AquaBob
Contributor
Don't think he said the knife was better... just that it works well.
With gloves on, a knife is easier to deploy and use.
With gloves on, a knife is easier to deploy and use.
Do I need a Knife?
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I make of habit of cutting away fishing line as I find it and stuff it in my pocket. Fishing line is dangerous for a number of marine animals.
Charlie99
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Some additional comments:
If I NEED a knife, I dont want to drop it, so both my knife and my shears are on lanyards that go over my wrist before I unclip them from the bungee loop inside my BC pocket.
Make sure that you can both deploy and restow your knife & shears with either hand, preferably without looking. For ease of stowing I've chosen to carry a folding jacknife / lockback knife. It is easily deployed one handed.
Entanglements are not an immediate crisis if you still have a reg in your mouth and air in your tank. Often a buddy can spot the problem and simply remove it from the snag point (such as your tank valve). Don't thrash around in panic if you snag on something. Take your time and sort the problem out.
If I NEED a knife, I dont want to drop it, so both my knife and my shears are on lanyards that go over my wrist before I unclip them from the bungee loop inside my BC pocket.
Make sure that you can both deploy and restow your knife & shears with either hand, preferably without looking. For ease of stowing I've chosen to carry a folding jacknife / lockback knife. It is easily deployed one handed.
Entanglements are not an immediate crisis if you still have a reg in your mouth and air in your tank. Often a buddy can spot the problem and simply remove it from the snag point (such as your tank valve). Don't thrash around in panic if you snag on something. Take your time and sort the problem out.
Gator Diver
Contributor
okay, so you need a knife to stab a shark?......
is that it? lol
actually i have a good pair of EMS shears
and just want to know what the knife can do
that my shears can't
from the above posts.....i dont see a difference really
is that it? lol
actually i have a good pair of EMS shears
and just want to know what the knife can do
that my shears can't
from the above posts.....i dont see a difference really
DeepTechScuba
Guest
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.
The flip side is that some fine wire is actually easier to cut through with shears than with a knife. But getting caught up in fine wire is a lot more unusual than rope, your own rope especially.
I have been caught up in fishing line, and either shears or a knife would have worked fine. I had neither, so my divemaster and I had to free me manually, which took a long time. I do not dive without a knife anymore.
Two knives, as a matter of fact, in case I drop one while I am using it. One small knife is mounted on the back of my SPG and gets clipped to a D-ring. The other knife is mounted on my B/C. I can reach both of them with either hand.
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.
The flip side is that some fine wire is actually easier to cut through with shears than with a knife. But getting caught up in fine wire is a lot more unusual than rope, your own rope especially.
I have been caught up in fishing line, and either shears or a knife would have worked fine. I had neither, so my divemaster and I had to free me manually, which took a long time. I do not dive without a knife anymore.
Two knives, as a matter of fact, in case I drop one while I am using it. One small knife is mounted on the back of my SPG and gets clipped to a D-ring. The other knife is mounted on my B/C. I can reach both of them with either hand.
this is not paper/scissors/rock... this is about have redundant cutting tools... and one of each is the best IMO.
Shears work just fine for almost everything but they are line trappers themselves unless properly stowed in a pocket. That makes getting them out slightly more difficult than getting a knife from a waist belt scabbard.
The sharp blunt tip knife doesn't fair so well on things like SS wire leader but will slice through thicker line and rope than will shears and it is easy to get out and put back.
One thing that a sharp knife will do that shears will not is sharpen your pencil.
buttermanr
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I always carry a knife. One time diving in the Mediterranean at 80 feet depth when I felt something tugging my fins. Thinking it was a plant I kicked a little harder, but that did not help. When I turned around I saw that my legs were completely "bondaged" in fishing line. What I had never realized until then was that fishing line is close to neutrally buoyant and I soon found that I was enveloped in a cloud of probably 10 feet diameter of fishing line (there must have been hundreds of feet of the darn stuff..). For the next 5 minutes my buddy and I were busy cutting the stuff with our knives and getting me out of this tangle.
I probably would have been able to get out of this without my knife, but it would have taken considerably longer and if it had happened deeper or when air was getting lower or close to a non-deco time, this could have turned into an emergency.
So I strongly advise anyone to always carry a knife or scissors when diving. It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive: it just needs to be able to cut.
RB
I probably would have been able to get out of this without my knife, but it would have taken considerably longer and if it had happened deeper or when air was getting lower or close to a non-deco time, this could have turned into an emergency.
So I strongly advise anyone to always carry a knife or scissors when diving. It doesn't have to be fancy or expensive: it just needs to be able to cut.
RB
ROFLMAO...You never cease to amaze me UP...lol
Yes, here I was trying to sharpen my pencil with a rock so I could write a message on my board for my buddy to read instead of having a knife handy....kidding.
UP is right though. Placing it is very important also. I keep both on my chest so they are accessable with both arms. Some put a knife on their calf...to each his/her own...it was suggested to me that it would be easier to catch it on something that way and harder to retrieve if entangled (now don't flame me...just MY opinion). Makes sense to me so I have a small knife and shears that I carry just in case. Also, I've used the knife to stop my drifting in a current although shears might have worked but been a little more difficult in this instance.
You can read about it here:Palau
Ahhhh the memories.
I've tried both UW... and the knife really does work much better at sharpening my pencil.mars2u once bubbled...
ROFLMAO...You never cease to amaze me UP...lol
Of course now that I have a mechanical pencil that may not be the case.
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