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Reviewer Information
Gender:	Male
Age:	65
Height:	5' 6" (1.6 meters)
Weight:	159 lb (72 kg)
Email:	mike-at-pahiker-dot-com
Home:	Southwest Pennsylvania, USA
Background:	I’ve been hiking since ’65 with occasional backpacking trips (backpacking became a love affair in the early 80’s). My first sleeping bag weighed in at 8 lb (3.6 kg) by itself! These days my loaded pack only weighs about 15 lb (6.8 kg) sans food. While most of my adventures are in the Northeast I’ve also been spending a good deal of time in the desert Southwest and most places in-between. My trips tend be in the cooler months - September through May - as I’m not much of a hot-weather person.

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Product Information
Manufacturer:	Thresher Dive Supply
Year Acquired:	2019
URL:	Thresher Dive Supply
MSRP:	$129.98 US
Material:	Titanium blade, rubberized handle, injection-molded plastic sheath
Size:	Blade, measured:4.5 in. (11.4 cm
	Knife, measured: 9.6 in. (24.5 cm)
Weight, measured:	5.4 oz (153 g) - with sheath 7.9 oz (223 g

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Product Description

Thresher Dive Supply makes two different styles of dive knives: blunt and pointed tips, this is the blunt tip version. It comes with an injection molded, lightweight sheath (2.5 oz - 70 g). Since it is a dive knife it also comes with two rubber straps for strapping the sheath to the diver’s leg. The knife locks into the sheath with a snap-lock on each side that grips the end of the blade guard, two fingers pushed on the locks releases the blade.

Usage Report

“Always carry a knife” is what I was told when I was a Scout, for general purposes as well as for camping and backpacking - it stuck. In fact it became a love affair, I probably have had 50 knives over my lifetime, from that original Scout Knife with its many gadgets (think of a Swiss Army knife on steroids) that included a fork and spoon, to a machete for cutting branches and brush in the backyard. With all of those different knives I’ve never been happy with any of them while backpacking. Even the Bowie style knife I inherited from my uncle (he made in his shop). They were all suitable for the task, but lacked features, weighed too much, or were difficult to keep sharp (like those multi-purpose knives that just don’t keep an edge). This dive knife is my latest foray into searching for the ultimate backpacking knife.

I saw this when I was hanging around a mall in Tucson, Arizona, a couple years ago, resting after a long day of hiking in the Catalina Foothills. I started thinking about this as a possible camping knife, it has several features that I wanted in that perfect camping knife:

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• A full tang to enable the knife to take a good beating.
• An end cap to help drive tent stakes into harder ground (my stakes are also titanium).
• A blade guard so my hand doesn’t slide into the business end of the knife.
• A straight edge for cutting and slicing, after all that’s what a knife is for.
• A sharpened hook for cutting rope and straps, and helping in pulling those tent stakes out.
• A serrated edge for cutting small branches and twigs for fires, and slicing foods and packaging.
• A blunt tip for digging cat holes.

Because of these features I finally decided to take the dive into a dive knife. The knife has also allowed me to leave my cat hole digger at home, cutting down on my pack weight. The weight of this knife also has cut down on weight as it weighs a good deal less than that homemade Bowie knife I’ve carried.

I’ve been using the Thresher Titanium Dive Knife extensively in the Northeastern U.S. (from New Hampshire to Pennsylvania) over the past year and I find that I have been right about it. The knife shows little sign of wear, and no sign of rust, has yet to need resharpening, and doesn’t seem to be affected by the hard, rocky soil so prominent in the Northeast.

trips when I needed to build a small fire. Larger branches and logs are easy to find, and tend to be so dry they snap easily under foot pressure, but the pieces up to a thumb’s thickness are usually still attached to the dead trees and are a bit more flexible, so they don’t snap off easily, the serrated blade cuts through them nicely. It does take a little effort since the ridges are further apart (3/8” - 9.5mm) than ideal, but it still does the job. The serrated edge has also proven useful with something I hadn’t considered - opening food pouches, those darn things can be difficult, especially when the manufacturer doesn’t provide a “rip here” notch.

Haven’t really needed the hook to pull any stakes, but the end cap has helped a couple times to get the stakes into the ground. It’s been unusually dry here, and I can’t just push the stakes into hard, dry ground.

Finally, and most importantly during “those times”, the blunt edge has done an excellent job in digging cat holes. It’s just sharp enough to dig into the ground, and doesn’t have a tip to break off when I hit rock (most of Pennsylvania is a few inches of soil on top of limestone).

Summary

The Thresher Titanium Dive Knife it a beautifully made knife that comes razor sharp and ready to use, a good thing since titanium can be hard to sharpen.

• Things I like:
• Sharp on all edges, even the blunt tip.
• The rubber handle is soft, and compresses just enough to enable a firm grip, and makes it harder for the hand to slip on the handle.
• Very lightweight for a 5” (12.7 cm) blade.


• Things I don't like:
• Not crazy about the sheath, I had to make modifications to use it with a 1-1/2” - 2” belt (3.8 - 5 cm), the belt loop only works with a 1” (2.5 cm) belt.
• While the blade lock on the sheath may work well if it is attached to the leg, it’s a bit hard to work when attached to the belt