Dive Knife: Your Defensive Tool

The top priority of having a knife underwater is getting you out of a trouble, not attacking seaborne villains

Unless you are a special team underwater fighter, whose sole task it is to trace and exterminate the enemy placing a bomb under your aircraft carrier, then a dive knife is just a tool to get you free from the tight grip, if there is one.

In 2009, a group of divers risked a risky business of freeing a sunken fish trawler from its own nets. The vessel sunk not far from Catalina Island, California, and rested on the bottom wrapped in its own fishing nets, which became a deadly trap for oceanic creatures. Enthusiastic divers used their knives for cutting the net and freeing the trapped sea poor things.

Diving is a risky business itself, let alone the wreck diving. Going some hundred feet underwater to pick up a combat artifact from a sunken trireme can be a deadly business. What if your leg got stuck, say, in a fishing net.

And then, exactly as in action movies, you take out your diving knife from the sheath, grasp it firmly by the handle, and cut and saw yourself free from the menacing trap. You won.

So, for that to happen, you need a good and reliable dive knife and an easily accessible sheath and place to stick it firmly on. Define your dominant hand and place the sheathing on the opposite leg. The sheath shall hold the knife securely and firmly, but your underwater cutting tool must be easily accessible, if needed.

It's better for the blade to have both serrated and smooth edges, because sometimes you may need to either cut or saw.

The next important thing is the steel. Titanium blades are best of all; the 300 series alloy comes second best, as titanium lasts almost for ever and requires the maintenance close to none. The alloy is rust-resistant, but you will have to sharpen it after some time of use.

Secure your sheath in an easily accessible place on your body and practice taking out the knife so that you can do it calmly and easily in case of danger.

And remember that your knife for diving is a tool, and not a weapon. So don't buy a 10-inch cutlass, as it will prove bulky and difficult to use. Buy the one with a 5-inch blade and a handle of the same length, and it will be the most practicable choice.

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