When I skydive, I carry a hook knife like this.

It is a decent knife with replaceable blades and cuts very well when sharp but after a relatively small number of cuts can get extremely dull and hardly cut at all. What scares me the most about it is that even under a magnifying glass an edge that no longer cuts does not look obviously damaged--at least to my untrained eye.

That's got me looking for a more reliable hook knife.

I'm in the process of testing some different hook knives and I really like the feel of the Gerber Crisis knife

The one thing I want to change about the Gerber Crisis is to put a serrated edge (like Spyderco's Spyderedge) on the straight part leading to the hook. It's gotta be a fixed blade knife.

I can't find on off the shelf hook knife that has the positive grip and size of the Crisis with a serrated edge in addition to the hook.

There are some that come kind of close but they are not a full size knife.

• The SL6 Rescue tool looks like it might work but it is a folder and has extra crap I don't want. Actually, there are a few folders that I like but I want a fixed blade knife


• The Boker Plus Rescom fixed blade  is close, but not big enough


• The Benchmade 8 is a nice knife but not long enough and not enough of a solid grip


• The Leatherman Z-Rex is a nice knife too but like the Benchmade 8, is not long enough and does not have enough of a solid grip

Any suggestions?

Would it be practical to put a serrated edge on the Gerber Crisis?

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Have you looked at any hunting knives that incorporate a partially serrated blade with a gut hook?  Something like this one?  Know it isn't exactly the same, but might be worth a look.



http://www.amazon.com/Camillus-Buckmasters-Small-Point-BM31/dp/B000JLLHWA/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&qid=1409060872&sr=8-31&keywords=serrated+gut+hook

Spyderco makes a knife for skydiving.
Spyderco Jumpmaster





 

I know you gave a list of requirements, but since your own candidates ignored them, I'll do the same.

First off, I think a purpose-specific hook and a purpose-specific knife will perform better than most combination units out there.

That being said, I would recommend a Benchmade Rescue Hook and whichever knife you'd like (the above purpose-build spyderco looks nice)

Or, you could get a Benchmade Triage with serrated blade and hook. I'd imagine it'd be possible to get a kydex sheath made so you can carry blade open or hook open per requirement.

(Heavy on the Benchmade recommendations due to many positive experiences with their hooks)

Dump the single purpose rescue "hook" knives, I've seen them fail on seatbelts and rigging after a single use.

Get a Spyderco Rescue, Atlantic Salt, Harpy, Tasman Salt, etc...fully serrated. These knives cut like demons and last, they come stupid sharp and stay that way.I have converted many first responders to them after they tried mine.

On handed opening and a lanyard hole for retention. When I was still jumping I kept a fully serrated Endura attached to my gear, never had to use it but had complete confidence it would not fail me.

I'm a fan of Spyderco's serrated edges. They will cut through anything.

I should have mentioned the purpose of the hook knife. I do a type of skydiving called Canopy Formation Skydiving in which we intentionally dock our parachutes on other jumpers to build formations. Here is an example:



The hazard that we deal with is getting our parachutes and bodies entangled with other parachutes. Usually those situations work themselves out and untangle themselves or sometimes with a little effort on our part. Less often we have to cutaway our parachutes (not literally cut with a knife--we pull a release handle), freefall clear of the mess and then deploy our reserve parachutes. On very rare occasions a jumper has to cut their way out of an entanglement. In those situations it is critical that we cut *only* the stuff we need to cut. That is where the shape of the hook knife excels. It limits access to the cutting surface so that if necessary, we can cut individual suspension lines without cutting through a harness or other critical component.

A blade with an exposed serrated edge, e.g., a Spyderco folder, carries too much risk of "collateral damage" and in an entanglement situation that can be deadly.

There was mention of two single-purpose knives being better than one dual-purpose knife. I agree with that. I don't like extra crap. For years the kind of hook knife I have been carrying seemed good enough. With the widespread usage of fibers like Spectra and Kevlar in parachute suspension lines, though, that has changed. Cutting through 550 suspension line is one thing. Cutting through Spectra is quite another. Spectra is used in slash-resistant protective gear and with good reason. It is a nightmare to cut and will quickly dull a razor blade type of cutter to the point where it is unusable. Typical scissors are no match for Spectra and neither is the typical smooth edged knife blade. My Spyderco will cut through Spectra--not without a little effort, but it *will* cut it. That is why I want the combination of a hook and a protected serrated edge.

It's a very specialized use for a knife and I think I'm going to have to modify an existing knife.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I will keep you posted.

For reasons I posted above, the exposed serrated edge is a problem. I have looked at quite a few gut hooks and some come very close but I have not found one yet that I could use. There are some that look like they could be modified, though.

Thanks for the suggestion.

In that case you NEED to call and talk to Sal Glesser, Spyderco CEO. He has a habit of curing problems like yours and developing new products for the lineup at the same time. Call the Spyderco factory store and talk to the ladies there, they will point you to the man himself.

Good luck. Be careful.

Thankyou--I will do that. I recently saw video of him demonstrating their original knife sharpener. He was obviously the real deal.

I used to have a Gerber guthook that i got from Walmart's hunting section that was all plastic and took utility knife blades. When it got dull I would switch them out.

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Hey FNG (Do I know you?),

Have you tried the Eezycut Trilobite:  http://eezycut.com

It's the best tool I've found for this application.

I had to cut a full line set off a students leg in 37 degree water under the Perrine bridge about 18 months ago, and it started me on a long investigation of various knife options.

The best "normal" knife I found for the task was the Spyderco Tasman (spider edge), but I think the Trilobite is probably a better option.

I'd love to see a good double sided hook knife design with a nice set of serrations (like the Spyder Edge) that could be re-sharpened and re-used.  Even better if it had some kind of tag or indicator that would (a) float in water and (b) be easy to identify from the air if you dropped it.

Benchmade makes a variety of high quality hook knives.

http://www.benchmade.com/products/7

http://www.benchmade.com/products/5

I have the second one and it is very well made like all benchmade products. Easy to mount to your rig too...

Tom, we have never met in person but have known each other for years. BASE 335 (Walt) here. Any recommendations from you get my full attention.

I have spent many hours recently scouring the web looking at knives and ran across the Trilobite under a couple of different names. There is an extremely impressive video out there showing it slicing through things that don't slice easily. I do not doubt its effectiveness. The potential problem I see with it is its ergonomics as they apply to using a knife under canopy while possibly in a violent spin. At 6.5 in., the length is a little shorter than I prefer and the openings to the cutting slots look too narrow. In an in-air canopy wrap situation it looks like it would be too clumsy to deploy and use one-handed (with or without gloves) and possibly be clumsy to maneuver to whatever needs to be cut. Although I like the concept of the double hook in general, it does carry with it a possibility of unintentionally cutting into something and doing collateral damage in a wrap scenario. For CRW, a hook knife has to  be able to reliably be used to do single-line cuts even when other lines and even harnesses and risers are in close proximity.

I am a fan of the Spyder Edge. While setting up for some hook knife testing I cut a bunch of short lengths of various suspension lines and my Spyderco Y8-10 Endura4 with full length Spyder Edge cut through every type of line I had--even 3 strengths of Spectra line. After trying (and failing) to cut Spectra with scissors and other knives, that was impressive. I want that in a hook knife.

BTW, if you don't mind looking through loads of duplicate entries, this is probably the best single url I have found for getting a good overall look at the rescue knives currently available:
http://www.thefind.com/sports/info-rescue-hook-knife

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