Re: [Paddlewise] Knives

Bill Leonhardt wrote:
> 
> Hello to all you list folks,
> 
> I really enjoyed the discussion on tethers.  It's one of the reasons I
> monitor these lists.
> 
> During the tether discussion, the subject of knives came up.  This is a
> subject area that I'm just beginning to consider seriously and i'd like to
> solicite some group input.  Soooooo, response to the following will be much
> appreciated:
> 
> (Before we start, let me say that I'm a sea kayaker.  I'd really expect my
> knife choices to be different if I was doing white water.)
> 
> 1.   I'd like people to comment on the issue of pointed vs. non-pointed
> knives.  While a non-pointed knife is probably best for rescues in or
> around the boat, a pointed knife would be more versatile in "on shore"
> survival situation.  (Maybe we need two knives).

For me, a paddling knife (let's call it that) has a specific purpose and
should be chosen for that and that only.  And if it could do other
things like spread peanut butter, cut up kielbasa, etc. great.  The
purpose of a paddling knife is to cut you free of entanglement.  If you
have absolutely nothing on you or your boat that can entangle you, you
don't need a knife.  If you have potential sources of entanglement, you
do.

I have potential entanglement all over the place.  Being in a folding
kayak, I take advantage of all those wonderful tie on spots around me
provided by crossribs and gunwale and chine bars.  I have two bags
lashed in with fastex buckles and webbing strap.  They don't represent
too much potential for entanglement but conceivably they could.  More to
the point, I always carry a pee bottle and it is tethered with a long
web strap and fastex buckle.  It would be ignoble to be killed by a pee
bottle tether.  I could see the long discussions on PaddleWise over such
an accident and John Winters bringing up the idea of diapers as a better
solution to the need that did me in. :-)

Another potential entanglement is the inflation hose for my front
airbag.  Being in a folding kayak without bulkheads, I religiously use
the extra flotation.  Try as I can, invariably the hose, whether tucked
in behind a rib or gunwale bar, can be a potential snag for my foot. 
(BTW, I noticed that in WW boats I have been in recently for pool
sessions, this is a real potential hazard as there are two bags because
of the split saddle in the bow.)

Then there is the tether for the paddle.  Whether attached to you or
your boat, it is a potential octopus to hold you where you don't want to
be for too long...underwater in a capsize.

I have been known to sail with a folding kayak, so more lines (yeah, I
know they are called "sheets").  And not to pick on a wonderful brand of
folding kayaks, which I think are great, Feathercrafts have strapped-in
seats with straps extending out ahead of the seat to secure around the
crossrib just ahead of you.  And the newer seats have extra straps on
the seat itself to make the seat double as a reasonable facisimile of a
Crazy Creek chair once ashore.  Lots of potential snags there unless you
opt to use the standard equipment seasock Feathercraft provides with
every boat.

So I have four or five potential snares around me.  So I want a knife
that will cut me loose without cutting me.  I will describe the knife
below but it is clear that I don't need a sharp point.  A sharp point
might be used to start cutting through a sprayskirt that won't budge (I
have seen several in my lifetime).  But even a rounded point shoved hard
enough and slide so that its serrated edge started hitting the material
would cut through.

As for survival purposes onshore, I'm not sure what one expects to meet
onshore where you paddle.  Here in the New York City area it is mainly
human danger.  In a sheath, any knife looks menacing.  I remember one
late afternoon arriving at a beach in Northern Manhattan to find
awaiting me a half dozen young toughs sharing a bottle of something.  
They were so in awe that anyone would come in from what is an alien
world for them that they just let me be.  The paddle in my hand and the
Rambo look of my knife probably helped too.  Who wants to mess with a
crazed old man emerging from the sea carrying a club and wearing a
knife?

> 
> 2.   Of course it would be foolish to discuss point vs. no point without
> discussing sharp vs. modified sharp (i.e. cuts only one way).

I don't think a paddling knife should have any exposed sharp edge.  It
can cut you and cut you badly.  Joq's parachute knife has a protectedd
or enclosed edge.  Mine doesn't.  Serrated edge is the only thing (other
than Joq's mentioned knife) that will cut rope and not you.

I know they sell knives that way, i.e. with a single or double edged
sharp blade, but it is hazardous especially as you are swinging around
to cut something in panic while gasping for air.

> 
> 3.   I don't want to look cool!  I've never been comfortable with the
> prospect of attaching an intimidating looking knife to the lash tab of my
> PDF because that is not the image that I want to project.  I know that some
> people attach a knife to their PFD cinch straps under their arm.  How does
> this work out regarding accessability and just banging it with your arm
> while paddling?

Mine is attached where they now have an attachment spot on most PFDs, on
the shoulder strap left side in front.  In my first PFDs, there wasn't
that convenient attachment patch and so I just rigged something.  BTW, I
have never felt any normal citizenry was ever intimidated by my visible
sheath knife. (But than I always have looked non-intimidating.) It just
made me look well equipped, like the bright colored whistle on my PFD
and large pockets obviously filled with emergency stuff.
 
> 
> 4.   I'd definitely like to request Ralph Diaz to speak more on the knife
> he mentioned earlier.

The knife comes from Gerber.  The model is called the Survivor.  The
point is totally rounded but could be used as a screwdriver.  I can ram
it with very moderate force into the palm of my hand with no penetration
and running the point along anything will not cut.  It has only one
edge.  That edge is totally made up of medium sized serrations.  I can
with very moderate force run the blade along my palm and not cut
myself.  I can also grasp the blade with my hand and not cut myself.  It
will however if applied with determination against webbing and cord, cut
through in just a few sawing motions.  It costs around $60.  It was once
in the NOC catalog but doesn't seem to be there any more.  I bought mine
in Tent & Trails in Manhattan years ago after cutting myself with the
regular Gerber knife.  This is all before the Gerber Shorty, but the
Shorty I have seen do have one sharp side.

> 
> 5.   I'd also like to hear more from Joq Martin.  I too carried a knife
> with a hook for cutting parachute cords while flying.  As I recall, that
> knife had a push button opening (aka switch blade) for the normal pointed
> cutting blade but the hook blade had to be folded out.  The knife used to
> reside in the little pocket on the left thigh of my flight suit and it
> sounds like you've duplicated this pocket near the zipper on your PFD.  Are
> these knives a viable candidate for kayaking and are they available to
> civilians?

Yes, I too would like to hear more about this one.  There are similars
on the market, I think in the NOC catalog.

> 
> 6.   Please identify any other knife issues we should be aware of and
> possibly discuss.

Just one.  Some of the traffic on this tether issue looked down on
having a knife as some silly Rambo thing.  I hope that my points above
make clear that a good knife has a purpose for some people.  It is best
that everyone decide on their own needs and not be knocked because of
them.  I know people who wear full wet suits in the Chesapeake area even
in summer.  It looks a bit out of order but there is probably a reason
for it and I certainly don't knock it.

Oh, lastly I didn't always carry a knife.  I also thought it looked
silly Rambo.  But one day I was listening at a boat show to a New Jersey
paddler who I respect a lot.  He had a knife on his PFD, something he
had not had before.  He then explained how one day he had gotten
entangled with something on his boat and almost drowned before somehow
getting miraculously freed.  Not a Rambo type at all and highly
respected in this part of the seakayaking community.  I went and got a
knife right away, as it happens to be the wrong one at first but later
corrected with the one I have now.

Apologies for this being so long,

ralph
-- 
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Ralph Diaz . . . Folding Kayaker newsletter
PO Box 0754, New York, NY 10024
Tel: 212-724-5069; E-mail: rdiaz_at_ix.netcom.com
"Where's your sea kayak?"----"It's in the bag."
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