California knife rules

Gordon - really? did not know that. thanks bro.

CA R

CA Raider said:

Gordon - really? did not know that. thanks bro.

CA R

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Yup. In the Sons of Anarchy series, on the FX Network, they regularly showed bikers openly carrying large single-edged knives at their sides. There was quite a variety of them too. For example Jax Teller (played by Charlie Hunnam) carried a Ka-Bar Commemorative Mark II.

Thinking this to be a bit odd, I asked a CHP friend. He told me it was quite legal.

NH doesn't have sharp-object laws... a Free Stater legislator got a bill passed to remove them several years ago.

I suppose you could carry a cutlass here if you wanted to. But most people carry these things called "gonnes", they're lighter and smaller.

Gordon said:

California changed it's knife laws a few years back. Now fixed blade knives regardless of size , with an unsharpened false edge, are allowed to be openly carried IF readily visible. So big bowies are in with my biker pals and finally I can wear my 9" Rezine Mad Dog which hangs perfectly when seated on my bike, even under a barn coat.

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Please explain. I don't see any requirement for a blade to have an unsharpened false edge. Seems the law just bans the concealed carry of a fixed blade knife.

I regularly carry a fixed blade knife. I'd hate to find out that I was in violation, but my reading of the law doesn't show that to be the case.


FWIW, I do get people who comment on my carrying of a knife, but it's usually the idiots who need to ask me if they can borrow my knife, because they have failed to bring the proper tools to work with them. One genius claimed that I was committing a felony by having a knife over 3 inches, because he knows everything about everything, having been through the police academy in LA or somewhere near there. (I'm not in LA, or near there)

ChaoSS said:

I don't see any requirement for a blade to have an unsharpened false edge.

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I believe that would put you over into "dirk or dagger" category.

PENAL CODE
SECTION 21310-21390




21310. Except as provided in Chapter 1 (commencing with Section
17700) of Division 2 of Title 2, any person in this state who carries
concealed upon the person any dirk or dagger is punishable by
imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year or imprisonment
pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170.



21390. The unlawful concealed carrying upon the person of any dirk
or dagger, as provided in Section 21310, is a nuisance and is subject
to Sections 18000 and 18005.

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Which means that open carry is perfectly legal, right? I mean, it says, "carries concealed upon the person".

ChaoSS said:

I mean, it says, "carries concealed upon the person".

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In California "concealed upon the person" could mean that your shirt came untucked.
Not the sort of thing that you want to let a jury decide.

I'm very careful about that. Not really interested in carrying a dull blade....

ChaoSS said:

Please explain. I don't see any requirement for a blade to have an unsharpened false edge. Seems the law just bans the concealed carry of a fixed blade knife.

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The California ban on carrying any double-edged knife, including blades with sharpened false edges, goes back well into the mid-1980s and perhaps a good bit further. I found out about it shortly after I moved here from Alabama in '88, and had to change the sheath knife I carried when hiking and backpacking.

The double-edged ban was possibly not named or alluded to in this 'new' law because it wasn't affected. Then there's always the "dirk or dagger" provision...

I moved to California in 2005, and I don't remember ever seeing anything about double edged blades. As far as I remember, and this was before they rewrote the code but I can't speak for anything before 2005, dirk or dagger has only referred to a fixed blade knife, or a folder that is locked open.


I see what you guys are referring to, though, I had thought that Gordon was saying that only unsharpened knives, basically stage knives, were legal to be carried if they were fixed blades. Now his comment makes more sense.

I can say that it is an interesting sight to go out for Sunday brunch in the East Bay, CA and see a group of bikers all packing bowies at their hips and eating pancakes.

Now here's a question, is there any case law regarding whether or not an OTF knife would be considered a "pocket knife", and thus not a dirk or dagger? Specifically, an OTF box cutter....


Seems that would be a stupid thing to get busted for, but the code sections are perfectly clear to me in this regard.

It's not a switchblade, that's not a problem.




Something like this. It's not going to go into the category of switchblade, it doesn't meet those criteria. But the question is, does it meet the criteria of a "dirk or dagger"?