Re: [Paddlewise] Knives

Were you using a proper hook knife?

My experience is that my hook knife would go through a type 18
parachute bridle in one pass, about 0.5 seconds at most.

A standard knife is nearly useless for cutting the same bridle,
unless the knife is *very* sharp and the bridle is under lots
of tension.

The problem with many hook knives is that they do not have an opening 
wide enough for most rope.

I find the fast and easy tool for cutting ropes is an electrical cable
cutter.
This is a tool that is a bit like scissors except the handles are longer
than
the blades and the blades are curved to trap the cable as it is cut.
These have a problem for the rescue situation in that they must be
manually
opened making them hard to use quickly.

Whatever tool we choose, we need to test it and practice so that we can
use it effectively and automatically when it is really needed.

michael

juliom_at_cisco.com wrote:
> 
> My experience with knives is that they provide a false sense of safety.
> Most people put knives on their PFD, but have never tried them
> in simulated or real situations.  When the time comes, you may be
> in for a surprise. An example follows.
> 
> In hangliding, the knife fashion is still alive. As kayaker do, many
> hanglider pilots carry a knife in their chest.  One day I decided
> to try one.  I hanged from my glider in the back yard, and had someone
> measure the time it would take me to cut my attachment to the glider.
> Surprise! The glider's strap was much stronger than what any knife
> could cut in four hours.  Then I repeated the test with a scuba diving
> knife, and I did cut the strap that tied me to the glider in 40 seconds.
> That is more than what most people can hold their breath under stress.
> 
> That clearly shows that the knifes used in hangliding are useless
> when a pilot falls in the water. The pilot would be much better off
> forgetting about the knife and looking for other means of getting
> out of the harness and out of the water.
> 
> Back to sea kayaking, have any of you ever tried to get out of
> a fishing net, or any entangling rope, at least in a simulated
> and controlled scenario?  Are you sure your knife is going
> to cut the ropes in a reasonable amount of time?
> 
> Knifes, like any other "safety gadget" (ironic quotes) are useless
> without previous testing and training.  But knives, unlike most
> safety equipment, have not even been tested by the manufacturers.
> 
> - Julio
> 
> Dave wrote:
> >   Recalling a discussion about knives quite a while back, I think that
> > *most* of the Paddlewise crowd do carry knives when sea kayaking.  My
> > Dave Seng
> 
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