What is a UK legal knife?

Getting a bush or sheath knife at 16 used to be a right of passage when I grew up in the 70s.

No problem carrying a fixed blade or locking knife hiking in the outdoors in most cases. You would have a valid reason and reasonable explanation under the current UK legislation.

In Texas we can open carry Katanas,Claymores and even a battle axe if we want lol

Any folding knife that does not lock open is unsafe to use. And a person who says points are unnecessary on knives except weapons has not done much wood work or carving or even kitchen food prep.

Knife laws make no one safer. Just like gun laws, speech laws, and so many other laws. How sad.

They want you to have an accident with a slip joint knife to teach you a lesson. You can always carry a safe lock knife and ditch it if there are police around.

My edc is a 9mm handgun that I bought for 250 bucks in 20 minutes from my towns sporting goods store. God bless America.

Back in the 50s and living in a semi-rural area We often carried sheath knives when out rambling or camping from the age of 8. In school most boys had pocket knives and the teacher would often ask to borrow one. The embarrassment if yours was not sharp. Some of us had air rifles and, with the landowners permission, would hunt grey squirrels for the 2/6d old money, paid by the Forestry commission for their tails in an attempt to protect the native red squirrels. Later, in the scouts, we had machetes, axes and the ubiquitous sheath knives as part of our equipment. Out in public nobody would even give a second glance at these tools. It was the same in the home, we were living with my grandmother at the time and my step-grandfather always had a double barrelled 12 bore shotgun behind a chair in the living room for vermin control. To my certain knowledge we never shot or stabbed anyone. What has gone wrong?

A friction folding knife is safer than the slip joint knife if you're worried it might close over your fingers. Also section 139 of the criminal justice act states that the "cutting edge" must not be longer than 3 inches or 7.62cm but some knives that are measured with a straight ruler can measure 3"but the cutting edge can be 3.2" due to the curvature of the blade edge. Something to think about when purchasing a UK legal knife.

No. A strong detent that requires two hands to close, is still a non-locking knife, as long as there is no button or other mechanism required to allow its closure.

This is so sad I don't know what to say. If I had to move to the UK and couldn't carry a Leatherman multitool simply because it had a locking blade I'd be pretty upset. Protect your freedoms people...They're hard to get back once they're gone.

Mate, I've got exactly the same Whitby knife as my EDC. Very pleased with it, and as cheap as chips!

Great video! In certain USA states one can do the food shopping whilst openly armed with an assault rifle, handgun/s and as many large knives as one wishes. In the UK, in public - if one has a non-folding fruit-peeling knife with any blade or even a folding one with a blade over 3" long or which locks - it can mean serious law trouble. What a crazy world we live in!

It’s interesting, I used to work in maintenance in college, and an older colleague warned me against carrying a non-locking knife on the job. Amazing the difference in culture.

This is ridiculous. I have a fisherman' filleting knife that fits in a leather sheath that I take fishing, it's blade over 6 inches long, is fixed, non folding. I also use it for preparing game if I'm out shooting. So people who go camping and take their carving or bread knife for normal food preparation are also breaking the law-------crazy!

As long as the knife is legal you do not need to give a reason which is your best answer but do not be cocky about it because if make a reason up on the spot it could give a reason for you to be arrested or have the knife taken off you as an example if you live in a rough area and you say it is to protect your self incase your attacked they will take it away and if you argue you will be arrested even though the knife is legal so just reply I don't need to give you a reason politely.

Any knife that isn't specifically prohibited is lawful so long as you have a good reason - a sub 3" slip lock is safe used properly, and for the right tasks - if you genuinely need a larger or locking blade then carry and use it responsibly

You are still legally aloud to carry a locking blade over 3" with reason. A reason being like work or fishing. But you cannot carry it in public places. Althlugh if your job was say a builder or delivery man that needs to cut pallets, then the reason becomes legal.

Hello young-one l carry my knives in my rucksack used it for cutting meat or carving

This is interesting, I thought it was a 4 inch blade, how long have I been out of date? I mostly carry a pocket knife when we go to pubs so another rule I didn't know and I sometimes carry a sheath knife around home, they were legal when I was in my teens. (they are good for stripping buds off trees so you don't get branches at eye level) and since I was a builder I always carry a stanley knife, I used this for splitting cement bags and cutting plasterboard. I may need to re-think things a little! Oh and I mostly have secateurs on my belt! Any rules around Secateurs?