OTR Truck Driver Pocket knife

cautioning

cautioning

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Apr 7, 2011
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My brother is an on the road truck driver. Meaning that he is gone for 4 weeks at a time and travels over the country and dips into Canada sometimes. I was wondering about getting him a beater pocket knife and I was concerned about blade length. I googled and found that it looks like a folding sub 3" pocket knife would be good. Then I saw about city and county laws that have tighter restrictions than their state. So if he has a delivery in Chicago and hops out of his truck this would be illegal, right? If he has a fuel stop randomly anywhere the Leatherman that he carries would be illegal.

I also was wondering about him having a knife in his truck for food prep or anything else and was thinking of a Mora Topq Allaround because its benign looking.

I found googling that truck drivers could claim any knives they keep as a work tool? Is there much validity in this?

Am I thinking way too much about this? What if he uses a knife in self defense that is illegal wherever he is?

Sorry about all the questions this has just been nagging at me I would greatly appreciate any solid information.




I don't know if this matters but the sub 3" folder is the spyderco persistence
 
I'm no lawyer or LEO, but from what I understand; knives used as tools, and appropriate to the profession and task at hand, are not considered weapons. A steak knife with a fork and a spoon in your lunchbag is a tool. The same knife tucked into your belt and concealed under your jacket is a weapon. FWIW, I think Chicago has a 2.5" blade limit.

Sound him out to get an idea of what he wants/needs. If I had to guess blindly, I match a Leatherman with a decent flashlight (Pelican, Mini-mag, Streamlight, etc.).

If I had to pick an all in one food tool, I'd go for the Wenger Evolution 14, Victornox Climber, or the Leatherman Juice C2. For strictly food prep, I'd think about kitting the mora in with a backpackers cutting board.

I'm not touching the self-defense topic.
 
Thanks for the response Clang. I actually did get him a Feinx a while back with all the stuff he has to do at night. I have been thinking of getting him a preon II as it would be so small in his pocket and fairly bright at 160 lumens I think and the convenience of AAA's.

Thanks for the reassurance on the knife as tool thing. I was not sure about if he went into a restaurant with the knife, or if he meets up with someone and is going to hang out and forgets that it is in his pocket.

Very good call on the cutting board! I will have to check that out.
 
I would take a minute and see if I could internet search some of the city and state codes where he might be going.

States and larger cities within those states often have different codes.

I use my knives for work (construction), so I have never had a hassle from any law enforcement officers. From time to time, I carry pretty large (no.... not as large as some here) work knives and they exceed the city's allowable length for carry. BUT... I am indeed covered by the clause in city regs that allows locking blades and longer blades for work knives. It is a common sense thing here.

I would think that the most important aspect of your research is who will be using the knife. I wonder about the guys I read about here that pull out their tactical knives to cut up steaks in a restaurant, pull out their pocket swords to cut a thread for a fellow employee (then run back here and scream about sheeple being shocked), and the guys that just use plain bad judgement when flipping out large knives for everyone to see.

Almost all of my knives are illegal according to our city codes. They have been for 35 years now, after the BUCK 110 became very popular. A couple of high profile murders and several stabbings allegedly using that tool prompted the idiots at city hall to pass that new code back then. It became the poster child for the portable stabbing instrument. (Yes, as all know, it was the knife's fault as to how it was used!) Yet, even then and to this day, I have never had a problem carrying my knives anywhere as long as I was judicious about my knife use.

I think the owner/operator of the knife has as much to do with any trouble they can get in as the knife itself. Prudent judgement by the guy that carries the knife as well as his good sense will help make selection of a knife much easier. I would get the knife that has the most utility value for him. It won't be one of those huge, locking monsters anyway.

As always, just my 0.02.

Robert
 
My brother works for one of the big companies and goes everywhere randomly. I can't really check it all out. It sounds like a sub 3" used for work then should keep him out of trouble then. So what about when you have to go walking around in town then and something happened and you had to use it and the authorities came down? If you use any reasonable pocket knife in self defense would the law really come down on you if had a blade that wasn't legal?

My brother is a very cool headed and rational ex marine for reference. He is not one to make sloppy stupid decisions.
 
What about a slipjoint? No clip for anyone to see, always in the pocket, and a traditional look, rather than an aggressive one that comes from one handed opening.
 
I'm more so going for an intermediate beater knife. Growing up we never really like slip joints that much. We really prefer fixed blade, but that is a no go in a lot of places I think. You are dead on with the tradition look and two handed opening though. I wasn't considering any assisted openers in the competition for the Persistence. I think he will use prudence when deploying it. I also like that he can deploy the huge spydie hole when he has gloves on. I am planing on making a kydex sheath for it once I get some kydex supplies.
 
When it comes to defending your life you can use any weapon or tool. Legal or not.

Nevertheless the knife should be bought as a tool, and carried as a tool.
 
Thank you for your input Idaho. I really don't know much on this topic other than what has been stated. So does leo go after people who had that illegal weapon on them?

I had never really thought about knife laws ever. I just carried whatever. It's sounding like leo doesn't really break balls about it? Unless you do something stupid.
 
protourist may be able to give you some insight.He's not online at the moment,but is here frequently.Try PMing or emailing him.
 
All I would say, as person who has read a ton of case law over many years, is that 99% of illegally carried weapon cases involve the holder of said weapon doing something blatantly stupid enough that it gets LEO's attention. I'm a lot older than many poster and have carried every kind of sharp implement, legal or not, and I have never once been searched or otherwise given a LEO occasion to discover the object I am carrying. I attribute this not only to obeying the law, but also observing a matter of social discretion on where I reveal my knives. I wrote this essay a few year ago and I think you and your brother might find it useful towards understanding some of the unspoken matters of carrying a knife: http://weaponlaws.wikidot.com

As for if he uses the knife in self-defense and it just so happens to be illegal to carry it in that area, well you'll have bigger fish to fry if that were to happen. On the one hand, some say it is better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6. On the other hand, understand that a knife is deadly force, and therefore in most jurisdictions it would only be justifiable to defend yourself with one if the threat faced was lethal, not merely dangerous. 2 cases in my home state involved people defending themselves with knives against threats that were less than deadly. They got Murder 2 and prison time.
 
I’d suggest that your brother not consider any blade to be a weapon to be used for self defense. In some states that claim would send up a red flag and the LEO might just decide to make your brother’s day a whole lot worse.

If your brother’s truck is well maintained and his books are in order (or reasonably close) most of the time the local/state cops will simply ignore him. The DOT boys usually look quite a bit closer, but as long as the equipment is in good shape and his books are up to par, they’ll usually just waste some of your time while doing their inspections.

Hassle any of the three – especially the DOT or the state – and things can get really ugly, really fast.

As for using a knife: I found a multi-tool to be one of my more useful tools and used the pliers far more than I ever needed the blade. I kept my flashlight and my multi-tool in the side pocket on the driver’s door.

I hauled propane and sparks are a big concern when loading or offloading, so anything that could conceivably cause a spark was left in the cab of the truck during those times.

Over the years I had the opportunity to meet individual law enforcement officers in most of the lower 48 – I didn’t run Canada or Mexico – and haven’t had a major problem even one time. None of the DOT inspections ever resulted in questions concerning the tools carried for my job.

Some took their sweet time doing the inspection; and some were less friendly than others, but every single one of them was professional in nature and concerned themselves only with making sure I was in compliance with the governing laws.

Understandably, your brother’s needs are significantly different from mine. He may have more need for a blade (than I did) but I suspect that he’d use the pliers and screwdrivers (in a multi-tool) far more than he’d use the blade.

I’d suggest that you ask your brother what kind of tool he needs for his job. He’ll know what kind of stops he is making, and what kind of “neighborhood” those stops are in. If he’s not doing dedicated runs – they send him all over the place – he can always ask the person receiving the goods what kind of area it is (regarding safety concerns).

I never once went walking around, but I couldn’t leave my truck while loading or offloading either. I would not have gone walking around in any area that didn’t look like it was safe. And I would’ve asked the locals about the area even if it looked safe.

That leaves truck stops. I avoided them like the plague. Some are downright nasty and others are very nice. But they all attract lots of people and some of those people see no harm in stealing your stuff (fuel and other items). That was one reason I avoided truck stops when possible. Another was the possibility of some idiot opening the valves on my tank (releasing propane would attract a lot of attention from everyone). Lastly – believe it or not – a lot of the “drivers” are fresh out of driver’s school and can’t drive a truck worth a damn. I’ve seen more than one rookie back into another truck while trying to park theirs.

Summing this long-winded novel up:

I wouldn’t buy him a blade with the intent that it could be used as a weapon. It’s doubtful that he’ll ever be walking around in an area that is that dangerous. If he is, have him carry a reasonably thick magazine with him. He’s gonna read while eating at the local dive, isn’t he? That magazine can be rolled up tightly in an instant and it makes a weapon that can be downright discouraging to others. As a Marine, I’m certain he’d know exactly what to do with that rolled up magazine.

Buy him a tool that he needs and will use. If he’s actually doing a bit of cooking in his truck, he might actually need a kitchen knife. I wouldn’t recommend that he walks around carrying it though.

I would ask him about needing a multi-tool though. It just might be the exact tool he needs.
 
Thanks for the input guys. He does carry a multi-tool and flashlight right now. I was just thinking that a dedicated folder would be a nice surprise. The Leatherman Skeletool is less than comfortable for regular use, and not too nice with the half serrated for fine work. He is very prudent when entering rougher areas. He has GPS logs so I don't think that DOT would hassle him much. His company picks his truck stops for him. I was thinking more of just the random chance of encounter more than him needing it to go through the hood. I highly doubt that he would even ever need it for self defense. I just wanted to get a better idea of the risks being posed by carrying an illegal knife in certain areas. I appreciate everyone's input on this matter. I feel confident that he should be completely fine with a 2 3/4" without any real fear of the local laws as long as he doesn't do anything stupid.
 
My dads a truck driver and he has blades from 2 inches to a massive 13 inch fixed blade through all the DOT inspections and such he has never had a problem. But I also heard from a radio station for truckers if you have a change of clothes and things like that the truck is considered to be a home to you. If you say hes gone for that long of a time then he should be alright. you might want to run a google search on that though because I heard that last year things might have changed.
 
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