Sal I Need Your Help.

yobbos1

yobbos1

Joined
Mar 29, 2002
Messages
2,342
Don't like to post this stuff here but I'm concerned. It seems that Canada Customs is arbitrarily siezing Spydercos at the border as "prohibited weapons" claiming that, specifically a Calypso Jr. is a weapon that opens by "centrifugal force". If this sticks it will effectivly close this country to your products and possibly make a smuggler out of me. Seriously, any advice?
 
Hi Yobbos1. Yes, it is a serious problem. It seems to re-occur about every 5 or 6 years in Canada.

We have been all the way up to the Crown on this issue. We retined councel, made special samples, developed a machine that measures force, all in an effort to find a number that we could build to. Took two years to get an audience with the Crown.

A skilled person can open any knife with centrufigal force or by grabbing the blade and dropping the handle. But most have not developed the skill to do this.

We could not get the point of skill across to the Crown.

We could not get a number of pounds of pressure required.

We stopped shipments to Canada on three different occasions over this very issue. Dealers didn't want to stgock "illegal" knives. We certainly didn't want to be breaking any Canadian laws.

Then the demand increases and the dealers demand we resume shipments.

'Tis a puzzlement.

Maybe Canada will be happy with the UK knife? One hand opener non locking folder. Very difficult to open centrifugally.

sal
 
I appreciate the response Sal. Unfortunately there has been alot of knife violence in Toronto lately that has gotten nationwide media coverage (of the hysterical kind) In this country; when Toronto stirs, the nation shudders. Its a leftist knee-jerk reaction to the much bigger problem of gang/youth violence. Certainly not the fault of responsible owners and manufacturers. I guess I just have to decide how fiesty I'm going to be about the siezure of my property. :grumpy:
 
I'm in Toronto too, and the knee-jerk is really going here. And when they show on TV the weapons used, it is always a $7 cheapie fixed blade that can be had in a convenience store on Younge St./Gerard Ave., right across the street from Ryerson University. I know because I've seen them more than once, same paracord-wrapped handle cheap no-name pieces of junk. Non-folding, by the way...

The Canadian Customs took my Chinook II in June for the same centrifugal reason. Exporting it back will cost more than a new knife, I checked. And the appeal I wrote up will probably fail miserably anyways. The customs officier that I spoke to on the phone was friendly and understanding, knew perfectly well about the adjustable pivot and all, but in the end he pretty much said that the knife is gone, unless I spend one heck of a lot of money and effort to export it back. Sigh...

Ah, well. At least my Yojimbo got through okay. But with this situation I just don't know how I'm going to get the knives into this country anymore. I used to wait for new releases, and now I'm not even sure I want to buy from online stores, since they don't bother to tighten the pivot pin when I beg them to do it. Still, you can buy them relatively safe from other forumites who will make sure the knife can't be flicked before shipping, just make sure to ask. And of course some can't be adjusted, like the Calypso... :(
 
The Canadian government has been getting more and more screwed up over the last several years. It is problematic in many ways.
 
Here's an idea. What if somehow we made a knife with a normal lock (like a rocker bar lockback or a compression lock or whatever) and a secondary one way lock that would hold the blade closed? By one way lock I mean one that would not allow the knife to open period until it was deliberately disabled.

A prototype would be this: take a ziptie, run it through the Spyderhole and around the handle and cinch it up. The ziptie serves as a secondary one way lock. It will not allow that knife to open under any circumstances until it is removed deliberately. And once it is removed, it will never impede the knife's operation again.

Now take that concept and make it an integral part of the knife somehow. Suppose we drilled a small hole through the blade and handle at some point and inserted a pin that was held in by a small drop of epoxy on either side. The pin would be an integral design feature that would hold the knife closed under any circumstances. If the end user so wanted, he could take a hammer and a punch and knock it out of the handle, freeing the blade to open. This is better than the ziptie because direct from the factory we have a knife that is absolutely legal.
 
It is both frustrating and disappointing, especially with regards to the Calypso jr. The Calypso jr is a PC model that is actually very difficult to inertia open, and actually slower than using the regular one hand open.

They must have a highly skilled knife person testing, or they are just making arbitrary decisions based on ??

Trying to be understanding to fearful reactions is difficult when it hits your pocketbook and is not logical.

Most of our new models have adjustable pivots which can be cranked down. I've also heard of packing the blade cavity with axle grease. 'tis a shame to have to resort to some type of deception to combat ignorance in the pursuit of a hobby or interest.

Is there currently a blade size limit attched to any of these restrictions?

sal
 
No blade length restrictions. I really think they are cracking down on Spyderco in particular. There was a thread on Canadian Connection section of the forums where someone mentioned that Toronto area retailers were being told to take Spydies off the shelf. Oddly enough this problem doesn't seem to be happening on the west coast! Maybe I should get a mail drop in Vancouver. What a country. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
One other thing, when I find my copy of the Criminal Code of Canada (our basic law book) I will post the section on knife restrictions FYI.
 
Sal , thank you for your intervention. Do not know of any mfg. that would do this. Thanks again,

Yobbosi , I think I would put a product ID chip inside the liner . Wait and see just who has you knife. Not uncommon here in states to have item confiscted and not show up in property room.

It's not Canada's law anymore. We now have" Patroit Act2"
Ashcroft/Rumfield have sworn in ALL law enforcement to " search -seize -you your car..enter your home even if you are not home w/o warrant."
If they deem you "person of interest " . (New buzz word.). As Patroit Act 2 is written.."we have no legal recourse ".


EDGESEEKER
 
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