Are spring assisted knives legal to own /import to canada?

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xNeoNHD

Joined
May 10, 2014
Messages
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recently I have been seeing a lot of mixed answers to this question
iIread this and was wondering if anyone knows if its accurate
"Canadian Assisted Knife Law
The Canadian Criminal Code states exactly this:

In sec. (84)(1)(b) "any knife that has a blade that opens automatically by gravity or centrifugal force, or by hand pressure applied to a button, spring or other device attached to the handle of the knife".

There are no other knife banning laws in Canada.

SPRING ASSIST ARE NOT GRAVITY OR CENTRIFUGAL FORCE, AND HAVE NO BUTTON ON THE HANDLE, WHICH MAKES THEM PERFECTLY LEGAL TO OWN, USE, AND CARRY."
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I live in Canada and own many spring assist knives but no automatics. I don't know the specific law but I have ordered many from Canadian retailers. I would think that they wouldn't be allowed to sell them if they were illegal. hope this helps
 
Totally legal.

Assisted = fun and okay to own. :)
Automatic = bad times in prison. :(

So buy with confidence. :thumbup:
 
The rule is that if the knife opens by a switch or button on the handle. so by starting the blade you are just opening the knife. The best part is that most assists won't drop-flick, as in you need to start the blade open to get anywhere. This makes them legal to carry (provided that your local laws permit knife carry) And you can explain to anyone that it is not a switchblade, and is in fact specifically designed to not open under centrifugal force.

THAT BEING SAID:
clearing an assist through customs may cause grief if you get unlucky with the agent. I have owned a couple assists, but they were all bought in canada.
 
The button is on the handle, therefor it's a prohib. Also at this stage much of the info in this thread is irrelevant as far as CBSA is concerned.
 
I recently read something about Canada and their knife laws in an old post from years ago on another knife forum (the name escapes me, sorry). This person said that switchblades were originally only banned from being sold and imported in the 1950s and they were actually still legal to possess and own in Canada up until 1996. Then the laws for some reason became more strict and they banned them entirely. Wonder what happened that caused them to be banned outright at the time. Was it perhaps a grandfathering thing that they decided to end because they thought most people who still owned them from back when they were legal to sale had passed away by that point and there was just little interest from anyone in wanting to keep them? They were made illegal to sale and import in the UK in the ‘50s but they were still legal to own up until 2019 when they changed their knife laws to make everything more strict as a result of all the rampant knife crime. And get this, I read that they were still legal to own in Australia up until 1996 when the Port Arthur shooting happened and they banned semi-automatic rifles and apparently they made the knife laws more strict and totally outlawed switchblades for some reason. (However, there are some localities in Australia where you can own switches if you have a special collector’s license that allows you to import normally prohibited weapons). Seems a bit excessive to go after knives in the wake of a situation where only guns are involved. Butterfly knives were legal in Germany up until 2003, but they banned them after a school shooting. Doesn’t make much sense.
 
Knife_Collector_101 said:
I recently read something about Canada and their knife laws in an old post from years ago on another knife forum (the name escapes me, sorry). This person said that switchblades were originally only banned from being sold and imported in the 1950s and they were actually still legal to possess and own in Canada up until 1996. Then the laws for some reason became more strict and they banned them entirely. Wonder what happened that caused them to be banned outright at the time. Was it perhaps a grandfathering thing that they decided to end because they thought most people who still owned them from back when they were legal to sale had passed away by that point and there was just little interest from anyone in wanting to keep them? They were made illegal to sale and import in the UK in the ‘50s but they were still legal to own up until 2019 when they changed their knife laws to make everything more strict as a result of all the rampant knife crime. And get this, I read that they were still legal to own in Australia up until 1996 when the Port Arthur shooting happened and they banned semi-automatic rifles and apparently they made the knife laws more strict and totally outlawed switchblades for some reason. (However, there are some localities in Australia where you can own switches if you have a special collector’s license that allows you to import normally prohibited weapons). Seems a bit excessive to go after knives in the wake of a situation where only guns are involved. Butterfly knives were legal in Germany up until 2003, but they banned them after a school shooting. Doesn’t make much sense.
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I think you source is well let's say clownshoes. I'm a Canadian sixties kid and switchblades have been prohibited all my life. If they were grandfathered I'd have seen them at them at gun shows and and more importantly I'd have a few.

To compare you could find Balisongs in the 70s at a gun shops or army surplus stores. And then when they realized they were causing kids to join violencegangs they were banned/prohibited and all crime ceased.

I miss Balis. I got pretty good at opening them.
 
Danke42 said:
I think you source is well let's say clownshoes. I'm a Canadian sixties kid and switchblades have been prohibited all my life. If they were grandfathered I'd have seen them at them at gun shows and and more importantly I'd have a few.

To compare you could find Balisongs in the 70s at a gun shops or army surplus stores. And then when they realized they were causing kids to join violencegangs they were banned/prohibited and all crime ceased.

I miss Balis. I got pretty good at opening them.
Click to expand...
Maybe the person who posted that was full of it. Even so, it’s kind of weird Canada totally outlawed them with no grandfathering from the get go and didn’t just ban sale and import like most places did at the time. Doubtful everybody complied though since it’s not like they had a registration of the knives beforehand.
 
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