Traveling with your knife..or not.

SW-EDC said:
When I travel by air, I usually check my knife in my checked luggage and all is good. This Tuesday, the wife and I are flying to Phoenix for 4 days and we are not checking any luggage in this time. Man, I am going to feel wierd not having it on me.
Oh well, might buy a pos gas station knife when I get there just to feel normal!
Oh yeah, have to leave the keychain knife home too :-(
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Last time I flew into JFK i I mailed a knife and a Leatherman to the friend I was meeting. We were driving back so I only had to do it one way.

Otherwise I just check a bag
 
I always check a bag SO I can take a good knife 😂😂 But, I rarely fly anywhere. I’d rather be on land.
 
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Sidehill Gouger said:
There used to be knife stores in Airports. Back during Viet Nam you could buy all kinds of combat knives in SeaTac below Seattle and I bought my first Swiss Army in the airport in Chicago.
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I don't think there is much chance these days of someone successfully hijacking an airplane with a knife, unless maybe it's a Mary Kay charter. There would be enough able bodied passengers to stomp the hijacker into the floor. My brother in law used to say that they should ask you before boarding the plane if you have a knife, and if you say NO then they would give you one for the flight. This would even things up.

GmpaJim said:
Another thing, different places, different rules. You might cross a county line and become illegal walking around.
I get it though. At my daughter’s wedding, my wife whispered, a knife clip on a tux. isn’t appropriate. All I could say was, you’re right a sword would be more fitting. Glare, knife went in car.
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When I travel I check the laws for the place where I'm going. I have a couple of very small traditional folders that should be legal just about anywhere. At my daughter's wedding I carried the nicest pocket knife I own, a Spyderco PM2 in M4 and carbon fiber scales.

I don't travel by air very much and if I travel alone I'm not checking bags so I don't carry a knife. Traveling with my wife we do check bags so I carry a lower priced folder such as my Tenacious or one of my small cheap traditional folders. I drove with my daughter on a long trip and flew back, I carried a simple utility knife and left it with her, she already has too many of my good folders.
 
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Going to the Rockies in Colorado this summer . . .flying. My EDC is a Leatherman Wave. Will not bring it onto the plane.

Fortunately, we will be meeting our sone and daughter-in-law with the grands there. They will drive the whole way (Yep). My multi-tool and a large Spyderco folder will go along with them and come back.

But the knives are not the only or main reason. I try to do some traditional photography from time to time with large format cameras and sheet film. The newer airport X-ray equipment is now so powerful that it exposes everything. The TSA agents are ignorant and won't do a careful hand inspection, often exposing the film in daylight. So it all will go by car
 
Uncle00Jesse said:
What do people usually do when they travel by air to blade show or something similar? Ship their loot back?
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I have never done that, but if it were me, I'd be packing my stock as securely as if I were sending guns, thensend it as checked luggage with hefty insurance.

I I have seen a Japanese sword show where, one method of moving the swords around was one of those hard-shell golf bag shipping cases. Another case was adapted from a trombone case.

Camera shows I used to go to involved plenty of cases from Pelican and Haliburton.
 
Its hit or miss when you fly. I probably should not say this but I used to fly with federal agents from time to time and once the TSA took my mustache scissors that had since I was 18 and my Dad gave to me. The scissors were 90$ in like 1980. However, the agent I was traveling with got to keep his, I was pissed off. I asked him later what he showed them to keep his scissors he said nothing, mine had a rounded point yours didn't. Not true! I am still pissed off if you can't tell. He was traveling as a civy and not allowed to show agency/govt ID.
But what I meant to say is now I don't travel with knives or scissors. Unless I check bags. For what is worth, I travelled all over the world for many, many, years and only had my bags lost twice.
 
I’ve flown 18 round trips (36 flights) since we first heard of Covid. I always check a bag, namely for my razor blade (safety razor must be checked), but also for my pocket knife. The closest I’ve had to a problem was when Delta misplaced my bag and I got it the next morning.

Edit to add: I put my pocketknife in my shave kit, in my checked bag. Usually a Kershaw Leek, Kershaw Dividend, and most recently a Para 3. Never had one disappear on me.
 
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I actually work for an airline so I know all the Regs.
When I was first hired in 2000, pre 9/11, you were allowed to fly with a pocket knife and I did so several times with my Cold Steel.
I know it's a S&W and it's tip down carry :-(
But, my first blade with the American Flag scales and the price was LOW. Will just mail it home before I leave PHX 👍🏻
 

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I travel to SW Florida by about 2-3 times a year. I’m going this upcoming September and will probably pick up a Buck 110 Slim select or something similar to keep at the in-laws.
 
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