Knife Seized By Customs

Lapedog said:
Ok look this is happening all over the world. Forces of authority are taking people's knife in hand. They hold the knife as you would in reverse grip but with the blade closed. Then they snap their wrist downwards as hard as they can downwards causing the knife blade to fly out and lock open. Because they can inertial open the knife like that they are calling it a "gravity knife."

The solution is any time you buy a knife and are having it shipped ask whoever is shipping it to crank down the pivot as hard as they can.
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Every Benchmade Axis lock folder that I have tried can be opened this way, well, unless the pivot is so tightened that the knife can no longer be open single handedly.
 
This is UK law. They just don't know so require education.

The gravity knife law was based on the German paraknife, heck we even produced some during the war as it looked handy. All went pair shaped when thugs/spivs in London were thought to be using them. Well some weird thinking by the authorities, just like butterfly knives. No rhyme nor reason for it really but the "establishment" seen to be doing something! A kitchen knife is faster!!

The knife you are trying to import is nothing that can't be found in a UK shop.
 
Next time ask seller to ship knife dis-assembled in two separate pieces blade & handle, similar to kit knife. You may have to pay extra for that service. When it arrives just put it back together!;)
 
One of the many reasons I won't move to the UK (my wife is from there so we talked about it). But I do love to visit every year

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Thanks to you all and I will keep you posted. I do intend to appeal because the only way to stop this abuse is to fight it. Many will just accept it and move on but by being submissive one is encouraging them to continue with the practice. I have imported many knives over the years and if they think I am am an easy touch they will do it again.

Horsewright said:
Good luck and keep us advised as to your progress or lack thereof.
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hoffman said:
Thanks to you all and I will keep you posted. I do intend to appeal because the only way to stop this abuse is to fight it. Many will just accept it and move on but by being submissive one is encouraging them to continue with the practice. I have imported many knives over the years and if they think I am am an easy touch they will do it again.
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Props to you for being willing to fight this. :thumbup:

Whether things in this case go your way or not, this sounds like a great bit of advice for the future:

Lapedog said:
The solution is any time you buy a knife and are having it shipped ask whoever is shipping it to crank down the pivot as hard as they can.
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Best of luck.
 
unwisefool said:
One of the many reasons I won't move to the UK (my wife is from there so we talked about it). But I do love to visit every year

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you live in maryland.....its like the uk of the south on guns and knife rights and freedoms.:)
 
sharp_edge said:
Every Benchmade Axis lock folder that I have tried can be opened this way, well, unless the pivot is so tightened that the knife can no longer be open single handedly.
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That is the idea. To make the knife so hard to open that there is no way customs agents will not allow it through. It's stupid when you think about it as any knife can just be tightened to this point and loosened away from it. But it actually works. A knife with a pivot tightened to make it hard to open is WAY more likely to make it through customs. The guys who own my local knife store told me about this little trick. They almost stopped allowing flippers and Paramilitary 2s into Canada. Sal posted about how the Canadian customs officials literally opened the example Paramilitary 2 past the detent then wrist flicked it the rest of the way open. Sal said he objected but the "wise" men of the court still had their way with that one. Somehow Paramilitary 2s are still coming into Canada and available at my local store.

Of course now with Spyderco announcing that overtightening the pivot on their knives featuring bearings can damage the washers it remains to be seen what will happen. Spyderco will have to do something about it because Sal is aware of tightening knives before demonstrating them to Canadian customs officials but at the same time says tightening pivot too much on knives like the Advocate can damage the washers. What a dilemma.
 
jbmonkey said:
you live in maryland.....its like the uk of the south on guns and knife rights and freedoms.:)
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Yes but I still have more rights than in the UK. Plus we have a house in WV we go to every weekend where we can basically do anything lol

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skyhorse said:
When you do have your day in court read this loudly to the judge. Might not go over well but it will surely get your point across. Good Luck .

"Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny."
—Thomas Jefferson
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No. That is your point - or ours in 1775-83 and 2017.

His point is that it is not a gravity knife.
 
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G. Scott H. said:
Props to you for being willing to fight this. :thumbup:

Whether things in this case go your way or not, this sounds like a great bit of advice for the future:





Best of luck.
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Thanks for the support. I will make sure they tighten the pivots down in the future. The truth is by loosening the pivots almost any folding knife can be turned into a form of gravity knife. Not very usable but a gravity knife none the less
 
W. Anderson said:
This is absolutely insane. Seriously.

Who voted for this?
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Either your "representatives" did or some unelected bureaucrat who thinks knives are icky put out an order to the troops over in customs.

I wish you luck if you are dealing with the an overzealous bureaucrat, as he or she will "rule" virtually unchecked until every word in the law is strictly defined through the law making process.
 
Twindog said:
I have had people in Canada ask me to tighten up the pivot -- as Lapedog suggested -- so it's difficult to open and impossible to open by gravity with a wrist flip.
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I've had knives seized by CBSA. On one knife I specifically requested a tightened pivot and it arrived loose.

Here, there is nothing one can do, as CBSA has the authority to make their own decisions (they recently banned all 'flippers' from import, despite such knives being legal inside the country).
 
Goosey said:
I've had knives seized by CBSA. On one knife I specifically requested a tightened pivot and it arrived loose.

Here, there is nothing one can do, as CBSA has the authority to make their own decisions (they recently banned all 'flippers' from import, despite such knives being legal inside the country).
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I heard that flippers werenrecently banned from import, and yet somehow they keep showing up in my local knife store. New flippers keep coming in which are produced after Inhad heard of this "ban" going through. Now the store will not import balisongs or any other prohibited knife so I am not sure what is goingnon with that flipper business.
 
Dear All

I received a letter from the UK customs. They informed me that the case will be going to the magistrate's court for them to decide. They included a retractable section I can sign to not appeal against their decision and they will condemn the knife. They informed me that if it went to court and I won they may have to pay my costs but if I lost they would ask for costs which would be around £1500 which is a lot of money for a $29 knife. They also informed me that even if I retracted the appeal I could still request the commissionaire to look into the case.

They did inform me also that they had another officer who was unaware of the case to check the knife and he also said it was a gravity knife.

I intend to retract the appeal against the illegality of their actions because in UK magistrates courts concerning a knife I have no chance, and the other reason being as it is a technical matter the average magistrate is not too bright when it comes to making difficult decisions. The other difficulty is I travel quite a bit during the Summer and if I am not here when the case is heard I will still have to pay their costs if I do not appear.

I will add I have already been refunded by the knife company so it was not about money it was jus the principle of the law being abused. In the letter, I sent to them I had informed them that I had many such knives that have been allowed in the country after a customs check. I also mention this knife is on sale by many companies within the UK.

The truth of the matter is that every folding knife in the world can be made into a gravity knife if one loosens the pivot enough so there is no retention.

I will ask the commissionaire to look into the case but I do not think there is much chance of changing the decision. I believe the way to get round this is to complain to someone who can influence this unfair practice or via pressure group.

I did manage to find online about people who have challenged the UK customs actions and won. The chance of winning a case against the customs is about 200 to1 against so these figures reveal what chance one has in appealing against their decision
 
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