While a locking blade is undoubtedly safer unfortunately carrying a locking knife in a public place without a good purpose is now illegal ("It is an offence for any person, without lawful authority or good reason, to have with him in a public place, any article which has a blade or is sharply pointed except for a folding pocket-knife which has a cutting edge to its blade not exceeding 3 inches." [CJA 1988 section 139(1)] ) as I've recently discovered when looking for a replacement for my venerable swiss army knife. Oh and the inside of your car is deemed a public place.
Good point about being legal re knives today. I own one of the swiss tools CS and the blade is 2.5 inches long. It does lock out on full opening so it doesn't snap shut on your finger whilst in use. Hope this still means that this great device is legal.
Unfortunately recent case law decided that a locking blade does not count as a folding pocket knife. While this doesn't mean that your swiss tool is actually illegal to own but it does mean that it doesn't fall into the folding pocket knife category that you can carry without "lawful authority or good reason". One of the more ermmm erratic legal decisions made but there you go.
Locking blades?
While a locking blade is undoubtedly safer unfortunately carrying a locking knife in a public place without a good purpose is now illegal ("It is an offence for any person, without lawful authority or good reason, to have with him in a public place, any article which has a blade or is sharply pointed except for a folding pocket-knife which has a cutting edge to its blade not exceeding 3 inches." [CJA 1988 section 139(1)] ) as I've recently discovered when looking for a replacement for my venerable swiss army knife. Oh and the inside of your car is deemed a public place.
By edn1970 on 13 February, 2011, 5:03pm