How to buy a Rigging Knife
Rigging knives are used in sailing to work with lines and other forms of rigging. Rigging knives had their moment in the spotlight when one was used on America One to cut a genoa sheet that had become wrapped during the Louis Vitton finals. You should consider a rigging knife as much a necessity for your boat as all of your Coast Guard required equipment.
There are different forms of rigging knives, and which one you choose depends a lot on how and in what conditions you typically sail. A rigging knife will generally come with some combination of a blade (serrated or smooth), a marlinspike and a shackle key.
Here’s what you should look for in your Deluxe Rigging Knife
Decide between a fixed blade and a folding blade.
All my rigging knives have been the folding sort, as it allows the knife to carry a marlinspike. I also believe it to be a bit safer in my gear bag, as the knife blade is never exposed unless left open. However, in heavy seas, a folding blade requires two hands to open - a difficult feat if you need one hand to hold onto the boat. If you do go for the folding blade, find a model with a locking-blade option to make it safer.Select a knife with a marlinspike.
Marlinspikes are invaluable in working with lines on your boat. While they are a necessary tool for any splicing you may do, I found my marlinspike mostly being used to undo tightly bound knots. Marlinspikes are usually only found on the folding-style of rigging knives.Choose a rigging knife with a shackle key.
Shackle pins are usually screwed on very tight to avoid them coming undone. Having a shackle key makes it that much easier to undo shackle pins that may have locked or seized, especially on a cold and windy day!Decide between a smooth blade and a serrated blade
Most rigging knives give you a choice between smooth and serrated blades. All of my rigging knives have been serrated, as I believe they cut through lines or sheets more easily. You also want to make sure that the blade on your rigging knife does not have a point, and I’ve yet to seen a serrated blade with a point.
If we consolidate the combined counsel above with some additional articles (easily available on the Web), the following components must be present for a rigging knife to be considered complete, without being excessive. These few criteria for a folding rigging (sea/marine/yachtsmen) knife are as follows:
– Blade characteristics: Single-handed locking blade of quality steel, perhaps half-serrated, and definitely not pointed on its tip
– Marlinspike: Locking, stout, and dedicated marlinspike (not a marlinspike that doubles as a ruler nor as a shackle breaker nor as a leather punch)
– Shacklebreaker: The shackebreaker must NOT be a component of the blade nor of the marlinspike (both should be closed in shacklebreaking mode, should they not?). The key may or may not be a component of the handle, presuming the knife is folding.
– Bottle opener: A bottle opener can be integrated into a shacklebreaker easily (and several makers do it), and this increases the general utility of the knife by some huge ratio without any impact on its function as a rigging tool. Am I wrong?
Many people can do without a can opener on their knife. (A can opener can be stowed elsewhere.) I mean, how often is someone opening a can while climbing in the rigging, breaking loose a frozen or rusted shackle, or cutting loose the knotted end of a severely fouled and violently active jib sheet? It’s a non-essential component. A bottle opener is also non-essential, but more frequently relevant, and it can be integrated into the essential shackle key without any impact on the core mission of the shackle key.
– Lanyard: Must have lanyard loop and a lanyard, custom-made or retail.
That’s it - nothing more. There is yet to be one folding rigging knife that combines these few and specific features into a single model. Please prove me wrong. This list took about five hours total to establish, and every knife cited below fails the above list in at least one or more ways.
– Boye folding sea knives (these integrate the shackle key into the marlinspike, rather than having a standalone shackle key, and this is not ideal. But otherwise, the Boye knives would seem to be closest to the most ideal, using the above criteria. But….Um - no bottle opener, and they are $139 US)
– Generic rigging knives (lack of locking blade/marlinspike or lack of one-handed functionality are the issue)
– Davis folding rigging knives (lack of locking blade/marlinspike or lack of one-handed functionality are the issue)
– Myerchin folding knives (every knife that includes a shackle-breaker integrates it into either the blade or the marlinspike. Do you want to have an open blade or spike rotating wildly while breaking loose shackles, particularly near a sail or line?)
– Sheffield folding rigging knives (wide lack of shacklebreaker, the blade is not locking, though the spike might be.)
All Spyderco folding rigging knives (their marine knives are all geared toward rescue, not rigging nor sailing, and often they have only a blade, and nothing more)
– Wenger/Victorinox folding rigging knives (marlinspike is not dedicated, but combined with a ruler and a very thin shackle breaker, nothing is locking, and there are extremely excessive niceties that make these “rigging” knives something else)
– West Marine folding rigging knives (all lack shackle key, marlinspike, or both, and no locking anything)
– Whitby Italian rigging knife (blade is not locking)
– Wichard folding rigging knives (blade is not one-handed)