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Is a dive knife neccesary or useful for free diving or skin diving?

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.

Is a Dive Knife/EMT shears a helpfu tool for free diving or skin diving (NOT scuba)?

  • Yes

    Votes: 18 78.3%
  • Not neccesary nor useful.

    Votes: 5 21.7%

  • Total voters
    23

Conan777

Member
Dec 7, 2016
8
1
11
29
I know that a dive knife is necessary for scuba divers. But what about for free-divers? I am specifically addressing recreational free-divers and NOT spearfishing. If a dive knife or trauma shears is useful for free-diving, why so?
 
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It would be very useful if you dive around a lot of abandoned monofilament.
 
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If you are diving in fished areas or areas with a lot of kelp, a dive knife can save your life. I am a recreational freediver and I always have one, as does my dive partner.
 
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Carrying a good cutting device is probably more important when freediving - since you have much less time to resolve an entanglement.

Fishing line can be present in almost any body of water. In addition, some of the newer fishing lines are synthetic dynema or kevlar like materials. these fishing lines do not degrade, they are extremely thin and able to cut your skin, they are very strong and they have very good abrasion resistance.

A dive knife is also useful for spearfisherman to dispatch a fish. If you are not spearfishing and would prefer to not carry a knife, we offer an inexpensive line cutter which will cut most fishing lines and cords and is extremely sharp and is probably a better tool than a knife for quickly cutting a line.

MLCUT-2T.jpg


We also sell shears, which are popular with lionfish hunters for trimming venomous spines, but they are not as quickly deployed and used - as compared to the line cutter shown above - so i would not recommend them as your sole cutting device when freediving.

Thanks!

Dano
 
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I own one but rarely carry it. I've actually needed one on a couple of occasions and have also become entangled a couple of times (but was able to get free). I'd recommend getting a small one that's easy to grab - entanglements can put you in awkward positions and moving around at depth isn't always easy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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I would suggest that if you do carry a knife whilst doing any form of diving then carry it on your weight belt rather than on your calf as if anywhere is likely to get caught or tangled it will be the knife on your calf. Many divers wear two knives one of them being an emergency knife if the other is lost the emergency knife often is strapped to the left bicep or forearm. Stainless steel shears are another option and come in there different forms the black handled ones below would be no use to me as i wear 5mm gloves for diving in cooler waters. The best piece of advice i can suggest is no matter what option you go for wether it be a knife,line cutter or shears always make sure they are sharp before every dive if you do not know how to sharpen them then learn as a blunt blade in any form is of no use when you need to cut yourself free. I make sure my diving knives can cut through paper and will cut any monofilament ,rope or kelp much better than shears or a line cutter will.
 

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I would suggest that if you do carry a knife whilst doing any form of diving then carry it on your weight belt rather than on your calf as if anywhere is likely to get caught or tangled it will be the knife on your calf. Many divers wear two knives one of them being an emergency knife if the other is lost the emergency knife often is strapped to the left bicep or forearm. Stainless steel shears are another option and come in there different forms the black handled ones below would be no use to me as i wear 5mm gloves for diving in cooler waters. The best piece of advice i can suggest is no matter what option you go for wether it be a knife,line cutter or shears always make sure they are sharp before every dive if you do not know how to sharpen them then learn as a blunt blade in any form is of no use when you need to cut yourself free.

I like to carry my primary knife on my left forearm. Its easy to see and easy to get to instantly. A knife on a weight belt doesn't do much good if you drop the weight belt.

Then my backup knife is in a pocket sewn on the left thigh of my wetsuit.

Both of my knives have a wrist loop of bungee cord attached. My hand goes through that loop before I take the knife out of the sheath. If I drop the knife, it isn't lost. And if I finish cutting kelp and want to use two hands to grasp a fish, I don't have to waste time putting the knife back in the sheath. I just turn loose and let it dangle from my wrist.
 

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Tried my primary knife on my forearm Bill and found it gets in the way too much but my back up knife is exactly the same as my primary knife so that the back up knife (if needs to be used)will feel just as familiar as the primary knife and is strapped to my left bicep so if i did drop my weight belt i have the same knife on my arm. Good idea having the sewn in pocket. I personally prefer paracord rather than bungee on my knives as i find when they are on the bungee they move around too much. Everone to there own.
 
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I like the bungee cord since holds the knife in the sheath. I couldn't find a photo that focused on that, but in that last one where I'm holding a yellowtail with Daryl Wong, you can see the bungee stretched over the back of the sheath.
 
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I won't dive without a knife. Scuba divers have time to deal with entanglements. Free divers don't.

This is the essence of it all. If it happens you better have a good sharpe knife, otherwise things can turn for the worse very fast.
 
There is nothing special about free diving which removes the need for a hook knife or knife. If fact it is even more important in some respects than with Scuba diving. It is peculiar that free divers may feel the need to skip certain common sense safety aids because ... I have no idea why. Physics is physics and it is good to have options.
 
I have an Eezycut on my weight belt for the longest time. it's never in my way.
 
I am never without my Mako line cutter. I spend most of my time in Florida freshwater and have swam through monofilament twice. The comfort of knowing I can happily slash through a tangle if I really get caught is so much better than panic and... #$€%÷!
 
Simple principle of "better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it." Perhaps you deem the risk of entanglement to be too low to make it "worth" always carrying one. But, for me, on the even lower chance an entangled turtle, dolphin, mola mola, whale, or whatever comes up to me to for help you can be sure I'll be ready.
 
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I have an Eezycut on my weight belt for the longest time. it's never in my way.

Just a recommendation... don't keep your knife on your belt. If you get into a problem, you may try ditching your weight first and with it your knife. If you end up still needing your knife, you've just lost it.
 
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I saw alot of freediving vids where they don't carry a knife, but i know those are controled dives with safety divers (some of them are scuba divers)
I'm sure they the safety divers made sure the dive line is free of any hazard and the freediver is relying on the safety divers
But when you dive with only one buddy in a training session or recreational dive, you may never know what you may stumble upon.
 
So, I bought a line cutter for recreational freediving and snorkeling. But, need advice how to wear it. Putting on the weight belt seems ill-advised, if I really was in trouble would not want to make mistake by releasing weight belt first. I have tropical shorty wetsuit (with no pockets), so that's no help either. Is there some sort of harness to wear?
 
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