Best NYC/NY State knife?

I can't wait till king Bloomberg institutes the buy back program, I am going to turn in all the junk I bought when I was a kid....one piece at a time then I am going to use the money to buy all customs. I have to figure judging by the $100 a piece they handed out for any gun any condition that knives will be somewhere around $25 a piece. If we dig up all the garbage knives we bought before we knew better we stand to make a lot of money.lol....F**K bloomberg...long live the 2nd!!!
 
I just tried my UKPK, holding it in three places, from the tip to the middle. It doesn't come close to flicking. It felt as steady as my locking Buck 112. Take off the wire clip, tuck it in your pocket, and you might be alright.

Some other notes: if you look inconspicuous, I doubt the cops will be looking to see if there is a knife bulge in your pocket. But a clip would be a huge no-no.

Also, as was mentioned, some buildings do not permit any knives of any sort. Keep in mind that NYC is an active target for terrorism, including a recent incident, so everyone is very security conscious. Many office buildings check your bags upon entry. Any government building--state, federal or local--will have you empty your pockets. At one time they just took my SAK, put it in a locker, and gave it back when you left. Now it's confiscated; my best buddy, a longtime New Yorker, carried a small SAK for years, had to do a job in the municipal building, and lost his knife. If you're going into the Federal Court House in Lower Manhattan, the security is intense, including various vehicle checks, and federal LE personnel with MP5s, at one time on very public display; keep in mind, this is where all trials of major terrorists take place. Think security for a Mafiosa trial, but on mega steroids. The Empire State Building, a major landmark and hence a serious security concern, has since 9/11 done a full metal check before you are allowed past the checkpoint, into the main lobby, including hand wands and a metal detector like in the airports. This is just to go to the observation deck as a tourist. When I went to Yankee Stadium in 2008, you could bring in a bag, but it had to be clear, so that guards could tell at a glance what was in it--or rather make sure that certain items were not in your bag.

I'm not trying to scare you; I love NYC, but it is a world entity, and like London and other places, it pays the price. Just be aware of local conditions before you go, and plan accordingly.
 
ASBOB said:
I just tried my UKPK, holding it in three places, from the tip to the middle. It doesn't come close to flicking. It felt as steady as my locking Buck 112. Take off the wire clip, tuck it in your pocket, and you might be alright.

Some other notes: if you look inconspicuous, I doubt the cops will be looking to see if there is a knife bulge in your pocket. But a clip would be a huge no-no.

Also, as was mentioned, some buildings do not permit any knives of any sort. Keep in mind that NYC is an active target for terrorism, including a recent incident, so everyone is very security conscious. Many office buildings check your bags upon entry. Any government building--state, federal or local--will have you empty your pockets. At one time they just took my SAK, put it in a locker, and gave it back when you left. Now it's confiscated; my best buddy, a longtime New Yorker, carried a small SAK for years, had to do a job in the municipal building, and lost his knife. If you're going into the Federal Court House in Lower Manhattan, the security is intense, including various vehicle checks, and federal LE personnel with MP5s, at one time on very public display; keep in mind, this is where all trials of major terrorists take place. Think security for a Mafiosa trial, but on mega steroids. The Empire State Building, a major landmark and hence a serious security concern, has since 9/11 done a full metal check before you are allowed past the checkpoint, into the main lobby, including hand wands and a metal detector like in the airports. This is just to go to the observation deck as a tourist. When I went to Yankee Stadium in 2008, you could bring in a bag, but it had to be clear, so that guards could tell at a glance what was in it--or rather make sure that certain items were not in your bag.

I'm not trying to scare you; I love NYC, but it is a world entity, and like London and other places, it pays the price. Just be aware of local conditions before you go, and plan accordingly.
Click to expand...

See that almost every day walking through Penn station, especially on weekends.
 
I dont know where you got your information on what is legal to carry in NYC, but I would check those sources heavily. As someone who has lived in NYC for years, I researched it out, and this is the jist of what I found.

Blade have to be non-locking (slips only), and under 2.5"

They have to have a "non threatening tip"

Cant open with one hand

And of course, in NYC (not NY State, NYC has their own rules ontop of the state laws), if it could be used as a weapon, then it is illegal if the cop wants it to be.

Generally, if you dont want to carry a SAK or a really small slipit from Spyderco, then you are gonna have to break the law like all the rest of us.

Just dont use pocket clips in NYC ever. Cops look out for them like crazy. Keep it in your watch pocket, inside waist band, ect. I even carry my Spyderco Sage clipped to some paracord around my neck.

As for things said above:

It should be noted that cops don't walk down the street frisking people or looking for pocket clips.
Click to expand...

Actually they do, it was just in the paper not a month ago. And they do target pocket clips, even though it is illegal, and there are hundreds of cases in courts currently because of the pocketclip issue. Believe me, they do look for pocket clips.

In the end. Honestly, ANY knife even if it meets all the requirements for being a legally carried knife, has two more loopholes to jump through.

One, you had it in your pocket, and thus have a concealed weapon. Now your in big trouble. Especially if you say its for self defense, looking like Rikers Island to me.

Two, Its a knife, and a knife is considered a weapon, and it is illegal in NYC to carry weapons.

So basically in the end. Get the knife that you like, keep it hidden and dont draw attention to yourself. Avoid pocketclips at all costs if you can.

Food for reading (NYC Lawyers who handle weapons cases had this to say):

The New York criminal defense attorneys and former Manhattan prosecutors at Crotty Saland LLP routinely get telephone calls from or represent individuals charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree in violation of New York Penal Law 265.01. Often times the story starts off the same. Not knowing it was crime to possess certain knives, a person is stopped after the police observe the clip of a knife outside their pocket. Ultimately, a knife is recovered and the police claim that the knife is a "gravity knife." Whether their arrest is in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens or anywhere in New York, the crime is the same. That is, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail.
Click to expand...

New York Penal Law 265.01(1) is a per se offense, meaning, the possession of certain weapons is an automatic crime. Possession of a "gravity knife" is one of the specified weapons regardless if your intended use was for work or protection. Having said that, one imperative step, which is fairly obvious, is to ascertain if in fact the alleged "gravity knife" is in fact a "gravity knife." As both a prosecutor and a New York criminal defense lawyer I have seen police make a mistake as to the nature if the knife. In those cases where the weapon is wrongly alleged to be a "gravity knife" and there is no intent to use the knife in a criminal way, the case may be one which should be dismissed.
Click to expand...

Lastly, and again equally important to know, New York law only requires that you knew you possessed a knife and not that you knew you possessed a particular type of knife. In other words, if you knowingly had a knife on your person, but you had no idea it was a "gravity knife," your lack of knowledge as to the type of knife will not be a defense to its possession.
Click to expand...

Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree pursuant to New York Penal Law section 265.01 (NY PL 265.01). Punishable by up to one year in jail, this crime, often referred to as CPW 4, comes in two common forms. The first of these violations of New York Penal Law 265.01 is the "per se" offense where the possession of the weapon, no matter its intended use, is automatically a crime. The second violation of this statute occurs where the manner of the instruments use dictates the charge even if the weapon is not an object one would normally consider as such.
Click to expand...

A person is guilty of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree, pursuant to New York Penal Law 265.01(2) when that person possesses a "dangerous instrument" or "deadly instrument" with the intent to use that weapon unlawfully against another person. Unlike 265.01(1) where the weapon in question is automatically a weapon solely based on law, this subsection includes anything that is a "dangerous instrument" or a "deadly weapon" where one, for example, attacks, assaults, threatens or menaces another person while possessing an instrument that could seriously hurt another. These weapons could include a baseball bat, broken glass or even a wire hanger if used in a violent way.
Click to expand...

That last statement is included to point out that even if a knife is technically legal, and even if the case is thrown out in court, anything can get you arrested in NYC.
 
Last edited:
QuietBear, close but your off by a few. NYC Admin Code 10-133 says the blade must be under 4" not 2.5" and there is no blade lenght for the rest of the state. I know history is great, but the only NY law that banned "concealled" weapons, was the Sullivan law, that was replaced by todays Penal Law longer ago then most of us are old. The NYC Admin Code, bans open carry of a knife ( which does include clips), and yes they do hunt them down, mostly in the transit system, and mostly after the 20 th of the month.

If all the requirements are filled, then by the wording of the law, your knife is legal, unless of course you state you carry it as a weapon. You can always be arrested for any knife, or spitting on the sidewalk, or 10,000 other laws you did not know exisited, and this is usally a function of your attitude and verbal interaction with the officer.
 
Personally, I'd stay under 3" for the blade. If a lockback, I'd avoid any clip or one-hand opening knife. I'd probably bring something like a small bladed Moki Glory with a 2.6" blade or perhaps a Fallkniven TK4 (70mm) or U2 (2.5").
There is no way anyone is going to be able to open a Queen linerlock with one hand or by flicking it.
I hate knives that don't have locks after an accident many years ago. I see it as a safety question. I hope that I am OK with something like a small Queen linerlock.
 
goodeyesniper said:
WRONG WRONG WRONG!!! A sebenza will absolutely fail the "gravity knife" test in manhattan. Apparently you aren't up to date on how crooked and backwards their laws are. They grab a knife near the tip of the BLADE, and then flick the handle out. Pretty much any one hand opener will fail this test. You need something with a lot of resistance opening, and a light handle will help too, a heavy handle's momentum can defeat a stiff action.

I would take a small liner lock that takes two hands to open. You know, the kind that feel like your fingernails are going to be ripped out before you can get it open successfully.

I also would NOT take a UKPK, technically it doesn't "lock", but it looks like every other folding, tactical knife out there, and it can probably be flicked open. And a crooked enough cop/DA/judge would call it a gravity knife, and there's no shortage of crooked law enforcement in NYC.

A small SAK, or small stockman or something would be the only thing I would trust to not land me in jail.
Click to expand...

Wrong yourself. Part of the gravity knife statute reads that in order to be a gravity knife, not only must it be able to be flicked open, it MUST lock in place. Slipits are fine as long as they're carried completely concealed, under 4" blade, and with no criminal intent.
 
Josh K said:
Not to mention the blade shape will not help.

It should be noted that cops don't walk down the street frisking people or looking for pocket clips. Go about your business, don't go looking for trouble. That will help more then anything. Err on the side of caution. If you're going to be walking around a lot at night with dark cloths and a ski mask, you might not want to bring an Endura.

If you're walking around during the day in a business suit you could probably get away with a blacked out Military. :)
Click to expand...

Actually they do look for pocket clips, especially in tourist areas and on the subway. That said, I carry a Mini-Grip in my pocket (loose, not clipped) every day including on the subway for my commute and I've never worried about it. If you don't give the cops a reason to search you there shouldn't be an issue.

As far as something that meets the legal standard a Boker Keycom might fit the bill, technically it does lock but there's no way that I could flick mine open, even holding it by the blade.
 
The "after the 20 th of the month", there is a requirement to make a certain number of arrest for any officer and certain details ( conditions, anti crime, etc) must make even more of those arrests, so the 20 th of the month is closer to the end of the month, thus the need to fulfill your monthly activity report becomes far more important. Is that connecting the dots better? Ever wonder why there are so many tickets issued the last week of the month? Does the driving really get worse then......
 
Last edited:
tom19176 said:
The "after the 20 th of the month", there is a requirement to make a certain number of arrest for any officer and certain details ( conditions, anti crime, etc) must make even more of those arrests, so the 20 th of the month is closer to the end of the month, thus the need to fulfill your monthly activity report becomes far more important. Is that connecting the dots better? Ever wonder why there are so many tickets issued the last week of the month? Does the driving really get worse then......
Click to expand...

That is just corrupt dude. What makes New York any better than main land China then with stuff like "must require X amount of "good news" in a day?" I'd rather live in California if that kinda crap is in NYC.
 
tom19176 said:
The "after the 20 th of the month", there is a requirement to make a certain number of arrest for any officer and certain details ( conditions, anti crime, etc) must make even more of those arrests, so the 20 th of the month is closer to the end of the month, thus the need to fulfill your monthly activity report becomes far more important. Is that connecting the dots better? Ever wonder why there are so many tickets issued the last week of the month? Does the driving really get worse then......
Click to expand...

First off if you could prove that... :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

bubblewhip said:
That is just corrupt dude. What makes New York any better than main land China then with stuff like "must require X amount of "good news" in a day?" I'd rather live in California if that kinda crap is in NYC.
Click to expand...

See above. The amount of crap people are willing to ingest disgusts me.

Also this is far off topic.
 
Tom's totally right. Out in Nassau County, they were even giving cops bottles of cheap bubbly for writing the most tickets in a month until the papers found out.
 
jayinhk said:
Tom's totally right. Out in Nassau County, they were even giving cops bottles of cheap bubbly for writing the most tickets in a month until the papers found out.
Click to expand...

Isn't that more like an incentive to write more tickets rather then a requirement (i.e. quota) to write them?
 
It, unfortunately, is more "on topic" than we would like. In addition to issuing summonses, NYCPD officers are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED to effect at least the same NUMBER of arrests per month as other officers performing similar duties, just as a salesman is expected to at least equal his peer's monthly sales figures and the company's overall sales target and quota. It relates to the topic, in that, as the end of a given month approaches, an officer's likelihood of effecting an arrest for a seemingly innocuous violation increases. If the arrest is for whatever specific crime happens to be the most recent statistical or political concern ~ it is viewed by management as so much the better. If knife crime or confiscation by the DA is currently newsworthy, than a current knife related arrest increases in importance. An officers personal arrest statistics are used to either reward his dedication or MOTIVATE him to be more aggressive in enforcement. This is one influencing factor as to why the original poster's "buck 110 type" knife may pass scrutiny on one occasion and result in an arrest the next. OldDude1
 
Last edited:
With those laws, get a fixed blade EDC knife with a blade under 4 inches. If it has to be a pocket knife, just get a Swiss Army knife or get a custom made one.
 
Carrying a small Swiss Army knife or a VERY small traditional pen knife may still be the best way to avoid trouble.

Merely because a knife is a fixed blade or is non-locking, with a blade less than four inches long and cannot be opened by gravity or a spring does not, in and of itself, guarantee it's acceptance as fully complying with all aspects of New York law. New York State Penal Law section 265.15 sub 4. is another "INTERESTING" subsection of the "Weapons Offence" statutes. An officers' ability to negatively interpret and articulate the "totality" of a knife's attributes, and thereby, under this section, the unlawful intent of it's possessors, can at least initially provide presumptive cause to arrest you. OldDude1
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top