Dive Knives

[Jeff White]

I've not seen much discussion of dive knives here. I was going through some things and found a box of my old dive gear including these two knives that date back to the early 80s.

A US Divers Sea Hawk and a Tekna dive knife. I always carried two knives the Sea Hawk on the inside of my left calf and the Tekna on my BC.

Anyone know anything about them? I was told the last time I was diving (way back in 2002) that the Sea Hawk wasn't made anymore.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Last year(?) there was a thread about them that had some interesting stuff.
My diving days were in the 70's. Started with the Navy and then did some stuff with a shop on Oahu after I got out. I still have my old beat up issue Kabar as well as an old Dacor stainless knife. I remember those little Tekna knives, some guys strapped them to their arms.

 

[Piraticalbob]

I, too, had one of the Tekna knives, which I carried as a boot knife, not being a diver. Tekna also made some of the earliest small modern flashlights - - by today's standards they were junk.

 

[Jeff White]

Someone made a panel, depth, pressure, dive computer that had a sheath for the Tekna knife built into the back of it.

I googled the U.S. Divers knife, got a hit on one on eBay and some articles that said some locations didn't permit divers to carry knives anymore just things like cutters and EMT shears.

What is the world coming to?

 

[Tirod]

The Tekna was double edged and over 3". So it got swept up in laws meant to disarm thugs. Like that works.

I had the Teckna and used it as a boot knife in the '80s. I rattled in the sheath I had but the wire clip it used was ok. It also had those wonderful Velcro straps with spring loaded buckles that stretched and gave just a little.

Sold it off back then - hard to find now and it's certainly a good knife. Most of the boot knives of those days are now off the market because of the anti dagger laws. The Gerber, Sting, and others are still available but so many other designs are on the market that can do just as good a job.

And to continue the dive knife theme - when's the last time you saw a Buckmaster? It brings up the whole Navy SEAL influence back then.

 

[Dirty Bob]

Back in the early 80s, I wanted -- but could not afford -- a Tekna knife. It was a great design, with an interesting sheath that seems bulky and complex in this day of Kydex and similar sheath materials. It felt pretty good in the hand for a skeletal grip, and a friend who had one was very happy with it.

At that time I carried a Schrade Bear Paw lockback in my front right pocket. I practiced one hand openings for hours in my late teens.

For a bit of nostalgia, visit Don Rearic's page on the Tekna. I'd forgotten all about their sliding "credit card" knife!

Dirty Bob

 

[hso]

The Tekna Ocean Edge knives are still around. They're ~$200.

Mine is sitting on my knife display downstairs as we speak.

some locations didn't permit divers to carry knives anymore just things like cutters and EMT shears

There are so many recreational divers these days compared to when you started that people were "loving the reefs to death" poking and prying and prodding with their knives. As typical, most newb divers carrying big honk'n pieces were the ones to blame since mostly newbs screw things up for the rest of us regardless of what area we're talking about. I learned to dive in soft coral Keys/Carib environments and was taught to not even let a fin touch much less mess with the coral so I carried smaller knives the size of the Tekna. I wasn't going to have to fight off the Kraken anyway so there wasn't a lot of point carrying a short sword. I was also an early user of EMT shears and line cutters, but I always carried a small fixed blade and a folder on opposite sides.

 

[Jeff White]

I wasn't going to have to fight off the Kraken anyway so there wasn't a lot of point carrying a short sword.

You must have missed too many episodes of Sea Hunt Mine was for the mythical 200 pound Alligator Gar I did a lot of diving in the clear reservoirs in Missouri and Northern Arkansas, got to blue water maybe once a year.

I've got another Tekna around here somewhere. I might even have a Tekna light, which I was never impressed with.

 

[hso]

I do have a Tekna light still and, considering there were nearly no other flashlight size dive lights at the time, it was pretty impressive for the time.

 

[bannockburn]

I still have a couple of Tekna flashlights; worked OK underwater but internal components were somewhat fragile and didn't hold up as well as the rest of the flashlight. I think Gerber also made a version of the Mk.II (Neptune or Trident?), for divers.

 

[Lone Star]

I had a Randall Model 16 that I liked, and I suppose that the Fallkniven knives with synthetic sheaths can be used by divers.

The original SOG SEAL 2000 is also a good knife that sells at a reasonable price, or did. They changed it some, and I haven't checked prices in awhile.

I was disappointed that the Randall wasn't as sharp as expected. Gary Randall told me that so many divers dig with knives that he used a less keen edge bevel on them than on most models of his knives. I feel sure that they can bevel the edges more keenly on request. Just mention that when you order.

There's a pic on the Net of a shark with a Model 14 Randall beneath it in what may be a wall mount. The Model 14's sheath is leather, but if you had a suitable synthetic sheath made, I think it'd be as good or better as the Model 16 for diving.

I don't think much of diving where you can't carry a reasonable knife.

BTW, my son found that if he SCRUBBED his blade in fresh water after salt water diving, it didn't rust. He also used Break-Free on it. Others he knew constantly fought rust. Just rinsing the blade won't remove all of the salt water residue.

Has anyone here used Puma dive knives like Lloyd Bridges had on the old, "Sea Hunt"? Those are now collectible. All older Pumas are now in that category, but I have a few that I'd use. They're good knives..

 

[JShirley]

Spyderco's H1 knives won't rust.

The Aqua Salt is well regarded. Here's one review.

 

[hso]

I have cobalt alloy knives from David Boye, Kit Carson and Rob Simonich (I sure miss Kit and Rob) and a few beta phase Ti alloy pieces from Mission and custom makers that won't "rust" because there's no steel to rust.

Most commercial dive knives are made with the focus on corrosion resistance over other characteristics and the search for good cutting properties that won't rust has lead to nice innovations.

 

[cdk8]

Sweeeet! I've always really liked the Sea Hawk. The styling of the knife has many visual similarities to the Bowie, giving it such a classic American style. IIRC weren't they first made in 1971 or 1972 and one of the first dive knives to use both a full tang and PM stainless steel in the same package?

I have cobalt alloy knives from David Boye, Kit Carson and Rob Simonich (I sure miss Kit and Rob) and a few beta phase Ti alloy pieces from Mission and custom makers that won't "rust" because there's no steel to rust.

Most commercial dive knives are made with the focus on corrosion resistance over other characteristics and the search for good cutting properties that won't rust has lead to nice innovations.

I agree the primary goal for dive knives now is corrosion resistance ahead of everything else...it has yielded some cool innovations, but in other areas I think it has resulted in trade-offs. I honestly always felt the cobalt alloy steels were better than the later nitrogen work-hardened steels in terms of overall performance.

I have a few knives in the Cobalt-Vanadium Bohler N690 stainless and even though it isn't mentioned very much, it's overall performance is outstanding. It takes a very aggressive edge and holds it like VG-10, seems to be tougher with superior chip resistance, has outstanding corrosion resistance, and is easy to sharpen. It's also more economical than many of the PM super steels.

Spyderco's H1 is really awesome steel, but I have always been underwhelmed by the edge-holding of plain-edged H1 blades, which I don't find to be much better than 440A-B. However, a friend of mine has a fully serrated Tasman Salt in H1 and it holds an edge better than high-hardness VG-10. My guess is that the grinding of the serrations themselves caused the work hardening, and this may have been slightly furthered by the constant sharpening over a decade?

All-in-all, I think there are some situations where with plain-edged dive knives that the balanced performance and cost efficiency of a cobalt stainless like N690 is more desirable than a steel where all other properties take a back seat to corrosion resistance.

 

[hso]

cdk8,

Just to clarify, Kit used Stellite and Rob use Talonite while David Boye produces a dendritic cobalt alloy. These are not steels. They're all cobalt alloys (no iron) instead of steel alloys with cobalt.

 

[C0untZer0]

I have a Wenoka that sits in my "bug-out-bag-on-a-budget". It went in there because I already had it and I haven't been diving now in over a decade.

I thought there was an effort taking place on the West Coast to kill urchins in order to restore kelp forests, there were hundreds of divers trying to kill as many of the things as they could.

Is that still going on?

 

[cdk8]

cdk8,

Just to clarify, Kit used Stellite and Rob use Talonite while David Boye produces a dendritic cobalt alloy. These are not steels. They're all cobalt alloys (no iron) instead of steel alloys with cobalt.

Oh my mistake! I thought you were talking about the steels that have cobalt added to them, such as many of the cobalt-bearing high speed steels. Sorry about that!

 

[hso]

Zero,

Yep. Urchins in some places, starfish in others, lionfish in another, all sorts of invasive aggressive destructive species causing havoc (and supposedly bilge dump hitchhikers) and local divers working to kill or remove them.

 

[zb338]

I used to dive off of the New Jersey coast with my son many years ago. We
all had knives strapped to the inside of our legs. Easy to reach and didn't
snag on anything. We had a guy in our dive club that carried two knives.
He got tangled up in a huge ball of monofilament on a wreck one day and
couldn't get loose. Luckily his dive buddy was there and helped cut him loose.
From then on he had one knife on his leg and the other in a shoulder scabbard.

Zeke

 

[jeepnik]

Darn, almost forgot about my Tekna. I used to carry it on my ankle. Just went and dug it out. Still sharp after years of neglect. I don't know what stainless they used, but it seems to work and last pretty good.

 

[kBob]

Back when the evil Empire was still easily recognizable and the lower case survivalist worried about the coming of WWIII or the SoEcCo Socio Economic Collapse a friend got all hot over a knock off of the tekna. The major difference was that instead of just round holes for lightening the knife the holes were cut to act as box wrenches for hex nuts. The sheath my buddy's came in was nylon. He went on about the value of those "wrench holes" until I asked exactly how one would put force on a stubborn nut with that double edged blade in a "cloth" sheath.

My wife's dive knife is the little Kershaw with skeleton grip that has a rubber insert. It came with a hard plastic sheath with a lock somewhat like the tekna and a leather sheath for carry on the land.

I tend to carry a cheap Parker Bali in a pocket of the shorts I wear when skin diving these days (tanks are heck and gone out of date and second stage is showing signs of dry rot and free flows). It cuts mono filament just fine. If I loose it I am out two zinc handles and a cheap blade that honestly cost me near enough to nothing 30 years ago. You do not do many flashy Bali openings under water though.

-kBob

 

[Litlman]

I have the same Kershaw dive knife with the hard plastic sheath. I think it has serrations. Used to carry it EDC way back. Its been put away for a while now.

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Got to looking and my old Dacor blade is marked Solingen.