Buck dive knife?

If you have any other suggestions I'd be happy to hear them but please keep them in the price range and same quality.
 
I have been a diver since 1975, with over 3000 logged dive, as well as a volunteer recovery diver for a local county government, so I have a LOT of experience with dive gear. I would not use either knife for diving. You want either stainless steel or a titanium alloy for a dive knife.

Mine have always been stainless because I am a frugal Texas farm boy. Anything else is a bear to keep from rusting due to the extended water exposure while diving, salts and other dissolved solids depositing on the blade, etc. Diving for evidence in a stock pond high in nitrates (fertilizer and cow piss), runoff from pesticides and herbicides, and fish poop causes all equipment to begin rusting or corroding, even when rinsed immediately. Stainless is a must. Ocean salt water will start a non-stainless knive to begin rusting in hours, even coated blades, because the salt water will easily penetrate around the guard and grip.

I had a non-stainless pair of EMS shears that got mixed up with my dive gear by accident (same orange handles). The blades rusted almost overnight. The axis pin rusted out after just a couple of months because I treated like stainless for a week.

Most divers do NOT take their knives out of their sheaths between dives to dry them off and oil them. They just leave them in the wet sheaths for hours/days on end. On live-aboard dive trips, with high relative humidity on the dive deck, nothing ever really dries out. All I ever do on these is rinse the gear in "fresh" water after each dive. The stainless stuff works best.

The best thing to do is go into a few dive shops and look at what they have. Many will have the same items, but each usually has 1 or 2 brands that the others don't. Hold them, see how they deploy and re-sheath, what their attachment points are and see how they work for you personally. Your safety equipment MUST feel right. My fellow team divers and I even been known to take our BCs in with us to check to see how and where a particular piece of equipment can be attached for the least interference/easiest use.

Over the years I have shifted from LARGE dive knives (blades over 5 inches) to smaller knives (3 - 4 inches), backed up with EMS shears. I carry 2 knives and 2 shears while diving because you never know which one will NOT be accessible in an emergency.

Since you apparently prefer tanto blades, this one is in your preferred price range. I've never even handled it ( I haven't looked for a new dive knife in 12 years), but a 4 inch blade w/ a serrated side, it looks to be a possibility.

http://www.scuba.com/shop/display.asp_id_024226
 
zzyzzogeton said:
I have been a diver since 1975, with over 3000 logged dive, as well as a volunteer recovery diver for a local county government, so I have a LOT of experience with dive gear. I would not use either knife for diving. You want either stainless steel or a titanium alloy for a dive knife.

Mine have always been stainless because I am a frugal Texas farm boy. Anything else is a bear to keep from rusting due to the extended water exposure while diving, salts and other dissolved solids depositing on the blade, etc. Diving for evidence in a stock pond high in nitrates (fertilizer and cow piss), runoff from pesticides and herbicides, and fish poop causes all equipment to begin rusting or corroding, even when rinsed immediately. Stainless is a must. Ocean salt water will start a non-stainless knive to begin rusting in hours, even coated blades, because the salt water will easily penetrate around the guard and grip.

I had a non-stainless pair of EMS shears that got mixed up with my dive gear by accident (same orange handles). The blades rusted almost overnight. The axis pin rusted out after just a couple of months because I treated like stainless for a week.

Most divers do NOT take their knives out of their sheaths between dives to dry them off and oil them. They just leave them in the wet sheaths for hours/days on end. On live-aboard dive trips, with high relative humidity on the dive deck, nothing ever really dries out. All I ever do on these is rinse the gear in "fresh" water after each dive. The stainless stuff works best.

The best thing to do is go into a few dive shops and look at what they have. Many will have the same items, but each usually has 1 or 2 brands that the others don't. Hold them, see how they deploy and re-sheath, what their attachment points are and see how they work for you personally. Your safety equipment MUST feel right. My fellow team divers and I even been known to take our BCs in with us to check to see how and where a particular piece of equipment can be attached for the least interference/easiest use.

Over the years I have shifted from LARGE dive knives (blades over 5 inches) to smaller knives (3 - 4 inches), backed up with EMS shears. I carry 2 knives and 2 shears while diving because you never know which one will NOT be accessible in an emergency.

Since you apparently prefer tanto blades, this one is in your preferred price range. I've never even handled it ( I haven't looked for a new dive knife in 12 years), but a 4 inch blade w/ a serrated side, it looks to be a possibility.

http://www.scuba.com/shop/display.asp_id_024226
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....aren't these stainless??? I was pretty sure 420 was...I'll do more research. Btw I will not be doing serious dives. Only snorkeling in oceans but I want a tool and last ditch protection from sharks.
 
Then you want a spear gun. A knife will not help you against a shark of any size, nor is that the intended purpose of a dive knife.
 
PigmonkeY said:
Then you want a spear gun. A knife will not help you against a shark of any size, nor is that the intended purpose of a dive knife.
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Yes I know I just mean as "peace of mind", for lack of better wording. I will never confront a shark and really I mean LAST ditch. Just the only uses I can think of. If I used the knife for defense, it woild be against at max a ray.. But I see your point and strongly agree.
 
As a diver, I'd say that both of those are far from dive knives. They are 420 stainless and should be pretty corrosion resistant, but the design is more of a combat oriented design. I've found that the two most frequent tasks you'll ever see underwater are cutting string/rope and prying. Even snorkeling I always found myself prying and digging things off the bottom more than any serious cutting. Therefore I'd go with a 4-5 inch blade that has both a straight edge and a serrated one, preferably with a chisel point. I also feel the same as you in regards to having some sort of protection, even if it's more mental then anything else. You can easily stab something with a chisel point and do plenty of damage without risking breaking off the tip, I like to sharpen it with a file when I get a new one. If you still definitely want the combat route, maybe find a used SOG Sealpup.

Something along the lines of this...
http://www.diversdirect.com/scuba-diving/tusa-imprex-knife/

http://www.scubadiving.com/gear/accessories/15-sensible-dive-knives
 
My bad.... yes 420HC is stainless. I had a case of brain gas and thought "high carbon". My big issue then would be it's sheath and it's release mechanism. And weight with your intended use. If the knife is not designed as a dive knife, the releases usually are not appropriated.

The primary purpose of a dive knife is to cut yourself free from whatever fishing line, netting, etc,.. you get entangled in/by. That's why I like heavy knives with significant serrations that really work along the spine. When buying a dive knife/shears, I take 1/4 inch and 3/8 inch hemp/manila and polypropelene rope in with me and test how well the knives/shears cut it. If the shop won't let me test their knives that way, no money for them.

For snorkeling, I prefer a light-weight pair of shears in a nylon sheath. They only weigh about 3 ounces, less than half the weight of either of the knives you listed. The bouyancy of the nylon helps offset the shears weight and it washes out/ dries easily. Most snorkelers don't wear BCs and don't need extra weigh to make them more negatively bouyant. On BCs, I think that snorklers should at least wear an emergency floatation vest with CO2 cartridge inflation capabilty, in case of cramps, rip currents, or simple exhaustion.

Don't know which ocean you'll be in, but along US coasts, the vast majority of shark attacks in the gulf is by bull sharks on people's feet while wading in shallow water and the feet being mistaken for a shrimp or a crab while the shark is feeding in the surf. Pacific/Atlantic attacks tend to be more at surfers wearing wet suits. The theory is that the sharks are mistaking the divers for seals, one of their primary food sources.

A knife is virtually useless against a shark. They attack from below and behind, generally, and if one is gonna get you, you're lunch any way. The last stat I saw was that you are 15x more likely to be struck by lightning that attacked by a shark. That being said, if you are the lunch that day, it is significant to you at that time.
 
I've commented on another thread like this recently. I do a ton of diving and do not recommend that anyone buy a "dive knife". I get a really aggressively serrated steak knife, cut it down to 2-3" and put it in an old mini mag light sheath. That and a trilobite line cutter on my harness are all that is needed to deal with what you're going to run into while diving, which is monofilament line and fishing net. The most important thing about it is that they don't cost enough to make you want to chase them if you drop them. You do not want to accidentally wind up at 150' chasing your shiny $75 dive knife. You do not need a knife to defend yourself against anything in the ocean. 1. You wouldn't win. The only things that would ever possibly attack you are creatures that have evolved to be ocean predators for millions of years. You have not and you would lose. 2. They're not going to attack you. You sound and look weird. You are obviously not prey and they are not going to waste the effort.

I do recommend keeping two cutting devices on you where you can reach them with either hand. If you're tangled in a net and either don't have a buddy or your buddy is too busy checking out the cool fish 50' away to notice you, you don't want to drop the only cutting device you have.

Kristopher
 
kristopher said:
I've commented on another thread like this recently. I do a ton of diving and do not recommend that anyone buy a "dive knife". I get a really aggressively serrated steak knife, cut it down to 2-3" and put it in an old mini mag light sheath. That and a trilobite line cutter on my harness are all that is needed to deal with what you're going to run into while diving, which is monofilament line and fishing net. The most important thing about it is that they don't cost enough to make you want to chase them if you drop them. You do not want to accidentally wind up at 150' chasing your shiny $75 dive knife. You do not need a knife to defend yourself against anything in the ocean. 1. You wouldn't win. The only things that would ever possibly attack you are creatures that have evolved to be ocean predators for millions of years. You have not and you would lose. 2. They're not going to attack you. You sound and look weird. You are obviously not prey and they are not going to waste the effort.

I do recommend keeping two cutting devices on you where you can reach them with either hand. If you're tangled in a net and either don't have a buddy or your buddy is too busy checking out the cool fish 50' away to notice you, you don't want to drop the only cutting device you have.

Kristopher
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U and Zzy... Have good points. I know I would never win a fight with a shark or squid etc... It couldn't hurt to have a knife with me in an attack though...just one more thing that wouldn't work but gives peace of mind. Would the cold steel srk be a good "underwater tool" in saltwater? I have things to free me from nets but I want a good tough tool for utility tasks. All I am concerned about is ultimate corrosion resistance.
 
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