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Well, as part of my personal pre-kite safety check is also reaching with my hand to the back pocket of my dakine fusion harness and verify that my safety knife is still in place and reachable.....
Dakine safety knife

On my last kite trip I had a scary adventure. We were kiting (without kiteleashes) when we suddenly ended up inbetween some corals. Just at this time my friend looses his board. It was already getting a bit dark and he could not find the board which was floating upside down.... Anyway I finally could see it and brought it back to him... our kites got caught and we had to let go of the bars.... no problem I thought after a while in the water, I had the kites and lines and bars and my friend both boards...
we did not have much time to self rescue in day light back shore so I decided to pull out my safety knife and get rid of some of the lines... But what a SURPRISE the knife blade was rusty and almost completely gone.....no way to cut anything.... well we were finally rescued by some beduine fishermen....

MY QUESTION: what is a good stainless steel safety knife? Or in order to be sharp and small, does it have to be made disposable like the dakine one? do you need to rinse it in freshwater and keep it well oiled all the time?
Is the Jack knife a better model?


Andreas

Hi Andreas,
You're right, these cheapo knives you get in the Da Kine harness are utter shite and rust to nothing in about 1-2 months.
I've only had to use a knife once and had one of these on me, instead of cutting the leader line, the blade broke. Full marks to da kine for giving us safety gear that puts our lives at risk and fails when we need it.
Well, if it gets serious, at least you'll die laughing.

Btw, I went to my local shop for a new knife and/or blade and basically got the same crap.
Wake up surf shops. This is gear that can save someone's limbs if not their life.

Anywhere I can get a decent knife on-line?
Jo

Hi Jo
Well, if the jack knife is better... at least it says the knife blades are stainless and it comes with a set of replacements... it looks the cheapest online place to get this is at a dutch paragliding shop
http://www.parapente.nl/sh_acces.htm
for 12 € plus case 7 €. the same knife at an the online shop flysurf http://www.flysurf.com/frontblocks/shop ... AGES=2cost including the case 36,50 € TTC. After writing this post I went to look at my son's dakine harness and voila:
his blade is still there but it is totally rusty and therefore worthless

I hope one day dakine does not get sued =geting a law suit (don't know how to spell...
andreas

Hi,

You can also look in diving shops.
They have various models.

Cheers,
Robert

Thanks Andreas,
I'll check out that link.
People, don't trust these knives, throw them away, mine didn't get even half as bad as the one above, it just had a little rust around the edges because I greased it every now and then but the first time I used/needed it the blade broke (where it wasn't rusted).
They are toatally crap and Da kine should wake up fast and either put a decente knife in their pockets or none at all so we don't imagine we have a piece of vital safety equipment that'll fail the first time you need it.
Jo

wow! unbelievable. of all companies i would think that dakine would know better....or maybe the supplier of the knives duped them. either way it's good to know this and i'll tell everyone i know with one of these to check it or chuck it.

i always thought that that was a terrible place to mount the knife, especially on the waist harnesses. i tried and could barely reach it in the shop, let alone when the brown smelly hits the fan and you're being dragged through the water or across the beach.

I Agree with Robert. Peep the Dive Shops (I'm a Diver MySelf) the Knives there Will Not Disenigrate to the Above PiX.

C

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Blow Me on 2002-11-09 17:00 ]</font>

I carry an aluminum copy of the Jack pictured above. Notice that it uses two opposing blades. I'm not positive the blades are stainless, but suspect they are, due to the fact that mine has spent the last 4 or 5 years in my paragliding harnesses and the blade still looks shiny new. My paragliding harness does not touch saltwater, however.

When I first got the knife, I made a sleeve for the inside of the holster. I just folded over a piece of cardboard that I had soaked in motor oil. The original idea was to ensure that the knife came out of the holster smoothly and quickly, even if pulled from an odd angle. The oil surely helped with longevity too. I'm thinking I might now want to pack the holster with vaseline for it's new life in saltwater. To keep that from turning into an oozing mess, I'm going to try replacing the cardboard liner with a plastic one.

I got the knife from Kevin Lee at Thermal Tracker Paragliding in Grants Pass, Oregon.(US) It was about $30.US if I remember right. He has another model that looks interesting too. That one has a handle that closely resembles an oval caribiner, but has only one blade.

Thermal Tracker Paragliding and Aero-Sports
1920 North East D St.
Grants Pass, Oregon, 97526
phone/fax 541.955.1737
thermaltracker@bigfoot.com
http://www.thermaltracker.com/

Oh yeah! The model is called "The Raptor"

Dan

thanks dan!
I just found the raptor knife on
https://www.square1.com/Manufacturers/S ... at212.html
it looks interesting!
andreas