Dive Knives - The Law?

[Hank49]

Just buy a cheapo knife in some shop when you get to Turks and Caicos.

 

[ScubaTwo]

When we dove the Duane in Key Largo they preferred we wear gloves because of fish hooks in the descent line.

 

[lairdb]

Knife laws are confusing, ill-defined, and notorious for meaning whatever the encounter officer wants them to at the time. You'd be astonished what is unlawful in some jurisdictions.

Bernard Levine publishes some info at his site, and is available as an expert witness.

Jim March has a page dealing with knife law in California. (Bought one of those wonderfully sharp Kyocera ceramic cook's knives? Felon.) Jim also mentions a case of specific interest to divers, whose dive knives would likely fall under the "dirk or dagger" definition -- the law is only clear that these are not concealed when "suspended from the belt"; the individual arrested and charged was wearing a knife in a clearly visible ankle sheath.

Any of you San Diego divers pass through Scripps Institute land on the way to the canyon? Knife over 2.5 inches: felony.

The British Knife Collectors Guild has a legal issues page that includes links to other sources, as does the camping/hiking site Bushcraft UK.

 

[Marek K]

People do not ALWAYS wear gloves in warm water because they want to touch stuff they shouldn't. Have you ever tried to hold onto a standing line to a mooring ball to do deco after 3 1/2 hours under water using your bare hands? Your poor little paws get cuts from the critters growing on the rope!

OK, I over-generalized. But not much. I'm pretty sure the guy in Egypt that Craig was talking about wasn't wearing his reef gloves because he was going to do deco!

--Marek

 

[scubaranger]

I was on a cruise earlier this year and I took my dive knife. Had no problem getting on the ship or off but after my dive when I return I had to check it and they kept it till the last day. This was no bother to me but it didnt make sence. I had the knife in my room for 5 days before I went diving. Of course I won't mention the steak knife I used at dinner.

 

[tlawler]

My wife and I recently went on a Western Carribean cruise (Carnival), which was our first cruise. I was surprised to learn that cruise line security rivals anything in the airline industry. I had a 5 inch Tekna dive knife in my dive bag, which was checked, not thinking it would be a problem. When our bags didn't show up by 10 pm the night we sailed, I started to get worried and called the pursers office. I was told there was a "problem" with one of our bags and I needed to go to the security office. Upon arrival there, I was asked if there was anything "that could be considered dangerous" in my dive bag. I jokingly said "hey it's not like I brought my speargun or anything" (rule #1- there is no American staff on a cruise ship, so American idiom and cultural references are lost on them). I got a good dressing down from a stern faced Pakistani Chief Security Officer who thought I was being evasive about the knife, then made me remove said knife from my dive bag and turn it over to him. He said it would be available to me only at the ports where we had booked dive excursions. Whenever I went off or back on the ship and stuck my ID card in the reader, a klaxon would sound and a red light would go off announcing to all the other disembarking passengers that I was a potential terrorist. Well, not really. It just alerted the security personnel that it was time to re-confiscate my knife once again. Our other bag (the one with all of our clothes) never did show up and I kind of wonder if it freaked out the security people so much when the knife showed up on the x-ray machine that they accidently put our other bag on the ship going to the EASTERN Carribean...but that's another story.

Funny thing is, in my laptop carry-on I had a benchmade folder with a 4 inch blade and a leatherman tool with a 3 inch blade, and they either never noticed them, or ignored them. Go figure.

 

[Sasquatch]

A dive knife is a tool usually used to cut your buddy free of fishing line. I know in Honduras it was politely pointed out that "nobody dives here with those." It seemed like a cultural idiom in the dive community that sharp things just weren't done here, old boy. So in the gear bag stayed the knife.

Most of the divers here in the Great Northwest dive with more than one, at least in my circle.

My 2 pence...

 

[MarkUK]

I just have a small Beaver knife with a three-inch blade fastened on to my BCD alongside the power inflator hose. It is small, compact, out of the way but there if I need it. I have never had any issues and I've been to a lot of places over the past five or six years. I think sometimes it can depend on which side of bed the authority figure in question got out of – if they want to be awkward, they can be.

The last thing I used it for was in Bonaire back in April – I saw a small barracuda, about three feet long, with about 20-odd feet of fishing line trailing behind it. i dumped my camera to my buddy and then carefully caught hold of the loose end. The fish stopped and was gasping away – it had obviously been dragging the line for a while. I slowly made my way along the line, cutting it away at regular intervals in case it took off (I figured any line off it was better than going for the whole lot in one go). It let me get within about 6 feet of it before it twitched and was of – I wished I'd had some trauma shears or similar, as I could then have just reached forward and snipped the line, much easier than having to loop it in my hand and cut it with the knife. Could this be a new PADI speciality? Underwater Fishing...

Mark

 

[countryboy]

Some areas allow no dives / no gloves. For example: Cozumel Palancar Reef System

Check with a local dive op for the place you will be visiting.., they can fill you in on the diving rules, as well as the country's laws..

Happy Diving!

 

[Ishie]

(from CA article)"So he specially mounted his last double-edge dagger on his ankle, completely visible (not shoved down the boot or up under the pants cuff). For this, he was charged with felony concealed carry of a dirk or dagger."

Whoops. Didn't get convicted, but still. Also didn't know about the laws regarding length in Southern Cali, considering I was walking around the boat with a 7" knife strapped to my inner calf. I've walked around with it in Monterey countless times, and have even talked to cops (about other things, mainly diving) and they never said boo to me about it. Most of the time that I take it out it's to show people how old it is and that it's chrome-plated stainless steel.

(and yes, i know, why a 7" knife? Getting scallops, makes a good prybar, makes a good hammer, has a line cutter and a serrated edge for getting through entanglements, has a 'ruler' in the form of inch markings on the flat edge, it's incredibly hardy, doubles for a great camp knife, has emotional value, and was free).

With all the headaches on cruise ships and airlines though, I will probably get a cheapie 1.5"-2" BC knife to stick in checked luggage and leave the BFK for my local diving.