Greg7 wrote:kitezilla wrote:Where do you buy them?Greg7 wrote:They are so cheap I would just get a few per season.
What brand?
It seems that the double bladed hook knives cost about $15 to $54 (plus shipping) each.
I wish I had enough money to consider those prices... "cheap".
How often do you change out your knives?
What do you use as your indicator for "time to replace"?
As already stated, you can get replacement blades pretty cheap.
Many kiters spend more than a grand a year on "the latest" equipment, and a decent percentage spend quite a bit more than that. Relative to how much else you spend on gear, for something that can save your life the cost is ludricously neglible.
As far as knowing when to change. If you ride on the saltwater and leave the knife in it's pouch after a ride so it can rust out, yeah, you might get in trouble fairly quickly.
But if you take a few seconds to take the knife out, rinse, shake, and toss on the counter to completely dry, a stainless steel blade will easily last 2-3 three months and look brand new. So three per windy season is enough.
For anyone afraid they might forget their knife after rinsing it, just leave a brand new spare in your bag in a ziploc, it will remain brand new until you need it.
You bring up a very good point, I didn't think they would crap out that fast, but there are ways to prevent it, and considering it might save your life, and considering a complete one kite outfit can cost over 2 grand, and most of us have multiple kites, do yourself a favor and drop a few bucks on multiple hook knives.
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Gregg,
Thanks for the advice! But, as they say, "you are preaching to the choir".
In the past 5 years, I have bought kite knives from Murrays Marine...by the dozen. Unfortunately, they were the single bladed ones....and the results of my present method of testing the sharpness, and effectiveness of this type of knife make me very glad that I never had to use one of these knives in a desperate situation.
After doing some random testing at the beach, where I carried around a piece of QPower kite line, and challenged a number of kiters to try and cut the line with their hook knife, I began to see the value of the double bladed hook knife. I may be mistaken, but I think that it was Spork, who whipped out a double bladed knife and sliced through the line like butter....while many others tugged away at the line with the standard Dakine single bladed hook knife.
I don't want to give Spork a big head, but while I am paying out compliments, I would like to note that he and the many other kiters, world-wide, who take pride in preserving the effectiveness of their rescue equipment, do so, at their personal expense and effort, and exemplify the personal trait and principle, that in doing so, they will be able to help, not just themselves, but in times of need......others, as well. You guys rock!