It’s a common question I get asked, and it’s no wonder. Is a multi tool considered a weapon? Is it legal to carry a multi tool? No one wants to be innocently carrying around our favorite multi-tool and get arrested! I’m no lawyer but I have done a lot of research to get an answer for my fellow MacGyvers to the question…. “Are multi-tools legal in the UK?”
The Simple Answer
Yes, multi-tools are legal in the UK. That’s why you can buy one on the High St or a UK online retailer. What you really want to understand though is if you do buy one or own one, when can you carry it?
Before we get into this, I just want to be clear. We’re only talking here about multi-tools that have a knife as part of their toolset. If they don’t have a knife you don’t have a problem. If you want to worry about whether the multi-tool you’re carrying is legal or not, I’ll give you some great options for multi-tool carry further on.
The easiest way to know whether you can carry your multi-tool in public is to ask yourself the question – “Do I have a good reason to carry my multi-tool knife?”
What’s a “good reason”?
The law says you can carry certain types of a knife in public (like a multi-tool with a knife) if you have a “good reason” to do so. But what’s a “good reason”? Is a good reason that you usually carry a multi-tool because they’re useful for a lot of tasks and you feel ‘naked’ without one or that you just got this multi-tool and you wanted to test out the pocket clip on it? Well, no.
To help you figure out what a “good reason” might be, the law gives some examples:
- taking knives you use at work to and from work
- taking it to a gallery or museum to be exhibited
- if it’ll be used for theatre, film, television, historical reenactment or religious purposes, for example, the kirpan some Sikhs carry
- if it’ll be used in a demonstration or to teach someone how to use it
Do you carry a multi-tool for any of those reasons? If so, you’re ok to carry any multi-tool with any type of blade in public.
What do you if any of these examples don’t apply to you, but you still believe you have a “good reason”. The trouble is, if you’re arrested for multi-tool carry, it’s the courts that decide whether you have a “good reason”, not you. That’s the risk you’ll have to take if you want to carry a multi-tool knife in public.
“Lock knives” and multi-tools
The law specifically mentions multi-tools when it says that “lock knives” are illegal to carry in public if you don’t have a “good reason” to carry one. Let’s break this down.
Lock knives of any size are illegal. Locking blades seem to change the nature of the law. If the blade can be locked, it makes it more dangerous and ‘better’ to use in an attack. Before you bombard me with negative comments below, I don’t condone the use of a knife for any aggressive or threatening behavior. It’s this sort of behavior – clearly not by multi-tool fans – that has got us in this position and the UK government is trying to protect the public from.
The unfortunate thing is that most knives in a multi-tool are locking. Every one of my multi-tools has a locking blade. In fact, it’s one of the things I look for in a good multi-tool knife. If the blade doesn’t lock into its extended position, it can fold in on itself while you’re using it and you can do some finger damage to yourself. I don’t know about you but I prefer to keep the full length of all my digits for as long as I can.
There are different methods of locking a multi-tool knife. One of the most common is a form of the liner lock. This is where a sprung metal bar locks into the base of the blade to hold it open. The lock is released by putting pressure on the spring bar to move it out of the way of the base of the blade and allow it to fold away.
The legal definition here is that a locking blade is one that can be locked or refolded by pushing a button. A liner lock isn’t usually a ‘button’ as such but it is something you need to push to be able to release and refold the blade. You could try arguing that your liner lock isn’t a button in court but my non-lawyer opinion is that you would struggle to win that argument.
“I don’t have a “good reason”, so what do I do now?”
All is not lost. Although we know we can’t carry a lock blade (which most full-sized multi-tools are) without a good reason but we can carry a friction knife – as long as it’s not too long.
It’s legal to carry a multi-tool in public if the multi-tool has a knife with a cutting edge 3 inches (7.62 cms) or less AND it’s a friction blade.
I’ve pulled this together from the knife laws that especially impact us Multi-Tool MacGyvers. What I’m saying is that you don’t need any reason to carry a friction knife as long as the cutting edge isn’t longer than 3 inches.
What’s a “friction blade”?
If you’ve owned or have handled a pocket knife, you will have come across a friction blade. Friction blades don’t have any mechanical mechanism to hold them closed or in their extended open position. There’s no lock or spring mechanism. The blade is simply held in position by the friction of the scales (the handles) against the sides of the blade.
The law allows you to carry a blade in public that is held open by friction only and that’s not very long. That’s going to narrow down your choice of multi-tools you can carry.
What else do I need to know about the multi-tool laws?
Threatening
There’s an overriding part of the law about these knives that you need to keep in mind. No matter what sort of knife you’re carrying, no matter how its held open and no matter how small or large it is, you can’t use your knife in a threatening way.
It’s OK to flip out your multi-tool with its legal knife and use it in public. What you don’t want to do – unless you want to be arrested – is to wave it around in a threatening manner. If you try to frighten or intimidate someone with it, it doesn’t matter that the knife is legal, you can be arrested.
Age Restrictions
Unless the knife has a folding blade 3 inches (7.62 cm) or less you can’t sell it to someone under the age of 18.
In Scotland, 16 to 18-year-olds can buy kitchen and cutlery knives. I guess that makes sense if they work in the restaurant trade.
Buying Online
In early 2018, the UK Government announced it was going to try to pass laws to ban knives that are bought online from being sent to your home address. If you have to go somewhere to collect your knife, the legality of it can be checked and the age of the person receiving it can be checked. It’s far from foolproof. It’s also not sure whether this ban on home deliveries is intended to be applied to multi-tools as well.
The Knife Carry Law is Madness!
Imagine this…..you’re interested in buying another multi-tool. You want something that will handle some of the tougher jobs around the house. You’ve been doing your research and you’ve decided on the Leatherman Surge. The best price you found is at your local Go Outdoors store. OK, let’s jump in the car and go and get one.
But there’s a problem. We know our UK knife carry laws and we know we need a good reason to carry a lock blade. Guess what? The Leatherman Surge (great multi-tool by the way, see my review here) has a lock blade and you don’t have a “good reason” to carry it. Technically you could be arrested walking out of the store with it!
You would hope that a bit of common sense would be applied in these type of situations but you never know. You’d also expect that if you were out in the forest minding your own business, you wouldn’t have a problem carrying your multi-tool in your backpack or that anyone would know you are carrying a multi-tool but the police do have laws that allow them to stop and search you in some situations.
Stop and Search
The police are allowed to stop and ask you what you’re doing and where you’re going at any time but you don’t have to answer them. That’s up to you. They can search you though if they have ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect you’re carrying a weapon. The definition of ‘reasonable grounds’ is pretty vague so you might expect that you could be searched. If you’ve got a ‘good reason’ to be carrying your multi-tool with it’s locking knife or a friction blade longer than 3 inches you’re fine. If not, you run the risk of being arrested.
Legal AND Useful Multi-tools You Can Carry
If you like having a multi-tool on you but you’re concerned about all the knife laws, you might want to think about whether you actually need a knife in your multi-tool when you’re in public. Maybe it’s the other tools in your multi-tool that you really want handy. Or maybe you mainly use your knife as a box or packaging opener so you don’t need a substantial cutting blade.
Knifeless Multi-Tools
If you don’t need a knife at all, then you don’t have to worry about the knife laws. And you’ve got a number of good options to choose from. I wrote an article about 5 of the best knifeless multi-tools awhile ago. Three of these five have a small pair of scissors instead of a knife. Because the scissors are small, the mouth of them don’t only very wide so they’re only good for cutting smaller sized objects but they can be opened up and used like a box cutter. My favorite small knifeless multi-tool is the Leatherman Style PS which can easily be slipped into your pocket and has a few useful tools in its arsenal.
When I need a larger knifeless multi-tool, I go for the trusty Gerber MP600 Multi-Plier Bladeless. It gets my Knifeless Multi-tool recommendation. You can read about it on my Recommended Multi-tools page.
One Piece and Credit Card Multi-Tools
The most compact of all multi-tools is one piece and credit card multi-tools. These multi-tools come in a really wide range of shapes and sizes characterized by being made of one piece of steel shaped to include a range of handy tools. You can find tools like flathead and Phillips screwdrivers, hex wrenches, bottle openers, rulers as well as small pry tools and importantly some with cutting edges suitable for small slicing tasks like box opening.
These multi-tools are also most likely to be legal to carry because if they have a cutting edge it’s probably not more than 3 inches. And if they do have a blade, it’s not a locking blade as these multi-tools have no moving parts.
One piece multi-tools are great to hook onto your keychain. I carry the Boker Plus Toucan Neck Knife slip ringed to my keychain because I like the solid shape and the useful small knife.
Credit card multi-tools get their name from being able to slip into the credit card slot of your wallet. Therefore their dimensions are constrained in size and shape but they can pack a lot of use into their credit card size. Seems like there’s a new version coming out every week and they are generally well priced so I own a few. My current wallet carry is the Cha-O-Ha Design Everyday Carry Card. Made out of good quality SV35N stainless steel and including a pry bar, cutting edge, bottle opener amongst other tools. The big focus though is on hex wrenches with 23 sizes in one tool. Not bad.
If either of these multi-tools isn’t for you, I bet you can find something of interest amongst the 136 one piece and credit card multi-tools I pulled together.
Hopefully, I’ve explained how the knife laws in the UK impact when and how you can carry a multi-tool. And I hope you’ve gotten some ideas about how you can still be a Multi-Tool MacGyver in public without the chance of being arrested.
I’m not a lawyer so nothing I’ve said in this article is legal advice.
I’d love to hear if you have had any experience with any enforcement officer when you’ve been carrying your multi-tool. Let me know in the comments below.