A Sharp Knife ?

Hello I'm new here, just got registered, but when I worked on the river, there's a saying, "All good deckhands carry a knife" also if somebody borrows your knife and you hand it to them either open or closed, it should be handed back to you the same way. Knife courtesy and/or superstition.
 
Just for some historical interest this is a Navy MK I made by PAL. It was issued to my Dad (a destroyer guy) during WW2 as a utility knife. 5 1/4" Parkerized carbon steel blade. The sheath has a flat spring inside so the knife makes a nice sound when you take it out.

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I always carry a Leatherman fold out knife, that is only a knife, and I can open with one hand. As far as flashlights, I am a 'Surefire' freak, and have 6 or 7 in different sizes.
 
Don't lend your dinghy, don't lend your knife and don't lend your wife.
 
One issue is how sharp a knife is, how well the blade holds an edge and how well you can sharpen a knife. I also carry a folding Kershaw at nearly all times, and keep it razor sharp--including using a two stage strop. There are also sheaf knifes around the boat in critical places. These are kept razor sharp. I love SS knifes, and Swiss Army knifes, but unfortunately most of these are not of a steel which keeps a good durable sharp edge.

Serrated edges may have their place, but a sharp blade often trumps the serration in an emergency. I don't know if the capsize of the Defiant in Mission Bay Ca. channel, and the skipper having to puncture his self inflating life jacket has been brought up in this forum or not--but that just one reason to carry a one hand opening blade.
 
WE have always kept one on the bridge. This last summer while going down in a lock, our line fouled on the cleat and started hanging us in the air. by the time we got the knife up front on the bow , we were already starting to hang. Cut the line and dropped a good 1 to 2 feet. Now we keep a knife on all of the PFD;s that we use while locking.

And before all you start in about cleats locks etc. you cannot hold a 40,000 boat against the wall with all the turbulence that comes with locking, without taking a single wrap around a cleat. Not tying off!

And second, this entire incident took less then 2 minutes from discovery of the problem to cutting the line. The water drops that fast.
 
quote:
Originally posted by vided

three serrated folding knives, one at the windless, one at the stern and one on the bridge.
three or four flashlites.

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One at the windlass. Never thought of that. EXCELLENT IDEA!
 
We also have a nylon tool holder between the bridge and aft deck which has a straight edge knife, a leatherman multitool which also has a serrated knife, a small double A mag lite with white, red and blue interchangeable lenses.
 
One big mag light, three or four AA powered flashlights and the ubiquitous zillion candlepower handheld spotlight with 12-VDC plug.
 
My father used to spend time teaching me how to sharpen knives. Just have never aquired his touch. He was a scoutmaster for yrs. and everyone of us always had to learn to tie a bowline one handed. He always stressed if someone threw you a line, you needed one to hold on with and the other to tie.
 
several knives + 15 asst. lights + underwater fish lights
 
I carry three small flashlights, two rubber Garrity with two AA batteries beside the berths and one Mini Maglite with an AAA battery that I carry when leaving the boat for rental vehicles like golf carts and cars, to find the ignition hole mostly. There is one 2D at the chart table and two 2D's at the galley near the companionway. There is one 2D in the dinghy in the under seat bag. I carry two 2D flashlights for spare with batteries installed. When I work on the boat in tight spots I use headlamps. One is an LED Petzl the other has a separate four D cell battery box that is attached to my belt. For search lights I have two portable spot lights.

They all have batteries installed and replaced every six months along with other battery operated devices. There are spare batteries for all. When shopping I have a problem, I can not pass up purchasing a new flashlight that gets my attention.

For knives I have the same problem but for security my two feet still work well.
 
Better to invest in silver. There is three times more gold in the ground than silver and silver has more than a thousand more uses.

I buy through the same company as my businiss and at the same price but have to pay tax. The AAA cells are 78c each and the A, AA, C, and D are about $1.00 each and 9V $1.70 each CDN, all in bulk. That is much cheaper than Walmart.
 
Maxwell Smart, can't agree more about the Kershaw. I carry the Kershaw Ken Onion 1660 in stainless, half serrated. Lost my original after five years, found a replacement on Ebay for $39. On the rest of the boat, we have permanent living spots for a large number of half serrated stainless folding knives (cheap ones), velcroed to visible surfaces. These are dedicated "Emergency" knives. Even though it might be handy to pick one up and use it for some non-emergency function, we are both able to resist the temptation so they will always be there in an emergency.
 
Bob Austin, does the Defiant incident indicate that an inflatable life vest may be safer than a "regular/foam" life vest, especially when used on a fishing type boat that could be more "subject" to capsize or broaching, especially when entering or exiting an inlet, or, otherwise "extreme" seakeeping condition?
If that fisherman had not had a knife, what would his chances have been to have been able to take off the inflatable, and swim down and out from under the boat?
 
I'm not good at sharpening them either. I have a lansky, and still....
 
A friend gave me a Leatherman multi tool / knife. The blade is so sharp that it intimadates me. I keep it where it is hard to get to.
 
Aviators survival knife at the helm. Need to replace the handle and sheeth.
 
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