EDC legality in Switzerland. Can anyone give some clarity?

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y53p

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I've scoured the internet looking for a definite answer to the question: what can I legally EDC while in Switzerland without needing to have a permit/provide a specific reason? All I could find is that symmetrical blades, throwing knives, autos with a blade length over 5 cm and balisongs are illegal to even own without a permit, let alone carry, and that all other knives are hence categorized as dangerous objects (as far as I could tell, my German is quite limited) and are freely purchasable. (law of reference: entscheidungshilfe-messer-d%20(5).pdf) (although according to this Swiss article pocket knives are explicitly excluded from being categorized as dangerous objects in Switzerland https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/the-little-known-risks-of-carrying-a-swiss-army-knife/49068180)

There is, however, little to no reference to whether or not you're allowed to carry such objects for general everyday use (and not necessarily because of work related reasons/because you're hiking etc.). There seems to be a consensus that Swiss army knives are not considered weapons/dangerous and are hence 100% ok to carry without providing a reason (again, these were people's opinion, not any legal definition that I could find). That definition is however pretty lax, what is a Swiss army knife? Is it necessarily one with multiple tools on it, like say a Victorinox tinker, or a knife used by the Swiss army (like the Victorinox soldier, which has a one handed opening locking blade) or merely a knife made by Victorinox, like a Victorinox Evoke (fairly large folding knife), or any knife made by Victorinox, including the fixed blades.

And how about knives that have the same features as those previously mentioned but are not made by Victorinox, like say a Benchmade bugout, or a small fixed blade like an Esee izula or even a larger one, there's not any mention at all of such types of knives being weapons in the Swiss law. Could I walk around, let's say, Basel, Lugano or Luzern with one of these knives and have no worry? Does anything that has an edge on it need a justified reason for carrying? Is there any leeway/loopholes that allow for a fully worry-free EDC experience in a country were a citizen can literally get a fully automatic rifle after 1/2 weeks of paper work on a shall issue basis?
 
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Opinels seem to be accepted pretty well anywhere in Europe, although laws vary. On a walking tour in Scotland I carried a Manly Wasp, manual opening, blade shorter than 3", which was legal carry there. A SAK would probably be OK anywhere too, as long as you don't wave it around. Be discreet and don't worry overmuch.
 
You could try reaching out to a Swiss Consulate that is nearest to your area of residence and ask them for clarification. They will probably have good resources for travelers and be able to translate any grey-areas more effectively.
 
One of the guys that I went to college with was a longtime martial arts practitioner who, along with his girlfriend, backpacked their way through Europe during the summer after graduating high school in 1978. On the advice of his sensei, who traveled Europe extensively, he carried a Puma 265 lockblade folding knife in his pocket at all times and a Schrade "Sharpfinger" fixed blade in his backpack. He never had a problem with the authorities. Of course, for air travel, these items will be secured in checked luggage.
 
BootKnifeFan said:
One of the guys that I went to college with was a longtime martial arts practitioner who, along with his girlfriend, backpacked their way through Europe during the summer after graduating high school in 1978. On the advice of his sensei, who traveled Europe extensively, he carried a Puma 265 lockblade folding knife in his pocket at all times and a Schrade "Sharpfinger" fixed blade in his backpack. He never had a problem with the authorities. Of course, for air travel, these items will be secured in checked luggage.
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Switzerland is different from the rest of Europe (more liberal, and it's not Europe anyways). I was born there and later studied and lived there for 12 years. Remember, due to the yearly military service, practically all healthy males in Switzerland have guns at home. Also, for instance, there is a yearly public and celebrated rifle shooting competition of adolescent kids in Zurich ("Knabenschiessen"). Etc. Swiss have a quite liberal attitude and culture when it comes to guns and knives.

Read the very detailed PDF file I referenced above, use google translate if you don't understand the German, please.
 
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Swiss army .makes a decent. Lock back folder and other paring knife type fixed blades perfect for edc and relatively cheap..........Buy it there n give it away before you leave!!
 
ferider said:
Switzerland is different from the rest of Europe (more liberal, and it's not Europe anyways). I was born there and later studied and lived there for 12 years. Remember, due to the yearly military service, practically all healthy males in Switzerland have guns at home. Also, for instance, there is a yearly public and celebrated rifle shooting competition of adolescent kids in Zurich ("Knabenschiessen"). Etc. Swiss have a quite liberal attitude and culture when it comes to guns and knives.

Read the very detailed PDF file I referenced above, use google translate if you don't understand the German, please.
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Unfortunately it won't open on my end. I did read a pdf a while ago which referenced illegal weapons, the one with pictures and starts with a dagger; while it states which knives are legal and which are illegal, does legality entail just the ability of owning it without a permit or also the ability to carry it without needing a good reason (aside from specific situations like sporting events/public demonstrations/courthouses)? Like here in Italy most knives aside from daggers are "legal" but anything from a butter knife to a bowie knife requires a "justified reason" to carry around with you, which is totally arbitrary and up to the police officer at hand/judge, which is why people have gotten sued over 20k euros for just having a swiss army knife in their pocket. I often go to Poland cause half of my family lives there and all knives aside from knives disguised as other objects are completely unregulated and not deemed weapons, meaning I can walk around even the city with a fixed blade (which I do when I'm there). Could I do that in Switzerland? And please, not the usual hyperbolic tabloid examples like "carrying a swiss army knife when camping is fine, but carrying a machete in a bar will be inappropriate", like realistically, if I walked around in a Swiss city with a multitool and small/medium fixed blade is it fine or do I need to provide some specific purpose that doesn't include general utility? Like in Poland I carry a leatherman+boker vigtig vs wild (3.5 inch blade fixie) in big cities, a bark river squad leader 2 in more rural towns and a bark river crusader in the woods and can do so fully legally (but then again that's a country where you can conceal carry a loaded firearm on a shall issue basis). Would that fly in Switzerland or nah?
 
What do you need the fixed blade for?
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The answer will probably answer your question.
 
ferider said:
Still opens for me …

Google „entscheidungshilfe messer schweiz“ or similar.
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That's the one I already knew about, which I mentioned in my previous comment and attached to the opening post of this thread.

After further researching into more legal resources I found, I'll try to give closure to this thread in regards to what you can and cannot carry in Switzerland with no specific purpose and regardless of context (aside from hyper specific ones like courtrooms, concerts etc.) aka the definition of EDC, so if anyone out there some day is researching the same topic they can also get some closure; anyone is free to correct me, I have no horse in the race and I'd be glad for any of my possible mistakes to be rectified for the sake of accuracy and the common interest; I will provide legal citations and links since Swiss laws on this specific matter tend to combinate hyper-precision with lackluster nebulosity; here we go.

Swiss law differentiates between:

- WEAPONS/FORBIDDEN ITEMS, which require a permit to own and are basically illegal to carry for the average person unless they have a permit for carrying such object; this applies to firearms as much as it applies to "dolche", which indicates "daggers" but is a term which tends to be thrown around to refer to fixed blades in general, however distinguishing between verboten (forbidden aka requiring permit) dolche, which includes fixed blades with a symmetrical blade shape (it's irrelevant whether or not they're sharpened on both sides) with a blade length between 5 and 30 cm (the only exception to a dolch that has these characteristics but is not forbidden would be an oyster knife, as they're explicitly not deemed weapons but rather dangerous objects, meaning they may be bought freely but may be confiscated if carried improperly, aka with no immediately justifiable purpose/lawful excuse), devices made to injure/kill, which include knuckle dusters, trench knives, throwing knives/stars; balisong knives with a total open length of over 12cm and a blade length of over 5cm; and finally folding knives with a one-handed opening mechanism that is spring activated or spring assisted and have a total open length over 12cm and a blade length of over 5cm. (Swiss Weapons Act (Waffengesetz, WG for short) and Swiss Weapon Ordinance (Waffenverordnung, WV for short) articles used to form the basis of such conclusions: Art. 4 Abs. 1 Bst. c WG; Art. 5 Abs. 2 Bst. a WG; Art. 7 Abs. 3 WV; Art. 4 Abs. 6 WG; Art. 28a WG; Art. 7 Abs. 2 WV; Art. 7 Abs. 1 WV)

-DANGEROUS OBJECTS, these do not require a permit to obtain, but may be seized if carried improperly; these can include tools, household and sport equipment that are capable of threatening or injuring people; that hence applies to kitchen knives, screwdrivers, hammers, camping knives, hunting knives (fixed blades in general really), axes etc. these objects may be bought and owned freely but carrying them outside of one's dwelling requires a justifiable reason/adequate context, in lack of which/in the presence of the impression that the object is being carried with the intention of improper use (particularly to intimidate, threaten, or injure people), they may be confiscated by the authorities (with further relative penal punishment depending on the context). Specific legislations also point to the following objects defining them dangerous objects: karambit knives, credit card knives (such as the Victorinox Swisscard), gravity knives, letter openers/miniature swords, and finally rapiers/swords with a symmetrical blade shape and a blade length over 30cm, and Japanese swords (katana, wakizashi etc.) (WG/WV articles used to form the basis of such conclusions: Art. 4 Abs. 6 WG; Art. 28a WG)

-POCKET KNIVES, SWISS ARMY KNIVES AND SIMILAR COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PRODUCTS, now, before anyone points that out, no this isn't an actual "category" in and of itself, but rather an appendix drawn legally from the definition of dangerous objects, which explicitly excludes from this category of objects; in fact, Art. 4 Abs. 6 WG states: "Dangerous objects include items such as tools, household and sports equipment that are capable of threatening or injuring people. Pocket knives, such as the Swiss Army knife and similar products, are not considered dangerous objects"; furthermore Art. 9 WV states: "Swiss Army knives are the pocket knives procured by the army, as well as similar Swiss officer's pocket knives that are commercially available".


The bottom line is that when it comes to EDC is that you can pretty much carry multitools (like a Swisstool or Leatherman) in almost any situation without committing a crime/being at risk of committing a crime, and the same goes for pocket knives and Swiss army knives/knives similar to Swiss army knives, as they are neither deemed weapons, nor even dangerous items, making the carry of a one handed opening, locking pocket knife that is not assisted/automatic/operated by gravity, fully legal and worry free (as these are all general characteristics of non explicitly prohibited pocket knives and of pocket Swiss knives procured by the army and of similar products that are commercially available; of course the same goes for two handed and/or non locking folding knives). This means you can be worry free in most situations if you EDC anything from, let's say, a Victorinox Spartan, Soldier or Sentinel, to a Spyderco Delica, a Buck 110, Paramilitary 3 and so on. I would personally still steer off of axis lock pocket knives (eg. Benchmade Bugout), as although they are not assisted/nor are they gravity knives, they do have "springs" and could be flicked open using only gravity, which could lead a creative police officer/judge to rule that you're carrying a weapon/forbidden item, although technically they really wouldn't be illegal. However, when it comes to fixed blades, regardless of blade length, context and justified reason apply, as it is specifically stated that dangerous objectsinclude sporting knives etc. meaning you will need to have a justification for carrying even a fixed blade that is smaller than your folding knife, legally speaking, leading to a non-fully worry free EDC experience when it comes to these objects, which aren't exempt from the definition of dangerous objects, unlike pocket knives. So if you're camping, fishing, hunting, it would be fine to carry a fixed blade, even a relatively large one considering that wild camping above the treeline is legal in most cantons and that in many places you can light fires unless there's specific fire bans etc. which would hence warrant the carrying of say and axe, saw or large fixed blade in such contexts.

Resources used:
- (first Fedpol.admin.ch link that comes up when you look up "entscheidungshilfe messer schweiz" as ferider ferider said, also "linked" in my original post that started this thread)
- https://www.fedlex.admin.ch/eli/cc/1998/2535_2535_2535/de#a4 (art. 4 par. 6)
- https://kapo.tg.ch/public/upload/as...metrische Klingen mit einer Länge unter 30 cm. (weapon/knife guidelines for Thurgau canton, which are pretty clear and cite federal laws on these matters, also distinguishing between "verboten" and "frei" dolche/messer, which can seem confusing cause you might then think that even large non symmetrical fixed blades, since they're "allowed" (frei dolche) would require no justified reason, but that is only the case for frei messer (allowed pocket knives), as cleared explicitly by WG Art. 4 par. 6)


Hope this helps; vague/tangential answers (not referring to this thread, mind you) are super frustrating for people that want to be 100% safe and not end up on the wrong side of vague/nebulous laws, this is as much clarity as I could make of the Swiss laws when it comes to these matters.
 
jfk1110 said:
Swiss army .makes a decent. Lock back folder and other paring knife type fixed blades perfect for edc and relatively cheap..........Buy it there n give it away before you leave!!
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I'm probably going to move there in a little over 2 years, I wanted to know what's in store for me ;) not much is worse in terms of knife laws than Italy though, which makes me appreciate even objectively restrictive knife laws such as the ones in Germany and the UK, as they're still more lenient than what we have here LOL

Switzerland seems fairly reasonable, not only on guns (which take a billion hoops to own here and you have to renew the permit every x years, and although there's no storage requirements in the Italian weapon act, the ignorant police think there are, which is why hundreds of people have been prosecuted unjustly over the years for not having their guns in a safe even if they lived alone, and after months/years and thousands of euros had to literally resort to the supreme court to prove the initial case brought fourth by the police as wrong), but it seems pretty reasonable on knives too, I'd get fined in the thousands and probably arrested for carrying even a two handed opening non locking SAK or an Opinel, like people already have been, let alone any decent one handed locking folder, you need a justification even for a nail clipper, and let's just say cops and judges are greedy and don't mind free toys. This country's absolute hell.
 
When.it doubt leave it all at home and buy something cheap locally. If something.is going to get confiscated it might as well be junk. No problems at the airport either, just toss it in the trash.
 
BootKnifeFan said:
One of the guys that I went to college with was a longtime martial arts practitioner who, along with his girlfriend, backpacked their way through Europe during the summer after graduating high school in 1978. On the advice of his sensei, who traveled Europe extensively, he carried a Puma 265 lockblade folding knife in his pocket at all times and a Schrade "Sharpfinger" fixed blade in his backpack. He never had a problem with the authorities. Of course, for air travel, these items will be secured in checked luggage.
Click to expand...
I bet a lot has changed since 1978. A lot has changed in the past 5 years.
 
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