Spyderco in New York State

You have too many lawyers with nothing better to do in New York.

Eventually, EVERYTHING will be illegal, and then we'll have to send in Kurt Russell to rescue the President.
 
The irony is that I just attended a custom knife show in the heart of NYC, where there were hundreds of knives which would literally get you arrested if you bought one and walked outside with. In fact, I bought a Sebenza and sweated my way back to Penn Station, fearful that I could get arrested for having a possible "dangerous knife" in my pocket. It wasn't clipped on, still in the leather pouch, but the thought WAS in the back of my mind anyway. How incredibly ridiculous. If I had bought one of Bud Nealy's fixed blades (absolutely gorgeous items!) I think I would've had a heart attack on the subway. :eek:
 
spykermade1660 said:
But i have a question what do you think about how police in California view the multitool, such as the Leatherman Wave or Skeletool. I carry the skeletool because of the one handed opening blade which could be used in self-defense, (and my hands are small so it can be used as an impact device as well) yet is still useful (i really do use the other tools included)
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Do me a favor. With your hand out of the path of the blade, tap the spine of the blade on the tip of your shoe. If the blade doesn't fold under a very light tap, I'll be extremely surprised! I have yet to see a Leatherman Wave, Charge, or other liner-locking, Leatherman Multi-tool blade that doesn't fold under a light tap (not talking anything even close to a "whack" here). That is NOT the knife you want to use for SD in a pinch, that is, unless your fingers are attacking you and you no longer want them attached to your hand!;)

Regards,
3G
 
wintermute said:
Just yesterday, I actually read the NYS knife laws for the first time. The way I understand it, if the law wanted to, they could pretty much consider any locking Spyderco a "gravity knife" since the spyderdrop pretty much works on just centrifugal force. Does that sound right (well, it doesn't sound right at all, but does it sound accurate)?

And taking this one step further, if we look at something like a Buck 110, when you're opening it, your using "centrifugal force", it's just your hand that's applying it where you're grasping the blade. The law doesn't say that the centrifugal force has to be applied without touching the blade.

Scary stuff.
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Personally from expierence living in NYC for a long time, I can say that the NY weapons laws are made very open ended. Meaning, they can be twisted to any meaning if the ADA wants to.

That said, there are actuall legal definition as to what constitutes a gravity knife. While I bet that most cops and ADAs/SDAs could if they woke up on the wrong side consider it a gravity knife, if you had a good lawyer and/or knowledge, you could defeat it.

But, again, the weapon laws in NY state and especially NYC (since it is a non pre-empted blade law state) basically mean anything that looks like a weapon is illegal. They dont actually say that, but the way the law is worded (which is everything in law) leaves it very much open to interpretation.

Any knife with a worn enough lock or spring will open with just centrifugal force, thus is a gravity knife.

Heck, my 1 week old S&W Phantom will easily open with just gravity if you hold it upside down. Just how I have it set up and lubed.
 
There's pretty much no knife one could carry in NYC for emergency self-defense without fear of being arrested or having it taken away. If a knife is for self-defense then it's going to be most likely classified as dangerous and therefore illegal. Well, I guess that's the point of having more cops per capita than most other cities--not having to carry anything for self-defense.
 
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