Regardless of which type of scuba diving you’re interested in from wreck diving and cave exploration to simply taking nice tropical fish pictures you will find a dive knife a very good and helpful accessory. Since humans can’t breathe underwater something as trivial as getting entangled in stray fishing gear can be a life threatening situation if you’re not carrying the right safety equipment. If you are taking tropical fish pictures you may focus on the task at hand and miss a ghost net or other danger while pursuing a big grouper to get that price winning shot. In such a situation a good dive knife will help you free yourself from the net before things get critical.
You should consider the following things before buying a dive knife
- Make sure that you get a scuba knife that is right for you and your diving style.
- Make sure that you know how to use the kind of dive knife you choose to get. If you don’t know how to use your dive knife correctly it can cause more bad than good.
In this blog post we will take a closer look at the first point choosing a dive knife.
What size should the knife be
There are three main sizes of dive knives, big knives, mini knives and standard sized knives. The standard size is 4-6 inches (10-15cm) and a standard size knive can be comfortable mounted on your arm or leg. An import aspect to consider is making sure that the handle is big enough to fit well in your hand. A mini knife will have a 2-3 inch or 5-7.5 cm blade and can for instance be worn clamped onto a hose due to its petite size. They can however be hard to use wearing gloves due to their small size. It is therefore extra important to try the handle on a mini knife before buying it. Any knife with a blade that is longer than 6 inches (15cm) is ti be considered big and can though to handle with any degree of precision under water. When scuba diving, big doesn’t automatically equals better so only get a big scuba knife if you know that you will be doing things underwater that actually require a big knife.
Material
Titanium and stainless steel are the two most common materials in dive knives. Titanium knives tend to be the most expensive choice, but are on the other hand extremely resilient to rust and other types of corrosion and a good titanium knife will stay sharp for numerous dives. Stainless steel knives are cheaper can be made to last for a long time with proper care like making sure to always rinse them in fresh water after every dive. It is a good idea to coat it with oil or silica.
Should the knife have a serrated edge?
Depends on what you want to cut, a straight edge is better for cutting artificial material like nylon while a serrated edge is better for cutting natural fibers. Serrated knives with serrations along the entire blade is better as that make is easier to use it as a saw. I recommend that you get a knife witha serrated edge on once said and a straight edge on the other, that way you get the best from both worlds.
Sharp tip or not?
A blunt tip is better for the avarage joe diver while a sharp tip can better for divers planning to is it while spear fishing. A sharp tip will easily break if you try to use your knife to hack, chisel, pry, dig or similar. A blunt tip is a lot less likely to end up damaging your scuba gear than a sharp tipped one.
Should I chose a knife with a cutting notch?
Yes, I would recommend getting a dive knife with a line cutting notch since it can come in handy if you ever need to cut a small line.
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