Rescue Hook or EMT Shears

Well I rather the Benchmade 5 Hook (in the middle) for a few reasons.

• Small compact size.
• Simple to use.
• Less components to fail.
• Opens beer bottles (after roping!)

The only minuses are that the cutting edge is not easily sharpened and it will tarnish over time especially if used to open beer bottles! These are not significant as emergency equipment should stay sharp due to infrequence use and the tarnish can be rubbed off with steel wool or wet dry sand paper if you are fussy.

The plastic rescue hook (on the right) is similar in ease of use to the Benchmade hook. It has advantages of replaceable blades which are razor sharp. But down side of more bits to break when you need them most.

EMT shears (on the left) are my last choice as they arent so simple to cut rope. Admittedly they are less likely to unintentionally cut someone through mishandling then rescue hooks (yes I have accidentally nicked myself with rescue hooks) but I also see various quality shears around which I think you really do not want to rely upon in an emergency situation.