The Misunderstood Dive Knife!“Gimme the biggest dive knife you got! I wanna be able to fight off them sharks!”You wouldn’t believe the number of students who have said that to me before their open water checkouts. There seems to be this notion among beginners that a dive knife is a weapon to defend yourself. For those of you who think along these lines, think about this for a minute… Sharks and barracuda cruise the reefs looking for fish that are generally long, silver, and shiny. Now describe your dive knife to me. See my point? If you pull a knife near a shark or barracuda, I promise you’ll become the center of their attention. So what is a dive knife really for?
There are really two main purposes for carrying a dive knife: safety and utility.But wait a minute! Didn’t I just say that dive knives won’t help you fight off water beasts? That’s not the kind of safety I’m talking about. As you start diving more frequently you’ll begin to realise that the best places to dive are also the best places to fish. Fishermen leave behind all kinds of stuff including fishing line and nets. Getting caught in either one of them can put you in a potentially life-threatening situation. This reason alone is enough to warrant carrying at least one dive knife. I use to carry two. One knife would be on my low pressure inflator hose (easily accessible with my right hand) and the other would be on my BC cummerbund (easily accessible with my left hand). That way I could reach a knife even if one of my arms was completely entangled. The situation doesn’t even have to be life threatening!I’ve seen people get the clasp on their fins caught on a divemaster’s drift line.In that case you could finish the dive with one fin or cut the few strands of rope that are caught in your fin. There are tons of little hiccups like these that can be fixed with your dive knife. In addition, dive knives can be handy tools as well. Remember how I said I used to carry two knives? One of them was a stiletto blade and one was serrated. Serrated blades are great for cutting rope, but stiletto blades are a must for any spear fisher. It’s rare to get that perfect kill shot on a fish, so a good stiletto blade is necessary to prevent your catch from floundering around and attracting every predator in the ocean. Choosing a Dive knifeThere are plenty of other specialty blades as well.Some are meant for prying and others are designed to cut fishing line. The point is you need to consider the kind of diving you’re going to do most before you purchase a dive knife. There are literally hundreds of knives and each one is designed for a slightly different situation. Talk to your local dive shop owner. They’ll be happy to steer you in the right direction and if you still want something to prevent a shark from chasing you down, I’d recommend a slow dive buddy...... Return to Underwater Diving Equipment Home Page.
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