Flying with Knives?

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
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Some of you might know bubba-doll and i are going over to Hawaii from the 5th to the 15th this month. while i am there i am attending my two brothers eagle court of honer and i will be presenting them with knives that i have made for them. they are very nice and have put lots of work into, and am wondering how i am going to travel with them. i assume they will be ok if they are in my checked baggage but i don't want them to get stolen. can i put them in a locked box. what should i do? how do you transport you knives when you fly?
 
I was in Kauai in April and took my Spyderco Delica with me. I always lock my suitcases with the TSA approved locks and have not had anything go missing.

The only thing is that my D4 is alot more commonplace than the knives you made (I saw the thread they're sweet). Would you be able to ship them overnight or two day before you leave, then receive them at the hotel/house you are staying in? Shipping them may be a better bet, but may be kind of expensive to Hawaii.

Good luck and enjoy Hawaii:D
 
if it's something I don't want to lose I fedX it in advance to myself or a friend I trust. have had too many things stolen by baggage handlers even with TSA locks.
 
Jarod,

I seem to recall a while back someone had all their knives stolen while in route to a knife show. Bummer! As my dear old dad would say, "the world's gone to sh_t." Fedex might be the way to go?

Look forward to visiting while you're here.

All the best, Phil
 
I'd imagine if they were checking it they would still break the locks open. I think the key is to make them visable, but hard to steal. anyway to tie them down onto a bar or something in the suitcase?
 
You can't lock anything in checked luggage. If you do, it won't get to Hawaii along with your luggage. Either use TSA locks on the bags, and pack the knives so they can be examined, or do what I do....send it insured UPS or FED-EX to your family . It will be waiting for you when you get there. I have shipped my whole inventory to a knife show before.
Stacy
 
If you check it, and it has a lanyard hole, stick a few heavy cable ties or heavy wire with a good haywire twist through the hole and tie it tightly to something bigger. I always figure that if it will take a thief an extra minute to try to break the cable ties and struggle, your chances of him passing it by are better. I would still ship ahead if you can. Good luck.

-Mike
 
I've been an airline pilot for 31 years and can weigh in with my experience. Knives in carry on luggage are obviously forbidden. There is no requirement to lock your checked baggage, but I do recommend it in your case. TSA will need access to inspect your bag no matter what, and if you think there are no thieves amongst them, think again. Airline baggage handlers are another source of pilfering, and a locked hard case might prevent them forcing it open for a peek. Most TSA and airline employees are honest, but there's always a bad apple in any barrel.
 
When I travel to knife shows, I use a large doskocil case to transport my knives. I also place an old 9-shot .22 revolver in there, which means the airlines require that it be locked! The same thing would work if you used something like a small handgun case. You walk up to the check-in, announce that you have a firearm in the specific case, and then you are required to be present while TSA goes through it. Once they go through it, it is closed, and YOU apply the lock(s). (I use two large master padlocks on my case.) There is still the possibliity of the case not showing up at your desitination, but its that way with all of your luggage. Another option they offer is to place additonal insurance on the case/bag. For $50 they give you a claim ticket, the bag is hand carried to the plane, and from the plane to the destination luggage pickup. You generally must present you ID and thee claim ticket in order to pickup that particualr case/bag.

This new airport "security" system has always disgusted me....it created an "open market" for theives.....and they take full advantage of it. Recently a friend was returning from a Canadian Moose hunt, and brought a large cooler with exactly 60 pounds of meat inside. It was duct taped very well, and upon his/it's arrival in Great Falls, the cooler was missing 30lbs of meat! We threw a fit with the airlines, and they just didn't care. Now thats pretty low when someone would take the time to remove all that tape, steal frozen moose meat, and then re-tape the cooler.
 
Ken Onion had a case full of knives stolen when flying into Cali. from Hawaii. Very high dollar knives.

Either ship to your self, or lock in gun case with a inexpensive pistol, and check it through the TSA folks. Works just fine.

They will inspect the case and firearm, as it is a weapon. They will then put the high visual tape on the case. What I don't understand, is that you can't carry the knives in your carry on as they are weapons, but if you request TSA to inspect lock and tape seal your knives, they will tell you that they cannot do it because Knives aren't weapons!:jerkit:
 
thats a good idea. I sold my gun but my roomate (best freind) has a cheap 9mm that i'm sure he would let me use.
 
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...... but if you request TSA to inspect lock and tape seal your knives, they will tell you that they cannot do it because Knives aren't weapons!
Click to expand...

It isn't that they aren't weapons...it is that they aren't ATF controlled weapons. (firearms).

I believe they charge an extra bag fee for transporting firearms.
Stacy
 
well if they charge extra then screw it i will ship them. i have to ship my personal knife as well as you will never see me without it any where. even if i have to pay to ship it where i'm going.
 
Something you need to think about if you decided to ship your knives is the handling they will receive, and the environments they will encounter during the shipping.

A couple of years ago we had an individual who was testing for his JS in Atlanta. He came from Canada, and had his knives shipped via Fed-X (I believe it was next day service). The knives where in zippered cases, and inside a "hard case". When the knives arrived the inside of the case was wet, including the knives, apparently from condensation. A couple of the knives had discolored spots on them, that polish would not remove. The only thing we could come up with was that the package had been left overnight somewhere that was cold, or perhaps from traveling in the unheated cargo area of a plane, then landing in a very warm place.

Whatever actually happened we may never know, but the point is that because he chose to ship his knives, and did not think all the possibilities through, he could not test (well he could have, but would have failed), and spent all that money and time getting to Atlanta for nothing.
That is one of the reasons that my knives go with me. If I have to pay $25 for an extra bag, that's OK. Last year I did check into what it would cost to have my knives over nighted to Atlanta, and it was $118.74 each way via Fed-X. So far, with including the handgun in the case, I've not experienced any problems, and if I put the extra $25 insurance on the case, it gets hand carried all the way.
Everybody must decide the best way to handle getting their knives to/from where they need to be, but take the time to think through the possible scenarios. I still remember a time when my knife case went right on the plane with me, and rode all the way right under the seat in front of me.....never leaving my control...... Oh, the "good ol' days"...Gone forever. :)
 
i don't know from first hand experience but i have been told that a starter pistol is considered the same as a regular handgun and it's alot easier to get one ....just stick it in your bag and the same rules apply....i would check into that if you can't borrow a gun.....ryan
 
Jarod, my suggestion based upon the same experience would coincide with Ed’s. I have found that a gun case works the best for many reasons, only I never include any of my guns, the case itself warrants special attention. First it is designed to protect things inside from the gorillas that work in luggage handling, I believe they start unloading the plane while still in a holding pattern over the airport:mad:. Second, it will get “special” attention and consideration, and here is where most people screw up in trying to tuck the knives away in such a manner that they will not get noticed. This is BAD! If they are under the radar they can disappear all the easier, and when they are discovered it will make you look like you are trying to hide something.

I tried all kinds of packaging and at one time thought a golf club case was the way to go with knives and swords, and then one time I found my golf club case setting beside the exit door at an airport where it had been carelessly tossed by the folks unloading a crowded luggage conveyor. And the case had been open and interestingly rearranged by security sometime in transit.

Now I use a rifle case and want all eyes upon me as I walk up to check it, not under the radar but out in the open with a big red flag over my head! This allows me to take that case to a separate screening where I open MY OWN PADLOCK, hand over the case and the keys while they hand inspect the contents. At this point always have business cards ready as most often they will be very interested in the fact that you made them, and a very friendly conversation will often develop if they are not too busy (once in Detroit two older women were so impressed with the knives and less impressed with my wrapping that they grabbed a paper towel roll and individually wrapped them up even nicer than I did while talking about how pretty they were.) Then MY OWN PADLOCK will go back on the case and my keys will be returned, with a thank you and a smile.

None of the other cases I have used will warrant your own lock being used, but there are never any objections on a gun case since they must be inspected separately like this. Sometimes at the larger airports I don’t even have to have the hand inspection, I just have to stand next to a special X-ray machine while they run it through and then give me a nod that it is O.K. Then when all is said and done you can even request that the big red “FIREARM” tag not be used since they just saw that there were no firearms inside, so you get all the special attention of a firearm without any of the extra burdens. And as far as finding your case tossed next to the door, I have never had it happen with a gun case, in fact in many airports (one on the west coast comes to mind) you will have to show your luggage tag stub just to be able to touch it again.

Of course the downside of flying with your product is inevitably an airline will send your luggage in one direction and you in the other. I had this happen two years ago at the “Blade” show and sat behind an empty table for two days:grumpy:, until I raised hell at the airport till 3:00 A.M. when I spotted my luggage in a back room and firmly said “That is mine and I want it NOW!” There were two airlines involved in my flight due to a cancellation and for two days they argued that it was the others job to get the luggage to me.:rolleyes: My best cure for this is to always aim for direct flights to a show, it is at the layovers and connections that your luggage goes to Los Angeles while you go to Atlanta.
 
I will be visiting an American friend who lives in Mazatlan over the Christmas season and I am planning to bring a hunting knife that I made for him. Does anyone know what the restrictions are to putting a fixed blade in your checked luggage when going to Mexico? Is there a blade length that will allow me to get through customs. I want to avoid shipping it, because mail theft is a serious problem in down there.

Thanks
BJ
 
thanks Kevin. thats what i did. but i did not get a rifle case but a handgun case. it fits all three knives and my trusty leatherman. it also has a place for a lock on the end of each side so it cant be pried open. before i did not really care as i could just make another one but now my knives are very inportant to me and i have a lot of time into them and more important they are gifts for my family which is the most important thing. can i just walk into the airport with my check in baggage in one hand and the gun case in to other? thanks every one for all your help. hay Phil is Hawaii all ready for me
 
JTknives said:
can i just walk into the airport with my check in baggage in one hand and the gun case in to other? thanks every one for all your help. hay Phil is Hawaii all ready for me
Click to expand...

You might want to call the airline first. Weapon transport (airline lingo is
SSR WEAP) is a standard service for carriers to provide but they may
charge for it and each carrier has their own rules. (Yeah, this is the
industry I work on the software end of.)
 
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