Carrying your knife

[Brian Hamilton]

Hi there, just thought I'd tell you all about my new way of carrying my knife.

It was inspired after I lost my last knife from its sheath which was mounted on my inner calf. £25 down the drain got me thinking about how to use the knife to finish off fish without losing the thing afterwards.

What I have done with my new knife is mount it on the inside of my left forearm. I have my D3 mounted on my upper arm and spearloader for my pnuematic gun on my right arm on an elastic mount so this is about the only place on my arms left to mount anything.

The top of the sheath faces my hand and I have taken a string loop with adjustable toggle from a torch and attached this to the handle of the knife. This toggle is then attached to my hand.

Now when I draw the knife with my right hand and place it in my left I can cut away to my hearts content and if I drop the knife it cant be lost.

The only disadvantage with this setup is you cant draw the knife with your left hand but if i ever get in a situation where my right hand can reach the knife I can pull the knife out with my mouth and it can be dropped into my left hand.

If any of you have ever gone through the annoyance of losing a knife and are ultra paranoid about losing another this is a good set up and has proved to work well for me so far (even when used in pretty savage seas which have given me seasickness).

Cheers, Brian

 

[dave]

Arm mounting is very convenient for killing fish, but otherwise a very bad idea. You need to be able to reach it with both hands in an emergency. Trying to do something complicated in an emergency is just not going to work. Also, it you use any sort of wrist lanyard it should be elastic (a strip of inner tube for example) so you can snap it or pull your hand free it it gets snagged.
Personally I mount my knife on my belt, but a pocket on the thigh of the suit also works well (and is very secure if made right). For killing fish I use my stringer as it is less messy than a knife. If you are really worried about the expense of losing knives, just use a small kitchen knife in a home made sheath. Very sharp, and as they are so cheap you never lose them, Murphys law says it is only expensive knives that get lost!
cheers
dave
www.spearo.co.uk

 

[Ben Gowland]

Hi Brian - wherabouts in Scotland are you?

Ben

 

[Brian Hamilton]

Ben,

check your personal messages.

Cheers, Brian