Penknives and the current Law

[paulk]

Sorry to be boring but just wondered if anyone else had a penknife in their pocket what with all the current news / rumblings from Parliment.

I've always had one since I was 16 and never thought anything of it. Its just another tool that I use on a daily basis, I've always carried it except out to nightclubs or on planes (cos I knew it would be confiscated).

I literally use it dozens of times a day, opening boxes,undoing screws,cutting rope, opening wine or beer. In fact I use it so much that this current one (had it 10 years) is wearing out and its probably time to replace it.

I've been following the news and looking up on the Direct Gov website and it seems its still legal for me to carry it, as long as I don't threten anyone with it at which point It would become an offensive weapon and get me 4 years inside.

But it seems every Chief Constable wants them off the street, the only blood I've ever got on mine is my own when i've used it to remove splinters.

just wondered what other people thought.

[Sidney'61]

I fully agree with you, I find them very useful just for the general use items you can get on them, Ie. scissors and tweezers but I don't dare carry one with me because of my age. I'm young and I like to wear a hoody so if I tried to carry my pen knife with me aswell I'd immediately be branded a 'thug' or an ASBO, it's ridiculous.

[alex_holden]

It does annoy me when the media goes on about people carrying knives as if the only reason anyone could have to do so would be for violent purposes. I actually started carrying a Swiss army knife when I was about 13, as did many of my friends at the time. Virtually everyone who was in the Scouts did. It never occurred to us that we could get into trouble for carrying a concealed weapon, or that it might be a bad idea to show them off to our mates in the playground.

[chickenjohn]

Yes, its a sad world that we live in due to incresed violence and the knee-jerk punishment of the innocent in response to that. BTW, if your penknife is worn out, replace it with a "multi-tool" rather than a "penknife". You can also get tools that will open packaging but not present a dangerous blade to anyone.

I believe the September the 11th Hijackers were armed with "Penknives".

[wiglaf]

The problem with multitools is the general lack of corkscrews... ;-)

[paulk]

I have looked at Leathermans and the like but to be honest they look too complex .Too many bits but not that good at any of it.

I use eveything on my penknife (very basic one 2 blades, bottle opener,corkscrew etc) and apart from the thing for taking stuff out of horses hooves I use all the rest a lot.
I think most of the stuff on multi tools gets in the way of using any of it.