What's out there for a fixed blade diving knife

M

Meyeracing

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Nov 12, 2014
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I'm in the market for a fixed blade knife to have when I go out kayaking. Also in finding one that has a sheath I can put on my lower leg to have easy access while out on the water. I've seen a few cheap $30 models looking around online but am wanting to buy something nice that won't rust being in a lot of water and reliable with a good tight sheath so it doesn't fall out when I'm in the river, thanks in advance for any advice and/or suggestions
 
Do a google search for titanium dive knife. There are lots of knives and retailers out there. Titanium won't rust ever, but it doesn't hold an edge as well as steel.
So if you plan to do a lot of cutting with it, don't go with a Ti blade. If it's just for emergencies a titanium blade would be ok.

If you gave us an idea of what blade length you want, pointed tip or blunt and price point we could help you a lot better.

For what it's worth, I used to do a lot of kayaking and always carried a knife. I never really found a suitable way of attaching it to my lower leg, but usually clipped
it to the front of my belt. That was comfortable enough for a sit-on-top kayak, but I don't know if it would work for a sit-in. For my wife, who used a sit-in, and had
a much shorter blade we attached it to her life vest.

Best of luck, and welcome to the forums.
 
No personal experience but check out Benchmade and Spyderco. Generally good, reviews for their dive knives and/or folders.
 
I use a Gerber River Shorty as a dive knife. mine has a chisel tip for prying, but it is also available with a pointed tip.
 
Thanks everyone for your input, I saw some of the titanium dive knives and saw a couple reviews my biggest problem is I carry benchmade, spyderco, and microtech so the brands out there are foreign to me and find trouble pulling the trigger on one. The blunt tip knives thinking about I can see a lot of uses for them, can you actually pry with them? I'll be using a sit in kayak length in the 4" range for blade
 
i had a spyderco jumpmaster with a plain edge in h1, would have fit your bill nicely. sold it though, cause i had no use for it. but i can attest that the h1 blades are really good for moderate use, no clue about salt water resistance, but that's what the were built for.
 
A knife for Kayaking and a "Dive Knife" are two different things. A Kayaking knife ideally is a 2-4 inch blade mounted for easy access.
Many mount them on their vests, handle facing down. The size and accessibility is similar to a pilot's survival knife because you are basically sitting in a cockpit. A "Diving knife" depending on the type of diving and where, can range from 4 inch
blades to 7 or so. These larger knives are used in scuba in low visibilty, deep, and wreck dives. Clear shallow warm water diving doesn't call for such knives. Don't let the steel type influence you too much; unless you work underwater in the ocean, or absolutely refuse to ever wash down your gear, you won't have a rust problem. The only exception is any carbon steel. I have a dive knife in Aus6a that
I bought in 1973 as a kid and it's still in fine shape. Still, if you are into the latest rust free steels, look at the G.Sakai Sabi models in H1. The Sabi series are fixed, come in various sizes in kydex sheaths are specifically made for saltwater applications. This is the compay that makes Spyderco's H1 knives. If you are determined to wear a knife on your lower leg (thigh) which is where I use to wear my dive knife, the cheapest solution is a SOG seal pup in kydex sheath with rubber straps. Any of the larger dedicatd Diving Knives will work this way.
But as already pointed out, any thigh worn knife may get in he way if using a sit-in Kayak.
 
Thanks ken I didn't know what the knife I was looking for was actually called, I just wanted something resistant to water being I would be in and out the water a lot and I can't use a folder due to wearing swim trunks without pockets that's why I was looking for that kind of holster
 
I use a couple of different knives from the Spyderco Salt lineup in my sit-on-top kayak. Sadly the two I use the most, the Caspian and the Aqua Salt (both fixed blades), are discontinued and get snapped up quickly in the secondary market so you would need to actively pursue them. I would also check out the Spyderco Salt Enuff SE or the G. Sakai Sabi H1 offerings as KenHash suggested. I would suggest going with serrated edges with H1 as it performs better than the plain edge versions.

Here is the Caspian Salt.
P1020354_zps379dbf87.jpg
 
I've been diving for 25 years and been through a whole pile of knives from various dive manufacturers and knife manufacturers. Right now I have an H1 Enuff attached to my openwater BC (actually a tech style harness). My cave gear has 3 Dive Rite Z knives scattered around for easy access with either hand. Knives strapped to your calf are not a great idea in my opinion and with the exception of the Jumpmaster, I don't think the Spyderco fixed blades strap well to legs or arms as the sheath / straps do not extend as far as the handle making them a bit unstable and the handle is prone to jut out creating a line trap when strapped on. I prefer mounting on a BC anyway and the Enuff sheath works well enough. I really wanted to like the Caspian Salt pictured above but it just never "gelled" with me properly.

That's a long way of saying I suggest an Enuff and mount it on your BC somewhere in the triangle formed by your shoulders and belly button - that gives it access to both hands. If you want something bigger, wait for the re-release of the Aqua Salt. Whatever you choose, make sure it either has teeth or a line cutting hook.

When I was white water kayaking I used to have a Salt 1 on my PFD. Worked fine but that was before the Enuff existed and I'd prefer a small fixed blade to a folder.
 
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