Blade Length vs Edge Length - Why does it matter?

[wrdwrght]

Blade length is nearly universally the legal test. Stab penetration depth potential is derived from blade length, and most criminal knife attacks rely on stabbing.

Of course, edge-length cannot be longer than blade-length so, as a guide, don’t buy a knife longer than the restricted edge-length, hence why knife-sellers usually advertise blade-lengths.

Edge length can be longer than blade length, if the sharpened edge comes farther back than the most forward portion of the handle. There are many examples, such as the ZT 0460.

Given your exceptions (are there any Spyderco ones?), I would suppose they are what make LEO measurements so unpredictable. Not from the handle’s forward edge but from where the blade’s edge is first exposed.

Perhaps Connecticut worries more about slashing than stabbing.

Whatever, I think my rule-of-thumb guide is too simple for reality. I need to revise my thinking.

[HolySteel]

"...& SPOONS make people fat”, says a t-shirt I like to wear.

When there are no clean spoons, I have used a butter knife to get at the ice cream

Reading through this thread, I'm bewildered that knife length is such an issue. I have never heard of anyone having their pocket knife blade measured by an LEO and I'm having a hard time imagining the situation where that happens. Did I just jinx myself?

The laws are on the books but you've gotta do something pretty dumb to draw that sort of attention to yourself.

I think that's the key. And when you do that dumb thing, it's all now in the officer's hands.

My point was that I doubt there is anyone participating in this thread who will ever be in such a situation, and I believe the same about similar discussions in other forums, yet there always seems to be a nervousness among some of the participants, regarding carrying a knife with a blade that might exceed their area's laws. Don't misunderstand me - I realize that it's both interesting and important to understand these laws. But if I am going somewhere where I think my 4" blade knife is the best one for the job, and the law says 3" ...

[ladybug93]

i've never had a knife measured by police, but i've had it measured by security at various places i've worked where they had restrictions. those measurements were part of random searches, not a result of something i was doing wrong. in one case, i almost got in trouble, but they had recently changed the policy without letting anyone know. i still got written up for having a "large knife," which was sub-3" when the rule had been changed to sub-2.5", but i didn't actually get reprimanded. i just had to hear about it from the security team and then every level of my leadership. it was like the office space tps report cover sheet incident, which is almost worse than actually being in trouble.

[Mushroom]

"...& SPOONS make people fat”, says a t-shirt I like to wear.

When there are no clean spoons, I have used a butter knife to get at the ice cream

Reading through this thread, I'm bewildered that knife length is such an issue. I have never heard of anyone having their pocket knife blade measured by an LEO and I'm having a hard time imagining the situation where that happens. Did I just jinx myself?

The laws are on the books but you've gotta do something pretty dumb to draw that sort of attention to yourself.

I think that's the key. And when you do that dumb thing, it's all now in the officer's hands.

My point was that I doubt there is anyone participating in this thread who will ever be in such a situation, and I believe the same about similar discussions in other forums, yet there always seems to be a nervousness among some of the participants, regarding carrying a knife with a blade that might exceed their area's laws. Don't misunderstand me - I realize that it's both interesting and important to understand these laws. But if I am going somewhere where I think my 4" blade knife is the best one for the job, and the law says 3" ...

I’ll try to keep the main story brief but in short, I had a roommate who did nothing wrong but still had a Benchmade confiscated because it exceeded the 2.5” blade length limit in Boston.

The long version - We were walking around a local park, just on the sidewalks surrounding the park, nothing out of the ordinary. We were approaching a crosswalk and were cutoff but a Boston police cruiser and this is where things got a little odd. Being near so many colleges, the police activity summoned a swarm of local college campus police and a state trooper. They told us there was a rap battle at a nearby nightclub that resulted in a group of guys jumping and attacking the “winner” of the rap battle. Apparently, we matched the description of the group that attacked the guy and needed to be accosted. My roommate in particular matched the description of a suspect very closely, which was their excuse to search him.

Ultimately, the only reason my roommate had his knife confiscated was because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Naperville]

Blade Length vs Edge length - Why does it matter?

I am 63 and for the most part do not worry about having a record because I do not apply for work any more. If you apply for work, having a record can mean NOT WORKING, or not working in your desired field, I know this first hand. I was passed on for dozens of jobs that I was qualified for, and was told to my face that they would not or could not hire me with a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record.

Depending on your desired job, better be careful about what knife you carry. The fools making decisions about who to hire do not care whether or not you starve to death or are homeless.

[HolySteel]

Blade Length vs Edge length - Why does it matter?

I am 63 and for the most part do not worry about having a record because I do not apply for work any more. If you apply for work, having a record can mean NOT WORKING, or not working in your desired field, I know this first hand. I was passed on for dozens of jobs that I was qualified for, and was told to my face that they would not or could not hire me with a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record.

Depending on your desired job, better be careful about what knife you carry. The fools making decisions about who to hire do not care whether or not you starve to death or are homeless.

Dozens of jobs because of a misdemeanor? I can't imagine working in such a field.

[Naperville]

Blade Length vs Edge length - Why does it matter?

I am 63 and for the most part do not worry about having a record because I do not apply for work any more. If you apply for work, having a record can mean NOT WORKING, or not working in your desired field, I know this first hand. I was passed on for dozens of jobs that I was qualified for, and was told to my face that they would not or could not hire me with a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record.

Depending on your desired job, better be careful about what knife you carry. The fools making decisions about who to hire do not care whether or not you starve to death or are homeless.

Dozens of jobs because of a misdemeanor? I can't imagine working in such a field.

There are tons of jobs that you cannot hold if you have one single misdemeanor.

I worked in information systems and many job interviews immediately ended after they found out that I had a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record! Cities, states and the US Federal Govt have laws against employing people in certain jobs if you have any legal entanglements. For some jobs, they have teams of "detectives" that canvas neighborhoods that you have lived in to find out if you've done drugs or ever abused any alcohol, and if you have, YOU'RE UNEMPLOYABLE.

I've got a background in networking and systems administration. At one time I was a pretty good programmer and excellent at OpenBSD but most of the jobs involving OpenBSD required a security clearance on the East Coast.

FORGETABOUTIT.....

[nerdlock]

Blade Length vs Edge length - Why does it matter?

I am 63 and for the most part do not worry about having a record because I do not apply for work any more. If you apply for work, having a record can mean NOT WORKING, or not working in your desired field, I know this first hand. I was passed on for dozens of jobs that I was qualified for, and was told to my face that they would not or could not hire me with a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record.

Depending on your desired job, better be careful about what knife you carry. The fools making decisions about who to hire do not care whether or not you starve to death or are homeless.

Dozens of jobs because of a misdemeanor? I can't imagine working in such a field.

There are tons of jobs that you cannot hold if you have one single misdemeanor.

I worked in information systems and many job interviews immediately ended after they found out that I had a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record! Cities, states and the US Federal Govt have laws against employing people in certain jobs if you have any legal entanglements. For some jobs, they have teams of "detectives" that canvas neighborhoods that you have lived in to find out if you've done drugs or ever abused any alcohol, and if you have, YOU'RE UNEMPLOYABLE.

I've got a background in networking and systems administration. At one time I was a pretty good programmer and excellent at OpenBSD but most of the jobs involving OpenBSD required a security clearance on the East Coast.

FORGETABOUTIT.....

Off tangent for a bit, but I used to dabble in minor FreeBSD many, many years back maintaining servers where I worked, nice to know BSD users here too. Unfortunately I'm forgetting how I used to script and whatnot, having moved off that platform for several years already.

[Naperville]

Blade Length vs Edge length - Why does it matter?

I am 63 and for the most part do not worry about having a record because I do not apply for work any more. If you apply for work, having a record can mean NOT WORKING, or not working in your desired field, I know this first hand. I was passed on for dozens of jobs that I was qualified for, and was told to my face that they would not or could not hire me with a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record.

Depending on your desired job, better be careful about what knife you carry. The fools making decisions about who to hire do not care whether or not you starve to death or are homeless.

Dozens of jobs because of a misdemeanor? I can't imagine working in such a field.

There are tons of jobs that you cannot hold if you have one single misdemeanor.

I worked in information systems and many job interviews immediately ended after they found out that I had a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record! Cities, states and the US Federal Govt have laws against employing people in certain jobs if you have any legal entanglements. For some jobs, they have teams of "detectives" that canvas neighborhoods that you have lived in to find out if you've done drugs or ever abused any alcohol, and if you have, YOU'RE UNEMPLOYABLE.

I've got a background in networking and systems administration. At one time I was a pretty good programmer and excellent at OpenBSD but most of the jobs involving OpenBSD required a security clearance on the East Coast.

FORGETABOUTIT.....

Off tangent for a bit, but I used to dabble in minor FreeBSD many, many years back maintaining servers where I worked, nice to know BSD users here too. Unfortunately I'm forgetting how I used to script and whatnot, having moved off that platform for several years already.

They do not ask you when you go to college if you have any priors (record) so I began a 4yr college degree in EE Computer Engineering. After working on my own web hosting startup...another fiasco because I had so many people ripping me off, I went back to college to get an MIS degree, just to have a degree so that I could work in Silicon Valley.

People rant and rave about opportunities in the USA and this is not what I found at all anywhere, starting in college. There are so many corporations, managers, c-suite folks, and others trying to keep you from rising in your chosen career path. In the end I just gave up when the odds looked insurmountable.

Except for surfing the Internet, I have little to do with computers, and this is from a guy who could recite a 150pg Cisco Networking book by memory (all punctuation, by page number). I used to spend 5+ hrs a day bash shell coding.

Corp did not pay me $35,000 in 02 for IT support and when I complained online the FBI called me in and screamed at me, tossed me around for one hr and said I did not have Bill of Rights.

I lost faith in the entire system. Now I play the Lotto, no luck "in the meat-grinder."

[HolySteel]

Blade Length vs Edge length - Why does it matter?

I am 63 and for the most part do not worry about having a record because I do not apply for work any more. If you apply for work, having a record can mean NOT WORKING, or not working in your desired field, I know this first hand. I was passed on for dozens of jobs that I was qualified for, and was told to my face that they would not or could not hire me with a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record.

Depending on your desired job, better be careful about what knife you carry. The fools making decisions about who to hire do not care whether or not you starve to death or are homeless.

Dozens of jobs because of a misdemeanor? I can't imagine working in such a field.

There are tons of jobs that you cannot hold if you have one single misdemeanor.

I worked in information systems and many job interviews immediately ended after they found out that I had a 30yr old misdemeanor on my record! Cities, states and the US Federal Govt have laws against employing people in certain jobs if you have any legal entanglements. For some jobs, they have teams of "detectives" that canvas neighborhoods that you have lived in to find out if you've done drugs or ever abused any alcohol, and if you have, YOU'RE UNEMPLOYABLE.

I've got a background in networking and systems administration. At one time I was a pretty good programmer and excellent at OpenBSD but most of the jobs involving OpenBSD required a security clearance on the East Coast.

FORGETABOUTIT.....

Retired now, but spent my entire career in Data Processing. I worked with some guys who definitely had background issues. But I never worked for the government - they had their line and I had mine :)