Knife Use and Size

[Texasguy]

Strong current River diving: St Clair, Niagara and St Lawrence. But I take two old screwdrivers and stab those into the bottom to haul myself sideways, or even stop when scrounge diving. I shudder to think of wrecking a perfectly good blade or two jamming them into sand, mud, rocks repeatedly.

Not everyone carries a handyman's toolbox under the water. Plus, one turns the blade perpendicular to the direction for a better traction.

 

[CathyCA]

Still like my big knife on my leg.



Most often used to pry off rock scallops (Southern California) and that is not very often. I don't recall ever having to cut kelp or fish line but would have it if I need it. I maybe used a knife a couple of times to help get a fish off a pole spear. I have tried carrying smaller knives but they never seemed very useful and were hard to reach in a BCD pocket.

 

[fiferguy]

Still like my big knife on my leg.

View attachment 424930

Have one just like that that I still dive with. My dad gave it to me before my first OW dive, and I've used it ever since. I also carry a little TUSA BCD knife on my inflator hose, and I'm thinking about getting a trilobite.

That being said, I'm a medic by trade, and I generally carry 4-5 blades of different kinds on duty. I never go anywhere without a blade of some sort.

 

[Coryjack70]

and EMT shears for the lionfish.

Why met shears for lionfish

 

[gr8jab]

Don't forget the necessity of slicing the LP hoses of Emilio Largo's henchmen!

 

[fiferguy]

Don't forget the necessity of slicing the LP hoses of Emilio Largo's henchmen!

I mean, that goes without saying. Though I prefer to snipe from a distance with a speargun... That's what those are for, right?

 

[CuzzA]

Why met shears for lionfish

Not my video. Always clip the tail first to limit their propulsion.

 

[Waterwulf]

Several of us were diving off of the Destin coast in the mid 70's. We had an emergency signaler set up so the people in the boat could alert divers of a problem. A piece of iron water pipe hanging in the water and a hammer to hit it with. You could hear that thing for miles underwater. So we hear it going off like crazy and head for the boat.

It was very gross. There was blood all over the the back of the boat where they had pulled him in and all over the deck where they were working on him. His calf was destroyed and it still had the monster trolling lure stuck in it! It had peeled the entire calf open and the bone was showing!

We got the story as we're heading for the Destin Coast Guard Station. While we were on the bottom, another boat came by very close to ours. Yes, we had dive flags out and the guys in our boat were blowing horns and waving them off. Their boat was a large charter type with a bunch of guys in the back and one guy driving. All of them seemed to be falling over drunk. They were trolling.

After going by, they turned and came by again, even close this time. But, when they turned, their trolling rigs fell to the bottom....where we were. Our boat captain was already on the radio to the Coast Guard reporting their ID numbers and actions.

Meantime, on the bottom, a diver just took off in reverse. His partner said he didn't know what happened, just one second he was there and the next second, he got yanked backwards and was gone. He turned around to chase him and found him heading for the surface trailing a lot of blood. The injured diver said he had no idea what had grabbed him and was carrying him off. He had to twist and turn to see the lure ripping his calf off. Then he had to twist and turn and flip around so he could reach his knife on his other calf and cut himself free. He ended up keeping his calf and leg but the doctors had to work at it.

It turned out that the "bad boat" was a charter boat. The Coast Guard busted the Captain and he ended up loosing his license plus a huge fine because he was falling down drunk like his paying customers.

I changed my dive knife selection after that. I still wear the six incher on my calf. It has a blunt tip but I keep the blade very sharp. It also has a line cutter notch and a serrated edge. I keep a little bitty 3 incher on my BC. It's double edged with a line cutter and a serrated edge. AND! I keep a double line cutter on my BC. It has no usable blade, just a line cutter notch with razor blades on both sides. No, I'm not worried about being attacked by sea monsters or aliens or spies. Yes, I worry a little about getting tangled in abandoned lines. Yes, I am terrified about getting snagged by some fisherman who wasn't able to figure out what that funny looking flag meant. Ok ok! I may have been traumatized by that incident!

 

[Storker]

I spend good time putting a razor edge on my knives (diving, kitchen, pocket, whatever) so that they will CUT without effort. (Which paid off when I got wrapped up in a fish net.)

IME the steel quality of dive knives makes it pretty difficult to put and keep a really good edge on them. The types of stainless steel that give a really good edge generally aren't stainless enough to survive for long in seawater, and the types that can withstand the seawater environment generally are pretty crappy edge steels. And don't get me started on trying to put and keep a decent edge on a titanium blade...

I have other knives which are literally razor-sharp, but given the steel quality I'm content with a half-decent edge on my large knife. And I'm prepared to sharpen it once in a while. I prefer the inner half of the blade to be serrated and the outer half smooth. The serrated inner half isn't dulled by any stabbing or prying and works fine for cutting rope, and the smooth outer half is fairly easy to sharpen when that's needed.

BTW, I carry a total of three cutting tools: Large (~15cm blade) knife inside left calf, small (~5cm blade) knife on waistband and ceramic line cutter on my shoulder strap. The small knife works pretty well as a kill knife when the large one is busy holding a flounder, wolffish or anglerfish against the bottom.

 

[Steelyeyes]

Trilobites are cool for warm water. If you're wearing much for gloves you'd probably drop one before you get to use it. Same with smaller knives. I've got a knife that acts as shears and has a line cutting hook on the back. My son and I were cutting some heavy fishing line off of a dive site in 45 degree water just yesterday. My warm water set up has a trilobite and a small knife on it.