Brass knuckles and trench knives

D

Dr Heelhook

Joined
Jul 24, 2007
Messages
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How do you go about selling knuckle dusters and knuckle guard trench knives in America? Is it legal to do that anyway you want, or do you need a specific permit? The thing is that I know this guy who makes these beautiful custom made knuckle dusters and trench knives, but he has a hard time making any money from it at all, because of legal issues. He is extremely talented and it is a crying shame that he can't spread his work to the rest of the world, just because the items he creates happen to be controversial. What do you need to do in order to be permitted to sell them (as collector's items or any other way)? I know that there are knife makers who make them and sell them, like Mark Terell and Jeremy Horton among others.
 
As far are I know, there are no federal laws about brass knuckes or brass knuckes knives (except perhaps the general prohibition against weapons on federal property like federal office buildings, etc.). However, prohibitions against such things are common in state and local laws. I have not reasearched the topic in any depth, but I think in general the laws are against carrying such weapons so collectors are safe, although there are doubtless some locations where simple possetion is illegal. Becuase of the patchwork nature of such local laws, its probably impossile to make any sort of general statement on the exact legality of these things.

Still, I see a number of on-line retailers who sell both brass knuckles and brass knuckle knives, with the simple disclaimer that it is up to the buyer to be sure they are legal to own in their locality. I have also seen a number of people selling brass knuckles with a small pin screwed into them as "belt buckles". The idea is after the sale the buyer just unscrews the pin and has a set of brass knuckles.

I don't know if that helps, and I am certainly no lawyer so take what I say with a grain of salt. ;)
 
Thanks. Here in Sweden it's legal to own them if you're over 21 years of age, but it's illegal to sell them or import them, so it's hard to get a hold of one legally (unless you manufacture it yourself, there's no law against that.). This guy's biggest problem though is that he lives in England I believe and knife laws there are messed up. It's illegal to sell, import and manufacture these items there. It's strange. Carrying laws are understandable of course, but you'd think that what a person of adult age chooses to buy and own and keep in his own home is his business and noone else in cases like these (excluding guns of course, gun licenses are a good thing). I mean a moderate sized kitchen carving knife will cause more damage than a set of brass knuckles anyway.

What this guy needs I guess is some kind of permit in order to sell his work to other countries, where it is legal to buy and own them.
 
See brass knuckles all the time but advertised/sold as paperweights. Not interested in them but there were a bunch of them and the trench knives with the knuckles handle at the last gun show I attended; tried slipping a pair of the knucks on and they were way too small and I don't have real big hands; not sure what either the knucks or the knife are good for but different strokes......
 
Yeah, I guess the paper weight or belt buckle method might work, but it's still kind of a shady thing to do. Would be nice not to have to resort to that, especially if you want to keep a more exclusive approach to the stuff you do.

Mark Terell sells his beautiful carbon fiber knuckles on these forums, without having to disguise them as paper weights. That "American Kami" guy (I've forgotten his real name) also makes really cool titanium skull knucks (he actually does refer to them as paper weights now when I think of it, but who the hell are you kidding?).

I posted a similar thread on the Mark Terell Knives forum, but haven't gotten any answes there yet, that's why I decided to start a thread about it here as well.
 
Dr Heelhook said:
Thanks. Here in Sweden it's legal to own them if you're over 21 years of age, but it's illegal to sell them or import them, so it's hard to get a hold of one legally (unless you manufacture it yourself, there's no law against that.). This guy's biggest problem though is that he lives in England I believe and knife laws there are messed up. It's illegal to sell, import and manufacture these items there. It's strange. Carrying laws are understandable of course, but you'd think that what a person of adult age chooses to buy and own and keep in his own home is his business and noone else in cases like these (excluding guns of course, gun licenses are a good thing). I mean a moderate sized kitchen carving knife will cause more damage than a set of brass knuckles anyway.

What this guy needs I guess is some kind of permit in order to sell his work to other countries, where it is legal to buy and own them.
Click to expand...

If it's illegal to sell import or manufacture, he doesn't seem to have any legal options.
 
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