What do you use your knife for?

[benfairn]

best to have a good sharp one for lines cutting. My main halyard got bunched up and stuck, couldn't go up or down, was solo on a 45 cat and needed a sharf knife , thankfully I have a great one. Bought on amamzon.

I couldnt however find a good quality sailing knife with spike, they all seem pretty cheap. This one is so sharp, and stays sharp. I use it for all my line making etc.


ben

We Knife Co. 704X-R Red Folding Pocket Knife - D2 Steel 3.5in Blade - Hollow Grind - Textured G10 Scales Handle - Upswept Blade Tip - Liner Lock - EDC Pocket Knife
Visit the We Knife Co. Store

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by lestersails

Check out Boye Knives. These knives are a little more expensive than the mass market ones, but extremely high quality and handmade in the US. You can save 15% or so if you buy a second - by that I don't mean two, I mean a quality second. Mine is a second and I'll be damned if I can figure out what is wrong with it. The manufacturer is such a perfectionist, even the second was nicer than I could hope for.
https://www.boyeknives.com
As has been said many times in CF, there is low price, quality, and service. Pick two.

https://www.boyeknives.com/

The best pocket knife I have ever owned. I carry one with me basically everywhere. My wife has even started carrying them.

I once dropped it in 40m of water and made it a mission to go find it. I was successful.

They are located in remote NW Arizona, USA. Debbie is always so kind and easy to deal with. David Boye has been making knives in the USA for more than 50 years. I love them so much I just ordered 7 more (2nds) since I'm afraid they won't always be available. Time gets all of us.

Also agree that the 2nd's are damn near perfect.

They make both sheepsfoot and pointers. Both cut through boat lines so easily.

As far as Leatherman tools, never cared for them and really don't like to carry the weight around. Real tools are never far away it seems and I would rather use them instead. But I understand why some people like them.

[edlepera]

I usually carry a swiss army style knife all the time. but I have three different sizes of the multitool style. which really gives you a number of tools in one. Plus, while a knife draws attention from those who view knifes as weapons a multitool like a weatherman does not get notice. when sailing solo I have a fixed blade knife attached to my life vest. I started doing this after a friend of mind that i use to make fun of for having a knife attach to his life vest went overboard while solo sailing. he was being drag feet first and manage to get to that knife one hand and cut his tangle foot free. the realizing he was close to the rudder manage to move the rudder to were the boat went into irons.

[JebLostInSpace]

I spent a bit of time sailing/working on tall ships. When I was doing that, I found constant need for an array of tools on my belt. I eventually landed on carrying a moderately sharp sheath knife for general purpose cutting, a large spike for a whole variety of jobs where a little extra leverage was needed, a small spike for shackle pin holes or small knots or purchase on tightening s mall line, a proper sharp folding knife for line cutting, and a sharpie for marking stuff up.

When I'm on my own boat, I don't carry any of that crap. I keep a couple of knives in the cockpit, and have a fully stocked tool bag in easy reach from the chart desk below. My boat is small enough that it really doesn't cost enough time to care about to fetch a tool from below. And if I go forward from the cockpit to fix something, I grab the general purpose knife on my way forward.

I think the key differences between the tall ship sailing and sailing my own boat are:
1. My boat is small, so it never takes more than 20 seconds to grab something. Working on a 180' ship, it was a much bigger chore to go fetch a tool.
2. My modern boat with modern materials just doesn't need nearly as much work with those simple tools. I'm not cutting lines every day, or shaping wood, or opening 4" shackles, or splicing, or even knotting all that often. I do find I need things like my spanners and calipers and screwdrivers and sockets and wire cutters and and and and much more often on the modern boat. It has a lot of modern systems that occasionally need that stuff...

So as for the original question of which knife to use. I like having a fixed blade that's sturdy and reasonably sharp handy. I don't worry about taking great care of that one, and I use it on anything and everything. Then I also have a folding blade that I use pretty much exclusively for cutting line, and I take care to keep that one sharp.

I also have the issue of not having pockets much of the time that I'm sailing my boat...

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by Rumrace

I’m a scuba instructor so yes cutting my way out of fish line of worse nets.

SCUBA is a wildly different scenario.
- 99.9999% of the time, if there is a need for a knife on the bow, I can go back to the cockpit in under a minute and have a suitable knife (or other better tool) at the ready to attack the problem.
- Get tangled in a net 30ft down without a knife, you are using up air as you think of options.

This isn't to say, you couldn't come up with a scenario where having a knife on you is life or death while sailing but it's so rare, that it's tough to claim it as "must have".

Even SCUBA diving, if you are staying clear of potential entanglements, it's a low risk but just orders of magnitude more likely.

[seadago]

Originally Posted by aqfishing

For eating biltong! Or as the Americans call it…Jerky!

Reg ek se!!! Ja nie ....

[seadago]

But to answer your question, cutting!! All my rigging knives go blunt very quickly if not used exclusively for cutting rope. For everythin else, Diving knife.

[Sailmon]

Family bought me a Spyderco Tusk for 70th birthday. Amazing knife. As half year live-aboard, delivery captain, new owner boating coach, I use blade, Marlin spike & shackle key frequently.

[lo2jones]

In case we are not answering the real question:
For unscrewing screw shackles
Cutting a line tangled around someone’s leg or other appendage
Prying open things
Untying bound knots with an attached marlin spike
Cleaning fish, or killing them before bringing it onboard
Repeller boarders
Defending oneself in a mutiny
Killing unwanted boarders, (RATS)

[lestersails]

I think I use the marlinspike more than I use the knife blade. Probably because I am not the best knot tier, I am probably not using the ideal knot all the time. Having a marlinspike allows me to get something undone quickly and without bending back a fingernail trying to pick apart a tight knot.

[Bill_Giles]

I always carry a knife. Usually a leatherman or similar but in 50 years of small boat sailing (and power) I’ve never used one in an emergency. But I carry one just in case.

[FuzzyFeat]

My blade and fid have been on my hip for almost fifty years. Uses have been too numerous to mention. A hunk of sharp steel and a stiff pick has saved many a day. I feel naked without it. I also carry a Swiss army multi in my pocket for more delicate work. Make sure yours has a cork screw and bottle opener.

[Cynara]

In 30+ years never had to use a knife in an emergency.

We used a 10 inch SS serrated knife to cut kelp off the anchor..

[mtrees]

While I am on a boat my knife is never out of my possession, it is attached to me 24 hours of the day. An old sailor of square rigger days made up a lanyard with a loop at one end. This can be used when going up the mast by putting it around your neck with a simple hitch. it is carried around your waist by slipping the knife through the loop which then hangs there for use at any time.

[CyKlop]

Originally Posted by Snore

As a delivery guy, I wear my knife whenever I am on a boat. I have had to use it a few times in emergencies.

THE MOST FOOLISH THING is to have a knife in the cockpit and not on your hip. Things don’t break in the cockpit, they break on deck. I have given knives to crew who did incredible jobs on deliveries and a customer who engaged me several times. Every time it was with the direction they had to wear it when on watch.

S'Truth! Let's see when you would use the cockpit knife:

Someone is tangled in rigging and you go to help them, grabbing the cockpit knife... Except that if you have one in your PFD, no need to fumble for the cockpit one.

You're trapped, tangled in lines and need to cut loose... cockpit knife doesn't help.

I carry two knives, actually. One of them strapped to the outside of my PFD (rigging knife with shackle wrench and marlin spike) and then a Leatherman Wave in a pocket on my PFD (for all around utility work).

I've used the marlin spike a few times as well as the shackle wrench. Never used the blade and hope I never have to. I've used the leatherman extensively for various tasks on the boat. Leatherman for utility use, rigging knife blade for emergency use.