Horizontal knife?

    Just playing around with knife placement a little, and had a question for the experienced. It seems to me, that a horizontal knife sheath, mounted near the front of the belt, might be very ergonomic. I prefer my knife mounted in front, if on a belt, but that is obviously unfavorable for bending forward.


    So I played around by just taping a knife horizontally on a belt, and found it very easy to access with either hand. On the downside, it must be positioned so as not to interfere with speedy operation of the belt buckle. Any downside to rotating the belt slightly and positioning the belt buckle slightly off center? You would want to position the sheath so that in drawing the knife, you would not inadvertently release the buckle, if using a quick release style.


    I have never seen a knife sheath manufactured to be mounted that way, but it wouldn't be that hard to do. Just late night ramblings, but still curious to hear your thoughts.

    I've thought about this too so I have the counter argument already prepared. To the left of the buckle I have the power head pouch with two PH, I'm not giving that up. To the right of the buckle I use the area for hip loading. This rules out the horizontal placement for me personally. I don't see why not to the right of the buckle (away from the tag end of the belt) for someone who has the area available because they chest load. I don't think you can have much of a belly though :)


    I tried a knife on the belt on my last dive. Few are the places where it doesn't interfere with doubling over to dive. Really there's only one place, directly on the side of the hip. I will not put it on the back of the belt because I can barely see it on the hip, also it's not easy to reach there. I also don't like that it makes adding or taking off weight more difficult. Being properly ballasted is very important and I find myself too lazy to adjust weight if there's too much involved. The weight belt is a tool in itself and I don't want to interfere with its functioning.


    I'm leaning towards your first idea of an arm band. I may make one up soon.

    Belly's not a problem, at least not for now! I completely forgot about it being in the way when hip loading, though, and I do both depending on which gun I am using. I got my arm band in the mail, and am looking forward to making a sheath to fit, but haven't started yet. My only concern is that it is only accessible to one hand. I was also thinking that high on the thing could work. Accessible with either hand, and not attached to the weight belt, so no hesitation if it needs to be dropped. Shouldn't interfere with bending to dive. Potentially, the weight belt could get hung up on the knife in the process of ditching, though.

    The Wenoka squeeze lock has a pretty good locking system that I've come to believe can be deployed well in an emergency situation. It can be taken out with one hand. It is good for braining up to 40lb fish and emergency cutting such as when entangled with mono. It's a good candidate as a knife to go on the arm or upper arm. I still need a longer strong knife for when I have to chip rocks if my shaft gets stuck in the bottom. I'm considering attaching this knife to the gun.


    My idea is to free the lower body from any encumbrance for smooth kicking.

    I got the material, but just haven't made time to play with it. It's just a Nike sleeve for wearing an MP3 player, so it might not hold up long term. I just can't seem to get it to the top of the "I wonder if. . . " list!

    Imo the best knife location would be vertically (and up side down) in the chest area. Just as an external neck knife. Ready available with either hand, and doesn´t seem to interfere with normal freediving and spearfishing activities...

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

    Quote from Dan

    I've thought about this too so I have the counter argument already prepared. To the left of the buckle I have the power head pouch with two PH, I'm not giving that up.


    Why? PH are good for harvesting big fish and sharks, but as self defense devices are not as good. It´s like a self defense situation on the street, simply you don´t have time to put the dang thing on. It´s like spearing a huge pelagic and getting entangled, no knife is good in that situation, cause you will be at 100 feet of water in like 3 seconds.


    If you have enough time, then it is not a dangerous situation at all, at least if you have the time could use those precious seconds to head to the boat instead.

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

    If you read the thread on those PH you'll see that the purpose of the pouch and the design is that they do go on very fast. I've been fortunate in that I haven't encountered bulls more than a couple of times. There are guys here diving just a few miles north of Ft Lauderdale that encounter bulls on a regular basis. Without a doubt those PH are a good thing to have.

    Thinking it twice, those nasty bulls that you have over there, giving you a bad time every dive, that must be annoying. Had you ever thought to get yourself a Shark shield? They say they work. I have one brand new by the way, but i never use it, me da hueva ponérmelo... its cumbersome as hell

    I'm a Speardiver, not a freediver

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