Canadian customs is saying my FFKW ferox is an automatic knife!!!

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Flipperdave

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Feb 17, 2017
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I have purchased a couple knives off of here with no problems. I am a collector and own 8 FFKW knives. I never had a problem getting any shipped to Canada before, but for some reason Canadian customs has deemed my Ferox to be an automatic knife!!!! Crazy!!!
Was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem or better yet a solution to such a puzzling problem. Any Canadian knife makers/ advocates have any suggestions?? It would be very much appreciated.
 
i'm not Canadian, and i don't have an answer for you, just here to commiserate. i have a great flipper that actually has the combination of a strong detent and light enough blade to pass the new york "gravity knife" test, but i'm still very much afraid to carry it as i'm certain most nypd cops will consider any flipper as automatic and i'll be in jail...

sorry about your knife... what happens now? do they confiscate, or does it get sent back?
 
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Its tough, I don't know what rules customs is running on these days. Hopefully you can get in touch with someone and explain what's going.
 
I personally have never had a problem like this with Canadian customs.My Buck Paradigm has been back to the states twice for repairs but that was a few years ago.
Apparently however there have been reports of this nature in recent memory.
There was a thread about this a while ago in the Canadian section of this website.
Unfortunetly I have never heard of anyone winning such a case against this type of seizure.
I hope you get your knife released from customs ,let us know how this pans out.
 
Flipperdave said:
I have purchased a couple knives off of here with no problems. I am a collector and own 8 FFKW knives. I never had a problem getting any shipped to Canada before, but for some reason Canadian customs has deemed my Ferox to be an automatic knife!!!! Crazy!!!
Was wondering if anyone has had a similar problem or better yet a solution to such a puzzling problem. Any Canadian knife makers/ advocates have any suggestions?? It would be very much appreciated.
Click to expand...

This is a message to all Canadians ordering knives from abroad. Whoever you order the knife from ask them to tighten down the pivot as much as possible before sending the knife to you. This will prevent Canadian customs from trying to say it is a gravity knife. Sometimes if they can do an inertial opening on a knife they deem it a gravity knife.

So ask them to tighten down the pivot as much as possible before shipping.
 
It sux. The are two things you can do. One, write an appeal. I've done it. Sent it. Received another letter in a couple of month that they have received it and will be looking into it. Its been a while haven't received any response yet. You can see a list of topics that you shouldn't write about from the instructions they sent you. There is a second option of finding a currier to send the item back. It looks like a pricey purchase, if you can send it back and recover some money; It's probably a better option.
 
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Lape, I doubt that works anymore since I suspect that they are changing their guidelines and are looking at different aspects. Remember that customs doesn't have to follow the letter of the criminal code, they follow their own tribunal which is law unto itself. Not saying you shouldn't tighten pivots, or anything like that, but looking at just the criminal code might not be enough.
 
Was the main pivot tightened prior to shipping. If customs agent can open it gravity assisted, like flick of a wrist then they call it automatic.

I had a similar issue once years ago and they called it an auto and sent the knife back to the sender.

I drop ship knives to Canada through my bro in LA now and he cranks the pivots down so tight the blades are fixed closed, lol. Never a problem since.

Or when I know I'm going to visit him I'll buy a couple knives so they're waiting for me to just bring back myself.
 
So it appears that the CBSA now considers knives with flippers (knives with levers on the spine attached to the inner part of the blade, as they describe it on their website) illegal weapons the same as automatics. I have just has a Kizer Uprising and a Reate Horizon C seized, because I did not know about the change. Awesome. I am going to try to get them to return the knife and get a refund. Fingers crossed.

But the primary point of my post is that the CBSA appears to consider the very presence of a flipper tab reason enough for seizure, so I would be extremely wary of ordering flippers from outside of Canada even if the shipper does tighten down the pivot.

Edit:
from CBSA website:

"Paragraph (a)" weapons
18. Weapons that fall under paragraph (a) include the following:

  • (a) Automatic knife – An automatic knife is one that houses a blade that will open automatically by applying hand pressure to a button, spring, lever, or other device, in or attached to the handle of the knife, including knives that have a button, spring, lever, or other device, located in the spine of the handle and attached to the inner part of the blade.
 
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