Fixed Blade Diving (Ocean) Knives

A lot of dive knives do not hold the best edge as they are made of the most corrosion resistent alloys of steel. Thus edge holding ability is sacrificed. However, most of them see less cutting than the prying and moving of objects, so edge holding is not that critical. Besides. even soft atainless can be brought to a reasonable edge if you sharpen properly.

Myerchin makes some good ones.
 
Check out mission knives. Made out of titanium, and are very strong blades, that will not rust. They are a little pricey though. Just do a search on google, or yahoo for places that sell them.
 
These might be some of the better ones.

CRKT ABC Aqua (AUS-8)
Böker Orca and Beluga (X15TN)
Böker also makes the titanium dagger Ti-Mariner, sometimes called Submariner
Entrek Diver (440C)
Benchmade 100SH2O (H1 or X15TN)
Underwater Kinetics Diving Knives (Titanium and Hydralloy)

If you want it absolutely corrosion proof, look into the titanium and cobalt knives.
 
I'm curious to know how other diver's use their dive knives?

I have only used mine a few times and that was to cut fishing lines I found snagged on a reef.

I haven't had to fight off that big great white yet and I don't live in CA so I can't pry abalones off the seabed.

I have mashed a few uchins for my buddies the damsel fish and gobbies who really like squished up sea urchins. You just have to watch out for those urchin spines when you do this. They also like cheeze whiz in a can. If you really want to get the reef excited a can of cheese-whiz works wonders. Little bits of cheese are all over the place and the boys come running. Be sure you camera is ready as it is very funny to see.


I carry a small dive knife because I worry about getting hooked or snagged by trolling fishing line and dragged through the water. I want something that will cut heavy mono or wire quickly. I'm very cautious when I hear a boat engine as here in S. Fla there a numerous dopes that don't know what a dive flag means unfortunately.
 
They also like cheeze whiz in a can. If you really want to get the reef excited a can of cheese-whiz works wonders. Little bits of cheese are all over the place and the boys come running. Be sure you camera is ready as it is very funny to see.
Click to expand...

Now that is funny! :D
 
I have only used my dive knife to cut once when I found someone's abandoned anchor and needed to get the excess line off of it before hauling it up. Diving in the Cooper River, I have used it several times for prying, chiseling, and hammering (mine has a good steel endcap). In lesser conditions, I have stopped carrying the big strap-on knife in favor of a small knife mounted on my BC in case of entanglement. You need too much crap to go diving anyway, so the less stuff I have to take, the better off I find I am.
 
Surprising that somebody doesn't come out with a fixed blade dive knife using H1 steel like Spyderco is using for its Salt knives. It would seem to be perfect from the reports I here of it.
 
The Benchmade 100 was made with H1, they recently switched it to X15 which is supposed to be better.
 
For diving I use a cheap skeleton dagger made of 420J or 440A (had many) which does rust (handle may tarnish), is fairly sharp (although not an optimal cutter), very inexpensive, comes with a reasonable diving sheath and seems suitable if you'll ever need to fend for your life (or limb).
 
when abalone got too scarce too harvest legally.

I never used my knife for anything but a pry bar.

I did encounter a situation (wife snagged in an abandoned net) that called for cutting, but I was able to just untie the snag. After that I started carrying a pair of emergency medical technicians stainless scissors in my BC pocket. They never rust, they still cut most anything, and they are out of the way.

JAF
 
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