Have a Gerber multitool in my camel back, i’ve used the pliers more than the knife. I also often carry a knife at work, anyone here ever got bail twine wrapped around a chainsaw sprocket will know its a right b’stard to get off. Also useful for cutting rope and weed/crap that gets tangled around boat props.

The legal situation as I understand it is that you can carry a knife under 3″ that is folding then its for the prosecution to show that you did not have good reason to carry it or that you wer carrying it for illegal use, if it is over 3″ then you have to show you do have good reason for it.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/Typesofcrime/DG_181675

http://www.bkcg.co.uk/guide/law.html

MY mother used to carry a 4″ lock knife – she is a biologist and used it as a tool to collect samples and the like. Twice she has been caught going thru customs with it in her handbag! Never prosecuted tho

Reading through this thread it would be quite easy to think you can carry a blade under 3 inches and be fine but that is wrong. I’ve had a friend warned for carrying a stanley knife while buying his lunch in a chip shop during the week while in work clothes (carpet fitter). The police are very tight on this and if you get the wrong policeman on the wrong day you will get prosecuted for it.

I can understand you needing a knife in a wilderness riding situation but as most people on STW ride trail centres or within 20 miles of home I can’t see the need other than to fill your camelbak with yet another unnecessary item you have to lug around to look “cool”

Buris – very little chance of a prosecution succeeding tho. did your mate have it clipped to his belt? Remeber cops cannot possibly know the nuance of every law.

# knives with folding blades, like Swiss Army knives, are not illegal as long as the blade is three inches long (7.62 cms) or less
# if any knife is used in a threatening way (even a legal knife, such as a Swiss Army knife), it is regarded as an ‘offensive weapon’ by the law

From the direct Gov. site linked to above

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-aKtmAfeRg
around 3:20 and 5:40 in

Burls, a Stanley knife with it’s ratchet mechanism counts as a locking blade. The exception in the law is for small folding pocket knives. You’re generally safe with Swiss army.

TJ – Cases like this would be delt with by the Magistrate court, and if the CPS present a case like this you would be very lucky to get away with it. It is well known that in grey areas such as this Magistrates side with the police/CPS as they have to be seen to uphold the law. As you said the police can’t know every part of the law the same applies to Magistrates. The test cases would have been held at Crown court which is a completely different story.

It’s pointless arguing about it because we are both wrong but both right. You just have to look at the case of your mum and the case of the gentleman who came into the shop where I worked. Both the same circumstances but different outcomes, this law is not clear and a lot of it is luck of the draw.

If, say, I was in the park with my two young daughters and someones dog decided to attack, the dog would get it I’m afraid

Quick-draw McGraw inhabits STW 😆 I think the dog might have had you before you get you keys out!

In the US quite a lot of people apparently take guns out biking.

Which handgun for XXXC?

Kuco – forget teh knife just take the chainsaw with you when you’re riding!

I had to laugh yesterday going through Geneva airport – go through the security & X-ray machines, cannot take bottles containing more than 100ml etc etc, first shop I walk into – you can buy swiss army knives… love it!

I don’t go anywhere without my swiss army, I have the same model as I had when I was 11 and I love it, if I got heat for it I use it in my roll as a geologist, In fact I have several knives on me for certain applications.

They are in my pack and my pack goes everywhere even food shopping so they come with me.

Surely any life is illegal if you stab or threaten someone with it and a pen knife is fine even if locking if you have a reason to have it. I’ve been searched by the police, had them find a knife and they asked me why I had it “because I’ve just come from the farm, thats why I’m also covered in cow shit” and they werent bothered.

Not a knife, but I carry one of these:-

blurs72 it is not a legal grey area a folding pocket knife with a blade under 3 inches is legal no arument no debate that is the law. Any other article with a blade or point cannot be carried in public without a reasonable excuse or lawfull authority. Anything which is made to be a weopon , adapted to be a weopon or intended to be a weopon carried outside your home is an offensive weopon and illegal unless you can show a reasonable excuse.

To be convicted for carrying a folding pocket knife the police would have to prove so that the court was sure that either the blade was >3 inches it had a locking mechanisam or that you intended to attack someone with it.

Carry one of these on my bouyancy aid when kayaking, 3″ blunt tip.

Have been in a group where someone got caught in discarded fishing line in pretty fast flow, could have ended nastily if he hadn’t had one on him, ordered one as soon as I got back from that trip! Only time I’ve seen one used but then again it only takes one time without a knife…

Today I had to use the knife in the wilds of South Glos. Even Bear Grylls would of wimped out in the harsh conditions….

The SL3 cuts essential trail cake with ease 🙂

Next an Apple!

PS It only weighs 78g for the survival fantasist weigh weeny 😉

if you were TJ you’d have managed that with a piece of bark and a Union Membership card. You gungho hoodlum, you.

Eating slices of apple of a massive knife is strangely satisfying I have to say.

You may think a fancy knife makes you a hard man. A real hard man would have eaten that cake in one.

Just to point out in the picture above the knife and cake are far away. I have also got massive hands 🙂

Also as a PSA the M&S Cube cake is recommended.

I am hard, that holly on top was solid gold and I ate that! The knife went through it like butter 😉

I bet I am one of the few folk here to have been arrested for carrying a knife.

never carry a knife on the bike nor even thought about.
You beat me TJ I got arrested for carrying a broken bottle. My defence that it was too dangerous to leave on the ground where someone could hurt themselves and I was looking for a bin was …well not quite believed but accepted when interviewed in the cells. Thank god I was caught i may have used it idiot teenager in angry melodrama moment over nothing.

You’ve got to be over 18 to buy those crap, bendy, white picnic knives n forks in supermarkets nowadays. Can’t even let your kids stab a pork pie properly.

My dad, a mild-mannered civil servant, used to make walking sticks and shepherds crooks. Used to have a whole range of knives and saws in the car for chopping down bits of hazel, etc. The boot looked like a serial killers wet dream!

PC – What is your valid reason for carrying that kind of knife on a bike ride?

Mountain Biker – It’s for cutting cake?

PC – You’re nicked mate….

Little sis, the lawyer advises – The reason must be valid. extremely valid. Blade length will be irrelevant by the time it gets to her. Even if it’s “legal” it can still be an offensive weapon. And it will be a police officer that will decide.

For example if you buy a knife in a shop you must take it straight home. If you go via another shop, you no longer have a valid reason for carrying it. In real life you would think some common sense applies but obviously lawyers have dealt with such cases.

In real life you would think some common sense applies but obviously lawyers … have dealt with such cases.

My Topeak Alien has a locking blade. Gets carried on most MTB rides I do and quite often on commutes.

Last Summer we had a small picnic on the grass in front of Exeter Cathedral. While my wife set out the spread I popped off to the loo…

“Everyone’s been staring at me” says wife on my return.

“Er, yes”, says I, ” probably something to do with the 9″ carving knife you’re using to butter the bread”.

(Spent the rest of the picnic wondering if someone might call the rozzers and whether ‘picnic’ was a valid excuse to be waving such cutlery around in the middle of a city.)

I carry a knife with me at all times, in an urban environment. I find it very useful in obtaining essentials such as iPhones, laptops, spensive cams, jewellery etc, which I can then turn into narcotic substances which are vital in helping me escape the mundanity of everyday life….

Fred…..noted.

What happened to the days of all blokes from small boys up having a knife? .I bought my eldest his swiss army knife when he was nine he is now twenty one and it is still in use

carry a knife with me at all times, in an urban environment. I find it very useful in obtaining essentials such as iPhones, laptops, spensive cams, jewellery etc, which I can then turn into narcotic substances which are vital in helping me escape the mundanity of everyday life….

And also good for stabbing members of your rival ethnic minority gang from the next ghetto .

I used to carry one of these around all the time, beautiful little knife, very ergonomic and comfortable in the hand. The blade is barely two inches long. It’s called a CoPilot, and up until 9/11 it was one of the fewknives you could carry onto an aircraft. Sadly, no longer made by Spyderco, and I won’t carry mine anymore in case I lose it, quite apart from the fact it cost nearly £70. I absolutely refuse to use any knife without a locking blade, for reasons of personal health and safety. My knives are always sharp and it’s very easy to have a Swiss Army Knife blade close on your fingers during heavy use. Happened to me, and it was only because I had thick gloves on saved me from a very deep and nasty cut.

i always carry a cheap leatherman copy in my back pack? Mostly use the pliers but have used the knife a few times. This was me on my last ride :-

Here we are again, people arguing and agonising over moot points of law that affect everyday activities. I carry a victorinox every day at work on my belt and when stopped in Belfast city airport was aked if I would like it disposed of, I declined the offer and took it back to my van and left it there. Strangely I wasn’t arrested but if they had found the 9″ carving knife in my toolbox they might have done.
I also have a Gerber Suspension I always carry on rides and all nine of the blades lock, wonder where I stand on that?

And also good for stabbing members of your rival ethnic minority gang from the next ghetto .

I’m actually quite indiscriminate in who I stab…

Fred…..noted.

You’ll nevah take me alive, Copper…

Probably better that way 🙂

I used my knife to make my sandwiches

The knife was given to me by my mother – it was a family heirloom.

Only a 7″ sheath knife. I nearly did a week fo that. Bastard ruddy cop – I have had to make do with my second best knife since then. the grip is plastic not leather Ruddy cops

So why cant a responsible white middle class by walk around with a knfe?