Me, if I want a second cutting tool (and I do) it is EMT Shears.

 

[wrybosome]

Hey at least it's stiff...

I have the same, it came with the DSS harness. Also a pair of shears in my belt pouch and a little serrated bc knife that lives on my inflator.

edit: the big shark killer knife sounds cool though, lol.

 

[scubassplayer]

Ok, I admit it I have one of those monster knives. I purchased it in the 70's and strap it to the inside of my leg. I also carry dive shears. I only carry the knife here around the Great Lakes. In the past I found it tangled when strapped to the outside of my leg, but since switching to the inside there has been no issues. If I was buying a knife today I would probably get something smaller that I could attach to the bcd, but I see no current reason for switching with the type of diving I do. On vacation I leave it home and only bring the emt shears.

 

[cloudflint]

I carry a beaver hammerhead, I hang it off my left shoulder pointing downwards so it cant really snag on anything unless i swim around backwards. Its ridiculously huge and bulky but the beaver salesman was selling it cheap cos he didn't want to have to lug it home from the dive show he was at

It does have some advantages though:

1. you can take a kilo or ten off your belt
2. if you are coming into shore and there are alot of wave you can take it out and lie on it and surf back to shore.
3. you can stab it into the ground as an impromptu anchor
4. you can lash it to the back of a boat to form an impromptu rudder or even use it as an emergency paddle
5. you can lean it against a wall to make an impromptu lean-too to get changed under.
6. you can cut a shark in half with one swing
7. if sharp enough you can supposedly use it to cut the oceans themselves
8. Other divers see you wearing it and immediately know that you are clearly a manly man who is to be respected and not at all ridiculed for carrying a small surfboard strapped to your shoulder

I have actually done number 3 a few times and it works quite well, i suspect some of the outhers may just have been the salesman's flashy sales talk.

 

[captndale]

Your DIR knife is fine for diving in caves where the only thing you will ever have to cut is string. Up here in the Great Lakes wrecks you would probably cut your dry glove and maybe yourself with it before you dropped in the wreck where you would never find it again. A tool must be chosen with intended purpose in mind. Different cutting tools are appropriate for different kinds of diving. We dive the wrecks of the Great Lakes. They are "real" wrecks - twisted up steel and wooden machines, filled with broken bulkheads, cable, wire and chain. We dive in cold water which requires you to wear thick gloves, preferably dry gloves. A knife needs to have a handle large enough to hold onto. The blade needs to be large enough to cut rope as well as string. It helps if the blade is strong enough to be used as a pry bar and a pummel on the end of the handle that can be used as a hammer comes in use too. Yes, I carry one of those big knives on the inside of my leg. I also carry a second smaller square ended tool and a pair of wire cutters on my waist strap and I have been very glad to have each of them at times when I have needed them.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

One of those sawed off little knives to me is worthless. How am I supposed to dispatch a fish with that?
I use a Riffe pointed and very sharp dagger style knife mounted on my waistband. Length is about 5" or so.

I really want a big knife for scallop shell prying and also fish dispatching. My Riffe is a bit short and delicate for prying rock scallop shells open.
Right now I use an ab bar to pry open scallop shells but I want to consolidate my gear and a big knife would be great to have.

Different tools for different applications.
We don't have caves or wrecks in Norcal so those little sawed off box cutters are useless around here.

 

[WoodyLompoc]

I use the "Blue Reef 3.5" Compact BCD Knife, Blunt". It looks like a child's toy and even my 100# sister in law teases me about how tiny it is. Hey, it cuts line, travels easy, and doesn't hang up in the kelp. (My wife and teenage son also carry the same, but the teenager wants to do a James Bond upgrade for the looks.)

I also have an XS Scuba Stryker point tip that I won at a dive club meeting. Great knife, but I don't like point tips for diving.

 

[SouthSideScubaSteve]

I have a pair of EMT shears and a Gerber Moray knife (it's ~ 11" long, with a 5-6" blunt-tip blade) ... It's very intimidating & manly!!

Now for a brief hijack!
I made a mounting plate so that i could mount it to the pocket of by BC, but have found that it interferes with using the pocket… for those of you who carry your manly knives strapped to your leg, where and how do you attach it (inside/ outside; thigh / calf; etc)

We now return you to your previous thread topic! :focus:

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I shore dive in East Hawaii.

I usually carry 2 (but somtimes 3 ) knives. A short, blunt-tipped "foofy" one on my waist strap, and a long "manly" dagger on my leg (throwback to my spearfishing days).

Different environments = different tools.

 

[Nemrod]

OK, that's a lie. My dive knife is SMALLER than most.

I admit it, here and now and in public. I use a short, stumpy dive knife.

It's a DIR sawed off stainless steel kitchen knife, with a sheath made out of 2 inch webbing. They are available here (if you don't want to make your own):

Deep Sea Supply Dalton Safety Knife

The reason this came to mind was a recent cavern dive. We were diving in a cavern and a cave diver came out of the darkness reeling in his line. We both waved politely, and he swam past and is was absolutely amazed by the knife he was wearing on his leg (which is a Sheck Exley no-no to start with... knives on legs bad, according to Sheck). The knife was one of those "I am going to kill a great white shark with my machete" kind of knives. It reached from the bone knob in his ankle to his knee, probably 18 inches from hilt to SHARP tip. It had a huge round ball on the top, inch and a half across at least...

I did feel much safer knowing that he had this thing strapped on and would be able to protect us from any cave sharks (as long as he didn't die from the entanglement risks from that sword).

OK, spill the beans. What are you diving with?

Me, if I want a second cutting tool (and I do) it is EMT Shears.

The times I have needed/used a knife and there have been a few, that one, the blunt steak knife, would have been useless.

N