home made dive knife

deltablade

deltablade

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I have heard that many serious scuba divers used inexpensive knives so that if they drop them they wont be tempted to risk retrieving them as they would an expensive knife. do any of you have such a knife you could post pictures of? seems most are modified steak knives with a serrated blade, and a tip broken and filed round
 
deltablade said:
I have heard that many serious scuba divers used inexpensive knives so that if they drop them they wont be tempted to risk retrieving them as they would an expensive knife. do any of you have such a knife you could post pictures of? seems most are modified steak knives with a serrated blade, and a tip broken and filed round
Click to expand...

Well, first and foremost I can tell you that a pair of EMT shears is much more useful to ANY diver than a knife. Mainly because they will cut just about anything. Things such as monofilament fishing line, wire leaders, etc., and you can cut with using just one hand in the you become entangled whereas a knife sometimes requires both hands to get a good cut.

As to your original question. Most old time divers that know what they are doing, as well as Tech-Divers, Wreck Divers, and Cave Divers will also carry a small, blunt tipped 3"-3.5" serrated blade stainless knife that can be easily stowed in the waist band or on a harness strap. The knife that most of the Tech Divers whom I dive with carry is this one http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-4-Inch-Serrated-Paring-Knife/dp/B0000E63ZN , we do grind the tips to a more rounded point before carrying them though.

The only thing the big brightly colored, shiny dive knives with quick draw scabbards and rubber leg bungees that you see for sell in the dive shops are good for is trying to look cool, and possibly get you entangled in fishing line/net/cord/ you name it.

If the reason you are asking this question is because you are a new diver and you are trying to figure out what to carry, please shoot me a PM and I will do my best to help you out. Your best bet by far though is EMT shears...FAR better than ANY knife to a diver!
 
I carry two Tusa knives when I'm diving, a 4" blade strapped to the inside of my calf, and a 2" mini on my BCD harness. To date, I've used the 4" blade several times for cutting broken drift netting that blocked exits of swim-throughs, and cut open illegal fish traps we often find around the coral heads. (A lot of these traps around the islands in the Philippines!) Keeping the calf knife on the inside of the leg prevents it from getting tangled up. Having the harness knife is handy when going through tight swim-throughs where one might not be able to bring up a leg to get that knife, but still need the blade to remover broken netting so as to clear the exit. The mini has a sharp tip, but the larger blade has no tip at all. It's chisel ended for prying. Both are kept covered with silicon grease to prevent rusting.

I also carry EMT shears but the places we usually dive (Indian Ocean and South China Sea) don't really call for them. They are very good for cutting fishing line in areas that get a lot of recreational fishermen, rather than deep water dive sites. I carry them just because they 'can be' an effective tool under water and take up no room in my kit.

Stitchawl
 
crossroads said:
Here is a link for DIY dive knife.
http://home.earthlink.net/~toddclagett/NovaTech/knifesheath.htm

I dive an Underwater Kinetics Remora http://www.uwkinetics.com/product/41 because it's a handy size and I can screw the sheath into the 2" webbing on the shoulder strap of my BCD.
Click to expand...

Normally I'm not a fan of serrated edges, but I think for a dive knife it makes good sense. The most common thing I've had to cut while underwater has been hemp rope, and serrations are great for that.

Stitchawl
 
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