Oddball Dive Knife - GI Joe and a little history

E

EdgeMeister

Joined
Nov 5, 2024
Messages
17
When I was a kid in the '60s, one of my favorite toys was my GI Joe scuba diver. Joe's dive knife was unusual, in that the serrated part of the blade looked like a "bite" out of the end of the blade, rather than a (more useful) semi-serrated main blade or a serrated spine. Other than the 1960s Hasbro toy, I'd never seen a REAL knife like this. Until I spotted one on Ebay not long ago. I couldn't resist, and excitedly hit "buy now" like a kid at Christmas. Naturally, when making an impulse purchase, I spent too much money. Below is a pic of the 1960s GI Joe dive knife (inset) and the closest thing I've ever seen to it (in real life).
It's a 12" knife, 7.25" blade. Unknown steel. Unknown handle material (nylon?)
It's a Sportsways brand, a company that was apparently a leader in SCUBA invention and development back in the day. Sportsways was founded in 1958 by Sam Lecocq. One of its first products was a revolutionary single hose two-stage regulator called WATER LUNG. This regulator's name ticked off Jaques Cousteau, who was actively promoting his competing AQUA LUNG regulator; Sam got sued by Jaques, but Sam won. The court said Sam could keep "Waterlung" -- Jaques already owned "Aqualung" and they weren't close enough to cause market confusion. After that, Sportsways took off commercially to help make SCUBA a popular hobby.
I wonder if this is the pattern Hasbro used to create their GI Joe diving knife? No idea what kind of steel it's made of, OR what kind of goofy purpose the serrations have way out on the end of the blade like that. Nostalgia? Curiosity? I dunno. It was weird. I liked it. It was a knife. I bought it. :-)

Anybody got any idea what the utility IS of putting the goofy serrations in that particular spot?
- EM


https://imgur.com/FKrnS72
 
Last edited:
Just like a chute knife it would be ideal to cut away netting, ropes etc with a quick flick back stroke......
Just a W A G....😉.......... Wild ass guess😜
 
EdgeMeister said:
When I was a kid in the '60s, one of my favorite toys was my GI Joe scuba diver. Joe's dive knife was unusual, in that the serrated part of the blade looked like a "bite" out of the end of the blade, rather than a (more useful) semi-serrated main blade or a serrated spine. Other than the 1960s Hasbro toy, I'd never seen a REAL knife like this. Until I spotted one on Ebay not long ago. I couldn't resist, and excitedly hit "buy now" like a kid at Christmas. Naturally, when making an impulse purchase, I spent too much money. Below is a pic of the 1960s GI Joe dive knife (inset) and the closest thing I've ever seen to it (in real life).
It's a 12" knife, 7.25" blade. Unknown steel. Unknown handle material (nylon?)
It's a Sportsways brand, a company that was apparently a leader in SCUBA invention and development back in the day. Sportsways was founded in 1958 by Sam Lecocq. One of its first products was a revolutionary single hose two-stage regulator called WATER LUNG. This regulator's name ticked off Jaques Cousteau, who was actively promoting his competing AQUA LUNG regulator; Sam got sued by Jaques, but Sam won. The court said Sam could keep "Waterlung" -- Jaques already owned "Aqualung" and they weren't close enough to cause market confusion. After that, Sportsways took off commercially to help make SCUBA a popular hobby.
I wonder if this is the pattern Hasbro used to create their GI Joe diving knife? No idea what kind of steel it's made of, OR what kind of goofy purpose the serrations have way out on the end of the blade like that. Nostalgia? Curiosity? I dunno. It was weird. I liked it. It was a knife. I bought it. :-)

Anybody got any idea what the utility IS of putting the goofy serrations in that particular spot?
- EM


https://imgur.com/FKrnS72
Click to expand...
It actually makes sense to me to have the serrations there , way out front on the swedge .

If you want to cut some line etc , in the middle of a tangle of other junk underwater .

Easier than using serrations crowded in tight to the guard .
 
Sportsways is the brand of the knife probably from the late 1960's or early 1970's. It was one of the more inexpensive brands
 
Maybe I’m just a toy nerd still but I often wonder about stuff like this. Thanks for this thread!
 
There's Tekna, Dacor, Wenoka, Eternal... just do a search for scuba knives.

I think Fury made some of the early scuba knives. Even Valor made some scuba knives.
 
navman said:
looks like an old SCUBA PRO or US DIVERS dive knife. I've seen them before, very common in the 1960/70's.
Click to expand...
Yes sir. I lived in the Caribbean in the 70’s and was in the water a lot. We had so many dive knifes it was pretty funny. I started carrying a smaller one on my arm for cutting line/dispatching speared fish, and beefier one on my leg for prying.
 
EdgeMeister said:
When I was a kid in the '60s, one of my favorite toys was my GI Joe scuba diver. Joe's dive knife was unusual, in that the serrated part of the blade looked like a "bite" out of the end of the blade, rather than a (more useful) semi-serrated main blade or a serrated spine. Other than the 1960s Hasbro toy, I'd never seen a REAL knife like this. Until I spotted one on Ebay not long ago. I couldn't resist, and excitedly hit "buy now" like a kid at Christmas. Naturally, when making an impulse purchase, I spent too much money. Below is a pic of the 1960s GI Joe dive knife (inset) and the closest thing I've ever seen to it (in real life).
It's a 12" knife, 7.25" blade. Unknown steel. Unknown handle material (nylon?)
It's a Sportsways brand, a company that was apparently a leader in SCUBA invention and development back in the day. Sportsways was founded in 1958 by Sam Lecocq. One of its first products was a revolutionary single hose two-stage regulator called WATER LUNG. This regulator's name ticked off Jaques Cousteau, who was actively promoting his competing AQUA LUNG regulator; Sam got sued by Jaques, but Sam won. The court said Sam could keep "Waterlung" -- Jaques already owned "Aqualung" and they weren't close enough to cause market confusion. After that, Sportsways took off commercially to help make SCUBA a popular hobby.
I wonder if this is the pattern Hasbro used to create their GI Joe diving knife? No idea what kind of steel it's made of, OR what kind of goofy purpose the serrations have way out on the end of the blade like that. Nostalgia? Curiosity? I dunno. It was weird. I liked it. It was a knife. I bought it. :-)

Anybody got any idea what the utility IS of putting the goofy serrations in that particular spot?
- EM


https://imgur.com/FKrnS72
Click to expand...

This was such a fun inquiry that I couldn't resist joining the hunt for the knife on which the G.I. Joe toy was modeled. Unfortunately, I haven't found it. But I did discover a few clues along the way that may shed some light on the shape of the toy knife.

I've seen enough dive knife designs to know that some divers prefer that the knife's line cutter be placed near the tip and that its serrations be ground into the rear side of the clip point. Presumably, having these features toward the front of the blade affords increased leverage and angle of attack for a tough cutting job. This Dacor New Sun Fish model has both in this type of configuration.

IMG-1767.jpg


IMG-1768.jpg



But the G.I. Joe knife's spine looks like it has a large, crescent-shaped divot in it, as opposed to a line-cutting groove. I couldn't find any vintage dive knives that had such a design. But that kind of scallop must have a diving purpose, because some newer knives are shaped that way.

This DK511/14 model from British maker Whitby & Company has a large, sharpened scallop on its spine. Because it's sharp, I'm guessing that it's for some kind of heavier hacking jobs.

IMG-1730.jpg


IMG-1732.jpg



But this 3022 model from Taiwanese manufacturer SaekoDive also has a similar scallop on its spine (along with a line cutter).

IMG-1770.jpg


Only, unlike on the Whitby, it isn't sharpened at all. That has me confounded as to its purpose.

IMG-1772.jpg


IMG-1771.jpg



Hopefully some of the SCUBA divers on the board can enlighten us about what such a feature might be used for in diving.


In the meantime, I hope that eventually we can turn up the original knife that inspired the Hasbro SCUBA blade. So many of the G.I. Joe accoutrements were detailed replicas of identifiable items of real military gear that I have to think that this knife wasn't imaginary.


-Steve
 
IMG_0465.jpeg

Found this over on Worthpoint. Apparently AMF Voit also made a similar dive knife. It looks pretty G.I. Joe -ish to me.
 
EdgeMeister said:
When I was a kid in the '60s, one of my favorite toys was my GI Joe scuba diver. Joe's dive knife was unusual, in that the serrated part of the blade looked like a "bite" out of the end of the blade, rather than a (more useful) semi-serrated main blade or a serrated spine. Other than the 1960s Hasbro toy, I'd never seen a REAL knife like this. Until I spotted one on Ebay not long ago. I couldn't resist, and excitedly hit "buy now" like a kid at Christmas. Naturally, when making an impulse purchase, I spent too much money. Below is a pic of the 1960s GI Joe dive knife (inset) and the closest thing I've ever seen to it (in real life). It's a 12" knife, 7.25" blade. Unknown steel. Unknown handle material (nylon?) It's a Sportsways brand, a company that was apparently a leader in SCUBA invention and development back in the day. Sportsways was founded in 1958 by Sam Lecocq. One of its first products was a revolutionary single hose two-stage regulator called WATER LUNG. This regulator's name ticked off Jaques Cousteau, who was actively promoting his competing AQUA LUNG regulator; Sam got sued by Jaques, but Sam won. The court said Sam could keep "Waterlung" -- Jaques already owned "Aqualung" and they weren't close enough to cause market confusion. After that, Sportsways took off commercially to help make SCUBA a popular hobby. I wonder if this is the pattern Hasbro used to create their GI Joe diving knife? No idea what kind of steel it's made of, OR what kind of goofy purpose the serrations have way out on the end of the blade like that. Nostalgia? Curiosity? I dunno. It was weird. I liked it. It was a knife. I bought it. :-) Anybody got any idea what the utility IS of putting the goofy serrations in that particular spot? - EM
https://imgur.com/FKrnS72
Click to expand...
Sportsways was hardly what I would call a leader in the field of SCUBA gear in the day. This is when I started diving and Sportsways was the cheap stuff that you could buy at the discount sporting goods store. It was rare to find in a quality Scuba specialty store that had instructors, classes, education, etc. I don't think the company lasted past the 1970's. By that time the big names in gear were Scubapro, US Divers, Nemrod in the USA and in Europe Poseidon, Beuchat, SOS, Fenzy and a handful of others.
zzzdiveknifeobva_540x221.jpg

zzzSportsways02.webp


Serrations were popular on diving knives because divers thought that they helped when cutting rope and such. The average sport diver never had to do things like that and would buy them because of advertisements. I had some at the time. I learned better as I went along. I got an Associates Degree in Marine Diving technology and worked for about 10 years as a Commercial / Professional Diver in the Offshore Oil Business, Underwater construction and on Submarines and Surface Ships.

I have owned a few Diving knives over the years, here are some of them that I still have.

X1-diving knives.jpg

trinity.jpg

knives.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top