Local Knife Laws and Myths

In the time that I've been making knives I see all sorts of mis-information come by.

The one that has the LEAST basis in truth that I can see come by on a regular basis is about what's legal to carry and what isn't. Let me give you an example by the rumors that seem to go around in the place where I live.

In case you didn't know I live in the Netherlands. (Not Holland, the Netherlands, here's a video about the difference: 

Now as you might suspect I tend to carry a knife. Lately I've been carrying a knife I made myself, this one:

The blade is stainless steel (Niolox) with a spalted sycamore handle on it.

It's not very big, it has a 3" blade (7,5cm) and is perfect for small jobs that I might encounter like opening packages, assisting the the flailing of an orange, or de-animating potatoes into edible chunks.

When I'm at work I usually carry the entire thing with sheath in my pocket and sometimes it just lays on my desk. (I work in an office for my daytime job)

When I'm not at the office I usually simply carry it on my belt. 

On a regular basis someone will point it out and ask me: "Is that even legal?" probably because they're not used to people carrying a fixed blade instead of a folding knife.

"Also, if you have a forked stick
 you can always easily find water"
Clueless Scoutmasters across the world.

Very often when that happens someone helpfull in the area will chime in and tell them: "Well as long as the blade isn't longer than your hand is wide it's perfectly legal" which is probably what they've been told by their fathers, or uncles or scout master or something.

Now I can understand where someone would tell this to a young boy just to give him a small guideline on what's acceptable. However....

Do we really think that actual laws work like that? Let's think about that for a moment.. This would mean that someone with small hands like my wife (who's the perfect cuddle size, Love you dear) could carry maybe a 2,5 inch (6cm) blade on her person while my cousin Matthias Heinrichs who is around 7 feet tall could carry something with a MUCH bigger blade.

Also, imagine the conversation that a cop would have with you while checking if your knife was too big or small enough:

Cop: Is that a knife I see in your pocket/on your belt? (this can happen when you carry a knife with a clip)

You know what they say about cops with small hands right?
The get to carry only small knives.....
I wonder if that counts for guns too?

Detained citizen: Yes sir/mam it is.

Cop: Can I see it please?

Detained Citizen, knowing that the knife was smaller than his hand: Yes sir (and hands it over to the officer)

Cop, holding the knife across the palm to check for length: Well sir it seems we're having a problem, this knife it too large

Citizen: Well sir it's small enough for my hand. So it should be ok right?

Cop: Well it's too big for mine. So I'm affraid I'm going to have to take it and give you a ticket for illegal weapons carry.

You see how that wouldn't work right?

So the law has to be written in such a way (it should be anyway) that an impartial person can measure what's legal or not. A certain amount of inches overall, a certain width, a certain bladelength etc. That's what you need. And in most cases that's exactly what's on the books.

I'd recommend you check your local laws, even with some of them you might be carrying something that's not allowed and you don't even know it.

On the other hand, you might be entitled to carry more according to the law and not even know it.

Local laws differ a LOT from Country to Country and sometimes even from province to province, State to State or City to City. If you're going to carry a knife, be responsible about it and know what you're allowed.

"You mean there's
an actuall written law f
or that stuff?

Lastly, don't assume that a police officer knows what's legal, he or she might have been raised on the same nonsense that we were. If you encounter one who doesn't know the local laws, comply with what they ask. But ALWAYS make sure there's a paper trail. If they keep insisting that they have to take your knife make sure you get a reciept. That way you can prove which officer it was. And if the knife were to disappear in the legal system you know who's accountable for it.

In closing here's some local laws that I know of. Starting with the one in the Netherlands:

Our local laws can be found in the Law for Weapons and Ammo which can be found here: http://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0032774/volledig/geldigheidsdatum_06-05-2014 (sorry, no english version available)

The Netherlands

Losely interpreted our Dutch laws are as follows:

No Automatics (Stiletto's), No Balisongs (Butterfly knives), No knives that were made explicitly for stabbing (long thin double edged blades),

No folding knives that are more than 28cm opened.

No Swords (There is no definition about when a knife becomes a sword)

No knives that have a full handguard/knuckleduster

No objects that make it so that it's assumed that you're carrying them for use as a weapon. (This effectively means that if you have a screwdriver or ballpoint pen in your pocket while clubbing it could be classed as an illegal weapon.

This also means that it would be perfectly legal to carry a machete when camping or working in the yard, but 100% illegal when shopping for groceries

There's a few more laws concerning other weapons but these are the ones on the books as pertaining to knives.

Make sure you know about your local city. I know that a few of the bigger cities have local laws that make it illegal to carry anything. (I'm looking at you amsterdam)

In England you can only carry a folding knife with a blade shorter than 3" that doesn't lock without a legally valid reason. This means that you COULD carry something locking and bigger or a fixed blade when camping/hunting/working in the yard etc (all valid reasons).

But without a legally valid reason

In Germany a folding knife can lock or be opened one handed. This means that the classic Buck 110 knife is legal while the much smaller Spyderco Dragonfly isn't. 

Fixed blades are in almost all cases legal.

The "Valid legal reason" rule also applies there. A one hand locking knife while hunting is perfectly legal for instance.

For more information a good place to start is this Wikipedia Page and Google, offcourse, is your friend as well. If you can't find anything usefull about your area you might want to check out www.Bladeforums.com, www.Iknifecollector.com or one of the many MANY other knife related communities and ask a question there. There are so many collectors and knife lovers across the world that chances are someone might be able to help you.

The customer is always right......or isn't he?

You might remember from the previous blog where I was making a leather handles knife with Tagua nut pommel and guard.

Well the other day he called me up to tell me that he was liking the knife as it was coming along (I send pictures of the progress to customers who give me an order).

He was worried about the pommel though. You see, it was attatched nicely. But instead of polishing the whole thing white....I decided to go with a more "natural look" where I left some of the skin on the outside. It looked like this:

You see the brown end on it? Well, I'd polished that out very nicely and it looked great.

However it wasn't to his taste. So I assured him that I could still change that no problem. I did and it now looks like this:

which should be more to his liking.

For me however I seriously had to debate  about whether I was willing to do that. I realised that sometimes....even if you believe the customer is wrong....he's still sort of right.

As long as you'd still be willing to have your name on a piece because it is a good piece. It doesn't really matter that it's not completely to your taste.

Sometimes...we just have to put up with small things that we don't like 100%.....and that's ok.

In this case. I made something that I'm proud of, that the customer is happy with and that makes me happy as a maker even if it's not 100% what I'd have made for myself.

A first blog for a revamped website.

Before I gave my website a big overhaul I had a blog on which I showed (with intervals) the knives I was working on.

Now I'll be doing that as well as posting some thoughts about knifemaking and knives in general. Things about construction methods and their (dis)advantages, steel selection, grind types etc. Also if I get questions from readers I'll devote a blog post to that.

To get things started, here's one of the things I'm currently working on:

This knife was commissioned by a customer who wanted something like the Helle Lapland.

But he wanted a different knife of handle on it. What he would like is a Tagua nut bolster and leather spacers instead of a wooden handle. He also wanted a Tagua nut pommel.

So here it is so far. It's hardened and cryo treated AEB-L with a Tagua nut bolster and leather spacers. I cut a thread on the end to tighten the leather spacers. And currently a Tagua nut pommel is resting with the glue drying over that.

After this I'll be cleaning up the grind on it and once the leather arrived I'll be attempting a BIG scandinavian style sheath for it.

Here is the blade with all the handle materials

Here with a slot cut into the Tagua nut

Slots cut into the leather spacers with a nut and washed on the end.

All the spacers and bolster glued and tightened. And I already ground the handle into shape a little

Here's where it's currently located. In a vise with the pommel glued on and drying.