Yeah right!
PFD pocket
I keep my knife in my pocket, zipped up. I lost my first knife off the lash tab dohickey.
Had my River Shorty attached to the lash tab on my Extrasport HiFloat for the past 12 years. No problems with the lashtab or the knife. Certainly no rust on the knife - but I use it only in fresh water. The suggestion above about heating up the lash tab with a hairdryer worked great. NRS has a video about removing the knife sheath, but did not mention the hairdryer trick.
And here I thought Bowler1 was back… oh well…
I’ve used my Gerber to spread peanut butter and cut dangling hooks out of trees. Had no problem with the tab on my Astral V-8.
On a leash long enough to be useful, in pfd pocket
My Yak Highback 60N doesn’t have a suitable lash point. I did a cobra weave using nylon braid on a shoulder strap and attached the scabbard to that.
Do you really want that blade up by your neck and basically pointed at your jugular?
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The knife is locked in a scabbard. The knife does not have a point and only one sharp edge which is facing away from my body.
Looks like you have plenty of pocket space where you can tie it off with a tether. Even that scabbard is a danger in the neck area. Many keep knives where yours is, however why risk a freak accident by having a knife/scabbard aimed for your neck when other safer easy to get to spots are available.
I have mine in the same place where it will stay.
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Thank you for your concern, all good. I have considered the risk and decided that it is manageable.
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This guy is a rafter, but I like his takes on river gear. He has several knife reviews as well.
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Good video.
I’ve had an NRS Pilot knife on my PFD for years – once you attach the clip the lash tab it is never coming off. I’ve never been in a situation where I needed to use it for anything other than spreading peanut butter. The blades definitely rust over time. When it gets too rusty I buy a new knife (relatively cheap, maybe you get what you pay for) – I’m on my third. They hadn’t changed the design in years, so the new knife still fit in the old clip. I knife I have is now in close out, so maybe it’s time to buy one more:
I never thought to actually try to cut rope until I saw this video. Just like in the video, it took 5-6 swipes to get through an old safety rope. I think the little cutting hook at the base of the blade made it harder to get through the rope. I had better luck with just the serrated section of the blade - on the newer version that hook is a lot smaller.
Just for kicks, I dug out my father’s old river knife – turns out it’s a Gerber Blackie Collins River Master. Looks like there are different versions, but this is the one I have:
With a longer blade and better serrations it would usually cut through the rope on the first or second swipe. Leave it to my father – he always bought the best stuff. I’ve never used it as a river knife. It’s been in my kitchen kit for years. Still really sharp - guess I’ll keep it there.
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I solve the problem with an MSFit PFD that has a knife pocket (w D ring) inside the flap. Accessible by unzipping or just leaving unzipped and relying on the two clips. )Kokatat PFDs all pass CG standards with just the clips fastened.)
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Knives are tools. Tools differ somewhat one for another and workers have preferences, depending on the manor in which they use those tools.
I have looked hard for the knife I’d call Ideal for my own uses and preferences when kayaking and have not found one. It seems that no one makes a stainless knife without serrations and I for one can’t stand a serrated edge. As a gunsmith who works on guns of the types made 200-250 years ago, I use knives, chisels and gouges literally every day of my working life and I sharpen blades every day too. So I know how to make an edge sharp and how to keep it sharp. Not everyone does however.
There are arguments about how sharp a water knife should be.
I saw that argument among SCUBA divers year ago, when dive-knives were said to be best when dull and blunt. Yet in the USMC and the US Navy SEALS, we used the standard combat knives (collectively called “Ka-Bars”) and we kept them honed like razors. In working circles we see the same debate in shops, kitchens and in the field among workers on farms and ranches.
One school of thought is that a knife should not be very sharp because only light pressure is needed to cut (yourself)
The other school of thought is that a knife should be super sharp because only light pressure is needed to cut (whatever needs to be cut) and because of that light touch you are far less likely to cut yourself because you need not put a lot of pressure on the blade.
Me…I subscribe to the 2nd way of thinking.
The ideal kayakers knife (to my way of thinking) would NOT have any gimmicky serrations and no line hook. It would have a blunted tip like a rounded nail, but an edge like any of my working knives I carve hard gunstock woods with. The handle would be flat to lay down against the PFD or a wrist sheath, but have a swell at it’s bottom to help the user hold it if his hands were cold. The handle would have a hole in it to take a stud made into the sheath that would spring into that hole to retain it, but the release button would be recessed into that sheath so it could not be hit accidentally. (Similar to the gun retention buttons used on Fobis and Blade Tec holsters for handguns) And such a knife would have a slim profile to the handle. The blade would be only 2" long and so would the handle. Compact is the key here. This is an emergency knife. A working knife for use in camp can be carried inside the kayak, but on the body what I have in mind is for cutting lines and ropes in an emergency.
It seems no such knife/sheath combination exists for sale.
So my next-best option was simply to use a small 1 handed folder and I attached a loop of bungee cord to it. I slip the knife into my PFD pocket but leave about 2" of the bungee loop sticking out. I can easily grab the bungee and draw out the knife and I can deploy the blade and fold the blade with 1 hand. Not as fast as a fixed blade knife, but I find I use my “PFD knife” maybe 2 times a year to cut things with, and I practice reentries several times a month. So the advantage to my folder inside a pocket is that it’s “not there” in all the times it would get caught in deck rigging and it is there when I want to cut a rope or line. The bungee loop can be slipped over my wrist in a second, so I am not as likely to loose it in the water but if it were a life and death situation where lines had to be cut to keep from drowning. I could cut them and drop the knife to sink to the bottom rather then risk getting cut by it after I was done with that emergency cutting. The folder I have cost about 45 dollars. I can buy another knife – if I am alive to do it.
To my thinking, the knife I use as an emergency cutter is not all that important in it’s design but the sheath is.
But what I’d consider perfect doesn’t exist, or if it does I am not aware of it.
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I use my dive knife
It’s by Zeagle and it goes on the chest Halcyon tech webbing.
JB wears one in float planes
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Cool, it looks like a shark in profile!
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I never noticed that 