Hook Knives...don't bet your life on them!

[KiteClubMaui]

Hook knives - Safety Cutters can save your life.
Kite safety is no joke. No matter how good you are, or what kind of kite you have there will be situations that you can only solve with a knife.
Hopefully you will never have to use one, but if you kite long enough, sooner or later your lines will go slack and get wrapped around your bar and maybe your leg and the force of your spiralling kite will drag you underwater till you drown or you smash into a solid object.
If you have a knife you have a way better chance of surviving this type of situation.

Common Problems with kite knives:
#1) Not having one.
#2) Cheap Knife. Some cheap knives will rust out before you get to use them,
#3) Blunt knife. some people play around with their knives and cut everything in sight and will make their blades blunt, then they will be useless when needed.
#4) Knife Inaccessable. Knives should be easily accessable and able to be reached with either hand, on the front on the harness is best.

Recommendations:
Buy a couple of good kiteknives with pouches are best (like the dakine).
Put one on the front of your harness, one in your boardshorts pocket attached to the key loop.
Dont play around with the knife, but check it often, and replace it when needed.
Practice getting it out when you have your eyes closed and you are holding your breath.
Buy your kite buddy one for christmas, (because he can rescue you with it if necessary).
Tell your friends to carry one when they kite.

good luck,
David Dorn

[AndrewJMcGee]

I think they are a must have!! I stitched mine above my spreader bar. Its a perfect fit. Has anyone ever had to cut there own lines or someone elses. Please tell experience so we can all learn from it.
Andy

I hope I never have to pull my knife out

[RickI]

Ditto to that sentiment. Considering how few riders actually carry knives when they ride, there is an ironic aspect to "... don't bet your life on them!" Most guys blow off their option to have a knife do them any good in the first place, dull or not. They bet their life concluding they'll never need them, hope they are right. There are some notable cases in which a guy saved his bacon with a knife. A more extreme example from a few years back appears HERE

[AndrewJMcGee]

Wow thats crazy!! Good point about the arterys!!! If a your or someone elses kite line wrapped around your neck and the kite powered up doing death loops, You might be a gonner with or without a knife. I would struggle for my life cutting every line i could. Hope everyone kites with a knife.

Andy

[jens_buhl]

TIP: grease the knife blade with some vaseline or similar and seal with plastic-wrap / cling-film to keep the grease in place.

[kochease]

I had to use my knife once in the water, so glad I had it. My buddy carries a diving knife but I just used the knife that came with my mystic warrior 2 harness, every harness should come standard with a knife!!!!!! Can save your life.

It is a double blade J knife and it cut thru the lines easily. I maintain my knife as well, check it every week for wear or dullness..

[kochease]

Check out the post on NWkite.com. Nak tested the amount of force needed to cut a line. very interesting check it out:

http://www.nwkite.com/forums/t-9690.htm ... nife+force

I hurt my back yesterday, so I'm off the water for a few days. Got bored, so I ran some tests with my force gauge. Pretty damn eye opening. I used two knifes: a standard single bladed hook knife that comes with most harnesses, and a "Captain Hook" double bladed hook knife. Tests were done with a force gauge on a test bed. Q-line and 800 pound spectra were cut.

Here's the results:
SINGLE BLADE HOOK KNIFE
Q-LINE FORCE REQUIRED - 58 POUNDS
800 POUND SPECTRA FORCE REQUIRED - 184 POUNDS!!!!! :

DOUBLE BLADE HOOK KNIFE
Q-LINE FORCE REQUIRED - 2 POUNDS
800 POUND SPECTRA FORCE REQUIRED - 2.5 POUNDS

Needless to say, I'm ordering a couple of more Captain Hook knifes, and immediately throwing out all of my single blade hook knifes! I don't want to get into a brand thing here, and there are other dual blade hook knifes. But, there ain't no damn way you're going to cut 800 pound lines, in the water, in an emergency, with a single blade hook knife! I thought this was pretty important to pass on right away.

[tomatkins]

I posed this question on the other active thread ('useless kite knives')on Kiteforum:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2368888&start=10

Since, over the years, 'Hook Knives...don't bet your life on them!' has been the main thread, devoted to gathering information and opinion concerning the subject of "kite knives", I pose the question here, hoping to access a larger group of Kiteforum members, who, over the years, have followed this thread, in the hope of eliciting their feedback.

Here is my question, in response to "Windyway"'s comment that he had trouble cutting a kite line while using his brand new kite knife. so, I asked him:

"By any chance was this the new knife, which did not cut the line? The reason I ask is because the blades do not appear to be correctly inserted. I will explain in detail what worries me about what I see in this picture, if anyone is interested."

Anybody here want to take a quess at what I see in this picture that makes me feel that this knife may not be "all that it could be"?

If nobody has enough interest to respond to this "chalenge" in the next day or so, I will post a rather long analysis, explaining what I am getting at here, with my question.

[velnens]

Did not have knife so far. Reading all this started to wonder should i?!

[tomatkins]

I just got a chance to see (other than in the picture), and test the new Dakine double-bladed knife in the picture above. What I found was very unsettling and downright scarey. DO NOT TRUST THAT HOOK KNIFE TO CUT LINE !

When you go to a kite store, take a piece of old kite line with you. Have someone hold both ends of the kite line, and take one of the new double-bladed Dakine hook knives (I am not talking about the older discontinued model that had only one blade), and try to cut the kite line, by hooking the line and pulling the knife. Then, if possible, do the same test with one of the other double-bladed hook knives (hopefully, they will have another brand, like Mystic or Captain Hook, etc.), and note the difference in the result.

You may ask (as I did)...how could it be that a brand new redesigned hook knife, employing two blades instead of one blade could possibly have cutting power, which is as bad or worse then the old one-bladded model? I believe I have figured out the answer.

ANSWER: Double-beveled blades

When I get back from kiting, I will go into more detail on this issue, and propose a remedy to the problem. My analysis will be based on clues given in the following pictures and drawing. Here they are for you to think about.