I regularly carry a locking blade pocket knife whilst I am at work to cut boxes, banding and cable ties etc.
The way I understand the law is that this blade is illegal, as the blade locks.
I am never sure if I can justify my carrying it for work related purposes or not though.
I think a lot of it would be down to the discretion of the police officer, and my attitude when questioned.
I would not carry it into the local park, or shopping center though.
Regards
Alan
I was told once that Electricians can justify carrying a flick knife while working, as they need a knife they can open single handed, but it has to be in their tool box going to and from the place of work.
The whole locking blade is so hard, again, I would think that "Technically" you should have it in a tool box going to and from work rather than your pocket. I have a couple of Gerber multi-tools, and all the blades on them lock open, and because of the size, you tend to put them on your belt. I worked on customer sites all over the place, but in London, when you did not want to hump a full sized tool box on the Train, I used to carry it on me as it has most of the tools needed to do a quick mechanical fix on a computer.
Like you say, I think a lot of it is down to your attitude when you talk to the police, and what you were doing before or planing to do after you had it in your possession. Not to mention, how often are you randomly stopped and searched by a police officer. I have only ever been searched once in 49 years, and that was while driving home at 3am one morning, and the police had a road block, as they were looking for some guys who had just "Borrowed" £53 million pounds in cash from Securitas in Tonbridge! :augie
I have a Victorinox emergency tool in the car, that has various tools to break glass, cut laminated windows, and seat belts etc, and that again has all locking blades, but it was recommended as safety kit on our SE4x4R first aid course by an off duty police officer. To be fair, it lives in the car, and I do not tend to carry it with me when out and about walking anywhere, but it would cause nasty damage in the wrong hands.