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knife -where on a body and how to keep from losing

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
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Andrew the fish

Well-Known Member
Oct 17, 2010
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I am thinking about having my knife attached on a string, to keep it from losing. I lost another one couple days ago, nothing new here, but quite annoying. That particular knive was something I liked and lost, bought same model and lost again.

Simply tying the string to the knive might not be the best solution. Currently I keep knife attached to calf. It is quite handy. But if I tie a string, I imagine I will be dragging a long loop. I am trying to keep things tidy, nothing snagging or tangling. Forearm maybe? That would be the closest to hand with shortest string. But then I will have to use another hand to pull out the knife from sheath, meaning less control over the fish? Or am I overthinking it? How do you folks do it?
 
I wear one knife on my left forearm where it is instantly axailable to me. A loop of bungee cord stretches over the end of the sheath to keep it from falling out, and I slide my hand through that loop as I remove the knife from the sheath. If I drop the knife its dangling from my wrist. And for the remote possibility that my right hand was restrained so that I couldn't reach that knife, my second knife is in a pocket sewn on the left thigh of my wetsuit. It also has a bungee cord loop.
 

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thank you again, Bill. Bangee loop, very unorthodox, I like it. I think this is the way to go. That, and two knives, I thought about it earlier, but now since you do that, will have two knives for sure.
 
The bungee cord loop is really not all that unorthodox. For instance Riffe has been offering that on their knives for many years. But I use thicker cord and just add it to the imitation Riffe knives made in the same Italian factory for many other brands at much cheaper prices.

BTW, it might help to say how I make the loops in the bungee. For years I used little stainless rings that were squeezed over the cord with pliers. They have a name but it escapes me now. But a much better option is to use the same constrictor knot that we use to tie bands. It can’t cut your hands and it holds very well.
 
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Oops! I just noticed that my photo showed an overhang knot. That works too but the constrictor knot is cleaner.
 
Andy, I lost a knife from my leg when I started, the catch failed. Later lost my favourite Omer USA, still quite new, backup knife when the thigh pocket I'd glued to my thigh for it fell open (partially unglued) as I returned to shore after a long dive :(. I also lost a homemade iki jimi spike after dispatching a mullet; I think I dropped it or just lost track of it, I forget.

I also lost my old flat knife in Beer. Dived the same spot next day and found it glinting in the ☀ on top of a reef in a few inches of water! :)

I have since come up with a cheap simple system which has prevented knife loss for many years: a coiled lanyard of cuttable/breakable monofilament fishing line, 25lb - 40lb -ish seems about right, attached to the knife's sheath. On my old flat knife, I have a short length of bungee between the line and sheath as an additional shock absorber but probably unnecessary. I tuck it away behind the sheath.

To make the coil, simply wrap the line around a dowel/pencil/stick and pour boiling water over it. Then let it cool or cool it in cold water.

I recently added such coil lanyards to 2 of my 3 new knives. One, the Omer-like Imersion mini dagger, has no attachment hole :(

I've dropped my flat knife maybe 2 or 3 times since, and have been happy to find it dangling safely on the line.
 
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BTW Inspired by Bill, I also added bungee wrist lanyards to the 2 knives which have attachment holes. I'm predicting the Imersion knife, which has neither lanyard, will be lost :(

However, the homemade iki jimi spike I lost had a bungee wrist lanyard. Problem was that it doubled up as the strap which held the sheath and spike together and to my weight belt, so it had to be removed from my wrist when refitting the spike-sheath-lanyard back on the belt, which was fiddly, especially when wearing gloves.
 
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Oops! I just noticed that my photo showed an overhang knot. That works too but the constrictor knot is cleaner.
The simple overhand knot in doubled line can be surprisingly strong and effective. Some years ago the rather wonderful Petzl climbing catalog featured an illustration of it being used to join ropes for rappelling (abseling) descents, where the ropes must be recovered from the bottom. It shocked a lot of climbers but we tried it, with backup initially, and it is fast and works well. A double figure 8 can be used similarly though. Refer to Petzl for details, as there are right and wrong ways to do this.
 
I am thinking about having my knife attached on a string, to keep it from losing. I lost another one couple days ago, nothing new here, but quite annoying. That particular knive was something I liked and lost, bought same model and lost again.

Simply tying the string to the knive might not be the best solution. Currently I keep knife attached to calf. It is quite handy. But if I tie a string, I imagine I will be dragging a long loop. I am trying to keep things tidy, nothing snagging or tangling. Forearm maybe? That would be the closest to hand with shortest string. But then I will have to use another hand to pull out the knife from sheath, meaning less control over the fish? Or am I overthinking it? How do you folks do it?

Hi Andrew the fish,
I fix it on the thigh.
The spiral cord (*) can be stretched over 1.5 m.I got it from a temperature probe on a portable electronic thermometer.
 

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I carry a flat knife and a pair of scissors (for the lionfish) on the inside of my left calf, sharing one sheath, and mac microsub knife on the right side of my belt. That way I can reach both knives with both hands while both hands also have an 'extra easy to reach' option. For not losing them, the leg-knife has a short bungee, just enouh to loop around the wrist, which doubles as lock for the sheath.For the belt-knive I still have to do this, but I'm not in the mood for searching the whole town for a piece of elasttic string (simple things like this are for some reason very difficult to find around here..).

When I got the second knife I tried all possible other placements. But the forearm limits the use to a single hand, and would be problematic if that hand is occupied with holding a live wild animal. The bicep requires stretching the arm to get the knife out of its sheath. The chest is too difficult to mount and most other locations have either entanglement risks or limited access to the knife.

When dispatching fish I tend to use the belt-knive as it's easiest to reach, but for lionfish I do everything with just the scissors: cutting the spines, braining an gutting.
 
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I wear one knife on my left forearm where it is instantly axailable to me. A loop of bungee cord stretches over the end of the sheath to keep it from falling out, and I slide my hand through that loop as I remove the knife from the sheath. If I drop the knife its dangling from my wrist. And for the remote possibility that my right hand was restrained so that I couldn't reach that knife, my second knife is in a pocket sewn on the left thigh of my wetsuit. It also has a bungee cord loop.
Is there anything special about the type of bungee you use? I’ve got a roll of green stuff that looks a lot poorer quality and wondering if the salt water may quickly destroy it
 
Is there anything special about the type of bungee you use? I’ve got a roll of green stuff that looks a lot poorer quality and wondering if the salt water may quickly destroy it

I buy it at a marine supply store but I don't think its anything special. I think its available at general hardware stores too. Anyway salt water doesn't seem to bother it. Stretching it a lot eventually wears it out, but it's not stretched much going over the tip of the sheath and you could relax it in storage.

I use the same stuff for breakaway float line rigs and its stretched quite a bit in that application, so I do have to replace it now and the when it wears out.
 

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Thinner bungee, e.g. 3mm, seems to deteriorate, even in limited British sunlight. I tried bungee spearline for a while, I think it last about 1-1.5 seasons. I noticed the thin bungee leash on my knife had had it recently but that might be more than 10 years old - it doesn't get stretched in normal use.

Salt, sunlight and use degrade it but the life varies. I find thin bungee quite useful to have around.
 
My flat knife, which is now reduced to a spear-extractor (impossible to sharpen, to hard and brittle steel. Stay away from X-Dive, rebranded imported crap :grrr: ), I used with an elastic shoelace as lanyard. The shoelace outlasted the knife!
 
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Ilost a few Knifes ,Then i Purchased 2 meters of black yaught elastic ,I tied it to the Sheath and knife,!Having a distance I wrap the Knife a round the Arm then into the Sheath ,Then when needed its always their,Ikeep the knife on my upper arm were i have a good visual On it.The other Knife ,rear of upper leg with the same method ,. The straps ,I use elastic.I prefer more elasticity .the same for my Spear Gun a loop to insert My Hand that way i dont drop the Gun when in the Water
 
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