Quote: Originally posted by Opensauce on 31/3/2016
I would have thought it was a bad idea to fly with knives in one's luggage. It's asking for trouble surely?
Not really the thread subject though, the advice would remain that if you want to carry a knife in your car as part of your camping kit then ok as long as that knife is packed with your kit & not within reach in car.
I thought traveling with a few knives buried in my luggage wouldn't be a problem as I posed no threat and they were being stored in the hold of the plane. A bit of common sense could have been applied by plod. To be able to buy 10inch kitchen knives from tesco with no fuss and have three small bladed knives confiscated travelling home seems madness.
Let's face it. Most household knives like a carving knife or your usual eating knife require you to have lawful reason to carry as do things like retractable blade Stanley knives or even things like a scalpel and we don't think twice about having such items with us on camping trips or in the car. But all kinds of panic sets in if it's a 4inch fixed blade mora that you may need for prepping feather sticks or doing a bit of whittling around the campfire. All these knives are classed the same in the eyes of the law arnt that????????
Interestingly, when looking for a knife online, I noticed that knives are around a quarter of the price in the USA for some reason. We are possibly being fleeced over here.
Interesting to read that you have the same kind of knife law like we have here in Denmark - and the same problems with it (depending ont he mood the cop is in).
Nowadays you get a hefty fine and a criminal record when you are found keeping a retractable stanley knife in your car boot, some years ago you even could go to jail for it! I remember a case where a man came home from fishing, keeping his knife in a box in the car boot (which was legal, because he was on the way home from fishing, and it was stored away). On his way he stopped at a pizzeria to buy a pizza to take home. When he came out, a cop who obviously was bored and had nothing better to do, wanted to do a thorough search of the car because he thought the guy might carry drugs (which wasn't the case). He stumbled over the box with the knife and other fishing tools, placed close to the container with the fish, so it was obvious that the guy transported the knife for legal reasons. Still the guy went to jail for some days, because the court decided that popping in for buying a pizza on his way home meant he wasn't on a fishing trip anymore!
As far as I know, the law hasn't reduced the number of knife attacs here in Denmark. Just some few days ago a mentally ill man stabbed a camper to death and injured another one seriously on a campsite at the west coast.
------------- Proud owner of a 1987 Sprite Alpine 370 EK, a cheap popup tent and a beloved retro Trio frame tent from the early seventies, called Giraffen.
And yet, I and I expect many others, grew up with a sheath knife or penknife and a catapult..........and I managed not to shoot anyone, break any windows, or cut anyone including myself.
I was educated, taught, whatever, not to, and the importance of that trust?
Now, at 60, if I carry one on boat (rope cutting around prop) scuba (netting cutting) canoeing or camping or field archery (digging arrows out of wood), or shooting (skinning/gutting), I am constantly anxious who might perceive what.... such is the increase in mutually fuelled paranoia, fear and irresponsibility today.
Someone please tell me I'm wrong and restore some faith
Yep, I used to carry my Opinel (Stainless and Olive wood handel) number 8 in the glove box of the car, untill I realised that I could get 4 years for doing so.
It now resides at the bottom of my camping tool box!
Alternatively start re-enacting. I have just spent a weekend under canvas and spent most of it openly carrying a shotgun, a blank firing pistol and a very sharp 14" Bowie knife. The police didn't bat an eyelid
I am a chef and i carry a massoove bag of knives every where with me. if you have good reason to be carrying and of course you do not look like you are up to no good you will be fine! :)
I was just brushing up on what is acceptable in terms of knife law as a legitimate reason for carrying various types of knives and stumbled across this thread. Having read it all, I decided I might have some input.
Firstly, the people worried about being caught with a knife shouldn't worry too much as I will now demonstrate...
About 2 years ago I was stopped around midnight for drink driving (something I'm not proud of but I'd made a genuine mistake).
I'd been to see a friend and had a few after work. I'd drunk shandy and lost count, then not realised I was over the limit because I wasn't feeling drunk since I figured the alcohol had had it's time to leave my system. I knew that 1 unit will take roughly an hour to do so and I hadn't been going mental at it.
Anyway the officer who was tasked with searching me after I'd been arrested for failing the breath test simply asked if I had anything sharp on my person. He'd apparently clocked that I was still in my work clothing (combats and polo shirt with company logo etc).
I was completely honest with my answer which was "Yes, I have a couple of knives on me for work". They were narrow stanley knives with snapoff blades and very easily concealable if you wanted to see it that way.
He asked which pockets they were in, removed them and put them in my car for me.
They were then left, at the scene of the arrest, in my car, all night.
Now obviously the officers I encountered were switched on and that isn't always the case but it shows that there is room for leniency and interpretation on a person to person basis even amongst the police themselves.
No charges were brought against me for carrying them, even late at night.
So if you have a reason to carry a particular kind of knife, it's of an appropriate size for the task you carry it for (no machetes for opening letters or chopping carrots), and they believe you, you'll be ok, even if it's on your person.
As a side note, since all the above occurred I bought a Leatherman in which all tools including the blade are locking.
I often work in prisons, police stations, on various government sites and sites that have strict security for whatever reason. I carry said Leatherman onto all of these ON MY BELT and am seen using it when required, which is quite often and whether I am asked to relinquish it or not at the entrance, noone has ever said anything about the legality of me carrying it including many police officers. I also always get it back once I leave if they can't let me carry it on site. They see it as a tool for my job and they leave it at that.
That said however, I'd recommend that whenever you're not using a knife you just stash it somewhere out of the way and again, be sure it's appropriate for it's assigned tasks.
I know people who carry fixed blades for bushcraft into the woods etc for their youtube channels and whatnot as well. They're putting their content out for the world to see and not one of them has been arrested for it as yet. We know that the police use sites like youtube to find evidence of wrongdoing so they obviously aren't going out of their way to look up the people who would be likely to carry such items like Bushcrafters.
I'm not saying you'll be ok to carry a fixed blade but again, I wouldn't panick about it as long as you have a very good reason and aren't doing it in between what it was intended for. ;)
Sorry for the long post, I could probably have boiled it down to "use common sense" like some of your other posts have but I do like to over-illustrate my point.
I read this weekend a court report here in Ireland. A man was up in court after being arrested by the Garda for carrying a Swiss army knife. He had been found asleep at a bus stop after a night 'camping' which in some circles means sitting out all night drinking in the woods.
The judge threw out the case as it was not a weapon and was being used as a bottle opener......whilst camping.
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Topic: Camping Knife and the law ??
