Since all the UK laws changed regarding certain weapons, it has got a few people in trouble with the law.
I remember reading a while back how an older gentleman in Scotland was having problems with some youths banging on his door and they also smashed one of his windows.
Worried for his life he got called the police, then got out an old knuckle duster to protect himself with incase they came back whilst he awaited the police to come round and take a statement.
Once they arrived they saw the knuckle duster on his kitchen table and he was arrested and charged ?!
Knuckle dusters, nunchucks, samurai swords (unless you can prove it is at least 100 tears old) police batons and a few other things are all illegal now since the changes came into effect.
If you have any of the above they are meant to be handed in to the police or destroyed.
You were allowed to possess certain items if you had them before they were banned many many years ago, you could not sell ,gift or buy them new .
In 2019 it changed and they were made illegal to possess .
You did not get much for them but its better than a criminal record if caught.
The new definition of a flick knife now covers Knives it did not cover before 2019 .
Amendments to the definition of “flick knife”
The sale, importation and supply of flick knives and gravity knives have been banned since 1959[footnote 13]. Section 43 of the Act amends the definition of a “flick knife” in the Restriction of Offensive Weapons Act 1959[footnote 14]. The amended definition now includes any knife that opens automatically from a closed position, or partially opened position, to a fully opened position by means of any manual pressure that is applied to a button,
spring or other device which is contained either within the knife or is attached to the knife.
The previous definition of a “flick knife” referred to the mechanism that activates the blade being in, or attached to, the handle of the knife. This did not capture more recent designs of knives which are now available which mimic the speed and way in which a flick knife can be opened through a mechanism not in the handle itself.
It should be noted that knives that open manually, including those which can be opened with a thumb stud, do not fall under the amended definition of a flick knife. Similarly, those knives with a mechanism that opens the blade slightly, but not completely, and can only be fully opened by hand are also not within the amended definition. This means that there are types of knives that can still be sold which allows for the knife to be opened with one hand such as, for example, where a person is climbing a rockface and who needs to support their weight with one hand and open the knife with their other hand.
By "spring" is now capturing spring assist Knives from what I have read.
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Knives
- All of the knives sold by Knife Warehouse are legal to own provided you are over the age of 18. However, not all are legal to carry with you in public. Please read the guide further down on ‘Carrying Knives‘ for more information.
- Spring Assisted knives are no longer legal in the UK. The Government amended the Violent Crime Reduction Act and reclassified these as Offensive Weapons.
That is why no UK knife sellers sell them now as far I have seen .Many owners have removed the spring. Yet some are still trying to import them into the UK
Some wont even stock flipper Knives ( none spring assist) due to this bit .
The previous definition of a “flick knife” referred to the mechanism that activates the blade being in, or attached to, the handle of the knife.
" This did not capture more recent designs of knives which are now available which mimic the speed and way in which a flick knife can be opened through a mechanism not in the handle itself."
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Apparently this last bit, with a ‘button, spring or other device in or attached to the knife’ also spans the use of a
flipper to ‘flick open’ a knife. It also gives reason to assume that any assisted opening knife is not legal to own. Though that is easier to grasp than a manually opening flipper knife.
Apparently this last bit, with a ‘button, spring or other device in or attached to the knife’ also spans the use of a flipper to ‘flick open’ a knife. It also gives reason to assume that any assisted opening knife is not legal to own. Though that is easier to grasp than a manually opening flipper knife.
Grey area
To some this may be crystal clear, others might find this a grey area.
It does not differentiate between a thumb stud ( this has been clarified as you can see in the OWA 2019 bit I posted above ) and a flipper. We’ve come to notice that the Home Office likes to air on the side of caution, as we’ve had quite a few parcels being intercepted an destroyed. That’s where the caution stops, as they then do send quite an alarming letter to the intended recipient, warning about consequences for ‘repeat offenders’. Including fines that run into the thousands of pounds, and even years in prison. Quite harsh for a simple folding knife.
Stopping the flippers
This is why we’ve stopped selling flipper knives, assisted openers and some other knives to the UK and Ireland. We want to adhere to the law, even if it is not crystal clear. The risk for you as our customer, us as a business and all the lost merchandise are simply not worth it. We’ve worked with a ‘soft’ ban just preventing the shipping of these items, while still listing them for customers from outside the UK who were used to order from our UK website. But now we’ve decided to take them offline for good. A step other UK retailers took before us, and we expect others to follow suit in the near future as this affects everyone.
Until there is a clarification , I wont buy buying a spring assist and if I had one , I would be removing the spring.
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