Dive knife, is it really necessary?

[nadwidny]

Things I've used my knife for in the past-

Banging, prodding, poking, measuring, cutting, opening, rescuing, killing, cleaning, whacking, prying.

Couple of things I've done in just the past 3 or 4 days-

Cleaned the gunpowder out of a 20mm shell before bringing it to the surface. Cutting the netting out of a ghost lobster trap out so that the 4 unlucky inhabitants within could get on with doing lobster stuff. Unfortunately too late for the other 2 inside.

 

[D_B]

I have a small BC knife attached to my inflater hose, and I'll be getting EMT shears as well

Tip: is that knife sharp? ... are you sure? ... I know it feels sharp but did you try to cut something with a bit of strength like a zip tie with it?
I did, and while it felt sharp to the touch, it did not cut like I thought it should , a few minutes with a sharpening steel and it sure does now

 

[opti12206]

I always carry one and I have never had to use it. I feel better knowing that it is their.

 

[Avic7]

Anyplace with water can have fishing line.

I have been caught in fishing line while diving.

Therefore I never dive without a knife, secured by a wrist bungee to my scabbard to make sure it will not get lost.

When I need the knife, I first put on the wrist bungee and tighten it, to make sure that I do not drop it.

A wrist bungee should solve your problem of losing your knife too, AVIC.

Thanks a good idea, thanks for sharing!

 

[Randy43068]

The problem is that I have never seen a pair of EMT shears that weren't designed to cut wire and other thick objects like line so how can any pair of shears be inadequate for that job as he stated?

Now if he was talking about shears as in a pair of basic table scissors, then he has a point, but I think we can assume people aren't diving with crayola scissors in a diving forum...right? I hope, lol. But then again, who knows. Lost in translation maybe.

People dive with all sorts of hoopty **** hanging off of 'em so one cannot assume.

Actually, I have seen really cheap 'one time use' EMT shears and some heavy duty ones, so it's fair to distinguish between the two.

 

[ScubaJoy65]

I find that shears are a more useful tool than a knife. A knife can really only cut through rope whereas shears can be used to easily clip and cut through things like the fishing wire I got tangled in last weekend.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I learned to dive the New Jersey wrecks from old timers. Back then some of them would wear no BC but TWO knives. I've used my knife hundreds of times underwater.

I once was tangled up very pretty well when spearfishing. I was solo and dropped my knife and it really scared me. I now carry a small back up knife very similar to the DIR waist strap mounting method.

 

[barkeep3514]

how are you attaching your dive knife to begin with. and i think one should always have one if you dive in the ocean you would be suprised how often you come across fishing line that you dont see until it catches something

 

[Lee Taylor]

:support::support::support:

I keep losing my diving knife and I'm getting tired of replacing it. I haven't really used it all in my dives. I'm just wondering if we really need it at all. I live and dive around Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Where I dive I commonly run into plastic fishing line. I sometimes get caught on metal wire. On occasion I get caught on string or vines. I always take a pair of shears with me. The type that are sold on scuba.com and leisure.pro. I think they started out in the medical field for cutting off bandages (look closely at the shape and you can tell by the design). I have cut a penny in half with these shears. They work great for metal wire, plastic wire, string, and vines. If you are diving around rope (especially 3/4" dia or larger), you will find the serated edge of the dive knife will serve as a saw to cut the rope. A saw would probably be a better tool to have. It all depends on the type of diving you do. How likely are you to encounter things (and more specifically what types of things) that will need to be cut is the question that you will have to answer for yourself.

:support:

 

[Anti-Hero]

My pair of shears will cut a penny in half, so I don't worry too much about ropes, fishing line, or hooks. I've found my shears to be a far superior tool than my knife, which I don't carry very often anymore.