Do I need a Knife?

[Gator Diver]

Okay, I see the advantages of the knife
in certain situations. Guess I will
go to my LDS and start looking for
one. Thanks for the input ya'll.

 

[BIGSAGE136]

Incredible moment in time that you thought would never happen, and you really need it. Believe me its better to have it safely placed, and available than to experience that moment and say ****! if only...

Cast nets get lost. Dumb people dump mono. Fisherman untangle
200' of line and lose it off the spool. You cant see it in water and
you can possibly become entangled. With the proper tools, note
plural, you can bail out of these situations. Without any tools you
can find yourself in a "situation".

I keep a Spyderco Harpee in my BCD. An Oceanic 5" sheathed on my inner calf, and shears in a BCD pocket. They all have a purpose.

Safe diving.

 

[mwilding]

When I first started and was buying my snorkel gear, I added a big blunt tipped dive knife to the order that straps to my leg. I just ordered a small pointed knife to attach to my BC and can already see that I would go for it 9 times out of 10...

I will have to look into the shears...

 

[Gator Diver]

My friend works in a hospital and got
me some shears at cost so I just
didnt want to buy a knife if I really didnt
need it. But looks like a do (or might at
some point)......knife....point....get it?

hehe

 

[Fireguy274]

What if your attacked by a giant sea clam would the knife or the shears be better ..lol. jk
I have cut myself or my buds out of fishing lines on a bunch of occasions. It is everywhere here in New England. There are also Lobster lines everywhere and many abandoned. I would not feel safe without a knife or shears. I never thought of shears and I am an EMT i might start carrying them....

 

[String]

Entanglement hazard to cut yourself or buddy free from the invisible monofilament or even kelp.

Other than that most have a metal tab on the handle to use as a tank banger which i also use to investigate suspect items that could be normal rock or could be wreck/metal/something else. I also use the blade to scrape growth away to investigate things at times.

Other than that its a useful tool on our boat if you need to cut a rope, do a quick repair job, untangle the prop and so on.

Im looking for a blunt tip knife though as one day im going to puncture my drysuit putting it back in the holder

 

[zeN||]

'Cause Mike Nelson always carried one, never know when you are gonna hafta knifefight a bad guy, and cut his hose ~Z

 

[salty]

DeepTechScuba once bubbled...
You cannot cut a rope with shears.

If you get caught up in your downline, you may try to cut yourself free with your shears, but it will not work. You cannot exert the cutting strength with two fingers and your shears that you can exert with your whole forearm and a knife. You would be trapped until someone came along with a knife who could cut you free.

.

I have cut through 3/4 inch anchor line with shears. They worked better than a knife especialy a stright edge knife. I still carry one of each though.

 

[dazle]

There's been plenty of reasons for supporting this.

I've used my knife to:

• Cut line I've been entangled on
  Bang on my tank to get the attention of divers and to scare big fish and sharks out of swimthough's.

I had a catch 22 the other day though. I got bitten on the leg by a trigger. Where I was bitten was where my knife was, so the injury wasn't as bad, however the situation I was in (had to get alternate as bit teeth grips off reg, couldn't use left leg to fin stroke as had had fin pulled off exposing me pinkies, was holding right leg with left hand at injury as right hand recovering ocky) meant that I couldn't use my knife in defence.

Using this in hindsight, I recommend carrying 2 cutting tools. I know there''s an ethical debate here about injuring marine life, but when it comes to the crunch and you've exhausted all other options, you may need to resort to violence to defend yourself.

I'm glad I didn't get to my knife though. If I'd of took the trigger out I would be in the deepest of ****. The trigger in question is called Trevor (Koh Tao) and is apparently an international superstar to the diving community and also my injury wasn't bad at all.

In short, by wearing a knife on the unpopular location of the leg I saved myself from losing a chunk out of my leg without even taking it out of it's sheath!

Good on ya knifes