Dive knife recommendation?

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Mora2013

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Dec 1, 2013
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I haven't been out to scuba/snorkel in over 5 years, but am finally going to do so again next month.

I'd like to take along a smaller dive knife around or less than 3" blade length, which I've never carried previously (maybe once, my wife remembers but I don't). I don't recognize any of the seemingly popular dive knife manufacturers.... cressi, aqua lung, etc ... and big internet store reviews on a lot of these are mixed.

After reading prior dive knife threads, it seems to be a common thing to bring something cheap, as loss into the water appears common. And my prior experience in the water suggests that things dropped, may never get recovered, so inexpensive would be nice.

Most of the tactical dive knives seem to be around 4.5", so I was looking at some skeletonized neck knives as an option. Seen a few by boker, kabar, and buck that may fit my needs.

Anyone have additional suggestions?

Edit: I was also thinking fixed blade rather than folder for the water.
 
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If you want to go old school you can hunt down one of the Tekna dive daggers. They came with a sheath with good retention and velcro straps for securing to your leg or arm.
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Before I got my awesome Spyderco Aqua Salt, which I would hate to lose in the water, I used a Gerber River Shorty which is much less expensive and now lives in my wife's dive kit. I only had rust once and that was after I didn't rinse in freshwater and let it dry. Otherwise 8 years of flawless service in salt.

It's also a great little knife for overseas travel where knife laws might frown on a "tactical" style knife.
 
whichever you pick...my decades of diving all ovet the planet the only kind of knife i found useful was a fully serrated one....kept sharp. plain edges, which i prefer over serrated on land use, regardless of steel or titanium blade type and regardless of how sharp they were were useless for underwater uses i ran into to. good luck on the hunt. if i still dove id be bringing my spyderco full serrated salt h1 with me.
 
Disposable but decent:
- Mora Companion in stainless
- Anything by Tekna
- KaBar Piggyback
- Mini Pitbull by Timberline

Excellent but more expensive:

- Spyderco Serrated ARK
- Spyderco Enuff H1

those or smaller blades, for larger but unbeatable options

- Spyderco Aqua Salt
- Spyderco Jumpmaster / Jumpmaster 2

or the upcoming

- Spyderco Fish Hunter
 
Ocean Master knives. These are some of the best knives for this purpose hands down. Reasonably priced too.
 
Mora2013 said:
what's your experience with the 1.75" blade length?
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Good, its small so it mounts in may places easily. The only complaint is the tip bends fairly easily but on the bright side, it bends not breaks. Overall I like the knife.
 
My dive knife recommendations, based on 45+ years and 8000+ dives, are in the 11th post of this thread==

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1309627-Diving-dive-knives?highlight=dive

In a nut shell,
- short,
- BLUNT TIP,
- brightly colored handle,
- serrated edge
- fixed blade

for a CHEAP price. I currently use McNett dive knives in yellow. They meet MY stated criteria.

Repeat- FIXED BLADES ONLY for any type of water activity.

IMO, no FOLDING KNIFE is EVER appropriate for use as a dive/snorkle/kayak/canoe knife while actively engaged in one of those activities. If you NEED a knife RIGHT NOW, no matter how it opens, a folding knife is too slow. Just the act of having to open a knife with wet hands can result in losing the knife. Add on gloves and the loss probability goes WAY UP. If a folding knife is the only knife you have, well, that's better than no knife, but a good CHEAP fixed blade will always be better.

Dive knives are easily lost, difficult to locate when dropped (even with bright handles) and are seldom used as a knife while underwater. A dive knife does not need to have great edge keeping properties. It only needs to be sharp enough to cut what ever you (or) your dive buddy are tangled in. In 45 years of diving I have never NEEDED to sharpen a dive knife. I lost them faster than I needed to sharpen them.

The ONLY purpose of expensive dive knives is to make dive shops and dive knife manufacturers money.
 
You should look specifically at the Ocean Master dragon's claw. It is a small fixed blade knife with a hooked claw. It has a ring in the grip. It can be gripped in many ways and the ring is big enough for a glove. It is designed to be used to make controlled cuts by holding it with your ring finger through the ring and your index and middle fingers over the top so the knife is held with the blade facing upwards allowing for controlledncutss towards the body. You have to look it up to get an idea.
 
When I was in the Navy, I took a knife on every dive, and never pulled it.

My dive buddy pulled his exactly once. We were exploring along a jetty when I got hooked in the leg and started getting pulled to the surface. He pulled the knife and cut the fishing line, leaving the lure stuck in my suit. I surfaced to find a fisherman on the jetty who was just coming down from his rush at thinking he'd caught a record ling cod. Hung the lure from my rear view mirror for a few years.

If I was to pick up diving regularly again, I'd pick up the TUSA mini knife. I'd opt for the blunt tipped, yellow handled one.

My suggestion: Blunt tip, not a bunch of money, bright yellow or orange handle. Odds are you'll lose it before you use it.
 
zzyzzogeton said:
My dive knife recommendations, based on 45+ years and 8000+ dives, are in the 11th post of this thread==

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1309627-Diving-dive-knives?highlight=dive

In a nut shell,
- short,
- BLUNT TIP,
- brightly colored handle,
- serrated edge
- fixed blade

for a CHEAP price. I currently use McNett dive knives in yellow. They meet MY stated criteria.

Repeat- FIXED BLADES ONLY for any type of water activity.

IMO, no FOLDING KNIFE is EVER appropriate for use as a dive/snorkle/kayak/canoe knife while actively engaged in one of those activities. If you NEED a knife RIGHT NOW, no matter how it opens, a folding knife is too slow. Just the act of having to open a knife with wet hands can result in losing the knife. Add on gloves and the loss probability goes WAY UP. If a folding knife is the only knife you have, well, that's better than no knife, but a good CHEAP fixed blade will always be better.

Dive knives are easily lost, difficult to locate when dropped (even with bright handles) and are seldom used as a knife while underwater. A dive knife does not need to have great edge keeping properties. It only needs to be sharp enough to cut what ever you (or) your dive buddy are tangled in. In 45 years of diving I have never NEEDED to sharpen a dive knife. I lost them faster than I needed to sharpen them.

The ONLY purpose of expensive dive knives is to make dive shops and dive knife manufacturers money.
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Thank you for the Mcnett suggestion. How well do their sheaths hold up? In other words, do you trust the sheath alone, or use anything additional to secure the knife?

Also, what would you think about their serrated sheepfoot knife? I know it's not yellow high visibility; however, but I'm thinking a longer serrated blade is more familiar to me than a gut hook-plain edge / partially saw edge combo?
 
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Velitrius said:
When I was in the Navy, I took a knife on every dive, and never pulled it.

My dive buddy pulled his exactly once. We were exploring along a jetty when I got hooked in the leg and started getting pulled to the surface. He pulled the knife and cut the fishing line, leaving the lure stuck in my suit. I surfaced to find a fisherman on the jetty who was just coming down from his rush at thinking he'd caught a record ling cod. Hung the lure from my rear view mirror for a few years.

If I was to pick up diving regularly again, I'd pick up the TUSA mini knife. I'd opt for the blunt tipped, yellow handled one.

My suggestion: Blunt tip, not a bunch of money, bright yellow or orange handle. Odds are you'll lose it before you use it.
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Thanks for the tusa suggestion. They seem very similar to the mcnett knife also suggested. Serrations look more familiar to me than the mcnett, and the sheath locking mechanism seems better. mcnett has an exposed metal butt of the tang which seems nice to have, as well as a disassembly method for cleaning.
 
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Mora2013 said:
Thank you for the Mcnett suggestion. How well do their sheaths hold up? In other words, do you trust the sheath alone, or use anything additional to secure the knife?

Also, what would you think about their serrated sheepfoot knife? I know it's not yellow high visibility; however, but I'm thinking a longer serrated blade is more familiar to me than a gut hook-plain edge / partially saw edge combo?
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The sheaths work well. I'm sure that if you played with unsheathing and resheathing over and over again, it would eventually develop enough wear to "fall out", but for run of the mill usage, it'll be fine. Except for an occasional "real world" usage, I only take the knives out at the end of each day of diving for a rinse job and a very light application of silicon grease after drying to prevent rusting/corrosion. The blades are 420 stainless, but I'm very old school and rinse/air pressure dry/silicon everything. Even my wet suit zippers get siliconed after each day's use

I personally would pass on the sheepsfoot blade as it still has a pronounced point at the tip of the blade. Any thing that has a point will stick something important eventually, whether it is you or some of your gear. Honestly, I also grind down the corners of the blunt tip to make the end a little rounded as well. Still works fine as a chisel point/pry tool, but not points to poke anything.

I went to blunt points only after a dive buddy accidentally stuck his BC with a pointy knife. THAT was a bitch getting him back up safely.

Mora2013 said:
Thanks for the tusa suggestion. They seem very similar to the mcnett knife also suggested. Serrations look more familiar to me than the mcnett. mcnett has an exposed metal butt of the tang which seems nice to have.
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I like the metal pommel. Again, going back to "old school" diving, communication included banging on your tank with the pommel of your knife to get your buddy's attention. That was the primary usage of a knife until someone a lot smarter than I made a lot of money by adding a hard plastic ball to a bungee cord that stretched around your tank to use as a knocker - no more pulling a knife to knock and then having to resheath it.
 
I have an older USA made Schrade Water Rat (I think that's the name) and it has always worked well for me...about $25 a few years ago off of the big auction site. The USA made blades may be harder to find now but it has a blunt tip and is plenty sharp.
 
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