German laws?! Searching new knife

Like you can see I'm from Germany.
Since 1st May we have a new weapon law in Germany including a new law for knives. Now we are not allowed to use an knife with a blade longer than 12 cm and any onehand-knife outside of property . So I'm pretty angry because I just bought a Benchmade Griptilian in january. I really like this knife but it's not very useful if you can use it only at home.

So I'm looking for a new knife. What about the Fixed Griptilian. Is it as good as the normal Griptilian?

rayman

rayman said:

Like you can see I'm from Germany.
Since 1st May we have a new weapon law in Germany including a new law for knives. Now we are not allowed to use an knife with a blade longer than 12 cm and any onehand-knife outside of property . So I'm pretty angry because I just bought a Benchmade Griptilian in january. I really like this knife but it's not very useful if you can use it only at home.

So I'm looking for a new knife. What about the Fixed Griptilian. Is it as good as the normal Griptilian?

rayman

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It is a 12 cm blade limit for fixed blades, and a ban on folding knifes that can be opened with one hand, right?

Never tried a fixed griptilian, but the blade should be short enough.

Any chance you could get the law changed? You guys need a German version of the American Knife & Tool Association.

Art Vandelay said:

It is a 12 cm blade limit for fixed blades, and a ban on folding knifes that can be opened with one hand, right?

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That´s correct.

Art Vandelay said:

Any chance you could get the law changed? You guys need a German version of the American Knife & Tool Association.

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I´ll seriously doubt such laws will be changed over here. The majority will even support these laws I believe. I just don´t get it why you can carry a 12 cm fixed while your folder needs to stay at home.

Just a few proposals I can not comment any further since I don´t own these:
Extrema Ratio Shrapnel 11 cm blade
Benchmade Instigator 8,3 cm blade
CRKT Crawford Triumph Neck 7 cm blade
Benchmade Nimvarus 11,4 cm blade

Eric

Art Vandelay said:

It is a 12 cm blade limit for fixed blades, and a ban on folding knifes that can be opened with one hand, right?

Never tried a fixed griptilian, but the blade should be short enough.

Any chance you could get the law changed? You guys need a German version of the American Knife & Tool Association.

Click to expand...

No chance it will even get worse in my opinion. And I don't think that a folding Griptilian is more dangerous than a fixed Griptilian.

rayman

The Ritter Version of the Griptilian is a beautiful knife, with a nice grip and excellent blade profile in S30V. It is slightly longer than the traditional fixed Griptilian, but measures 11.5 cm. Its price is significantly higher, though.

Joe

Donny Dont said:

The Ritter Version of the Griptilian is a beautiful knife, with a nice grip and excellent blade profile in S30V. It is slightly longer than the traditional fixed Griptilian, but measures 11.5 cm. Its price is significantly higher, though.

Joe

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Thanks I saw the 'Ritter Version' before. It's a really nice knife but I thing I'm going to buy the normal fixed Griptilian as I want to use it as a EDC and for that the 'Ritter Version' is to good .

rayman

What if you remove the thumb stud? Then it should classify as a two handed opener. Truth is, I never use the thumb stud anyway. Just pull back on the axis lock and flick it open.

I just bought a Fallkniven U2 because of the new laws. And I like it.

Well the UK knife laws are just as bad, I can only carry a Spyderco UK Pen knife now. While the rest of my collection sits in the cupboard

rayman said:

Like you can see I'm from Germany.
Since 1st May we have a new weapon law in Germany including a new law for knives. Now we are not allowed to use an knife with a blade longer than 12 cm and any onehand-knife outside of property . So I'm pretty angry because I just bought a Benchmade Griptilian in january. I really like this knife but it's not very useful if you can use it only at home.

So I'm looking for a new knife. What about the Fixed Griptilian. Is it as good as the normal Griptilian?

rayman

Click to expand...

These laws are truly stupid.

:shakehead I hope we won't have similar laws here too, because it's a stupid trend. For now, I could even carry a machete here in Slovakia (Europe) outside without getting into trouble . (But guns are forbidden here. You can get a permission to have a small gun for home defense, but you can't carry it with you).

From the sounds of it, even my little UKPK would fall foul of that law as it can be opened with one hand; it does sound like the new laws are a little rediculous.

Much as the laws in the UK are pretty restrictive (folding, non-locking and blade length of less than 3 inches) I can see the rationale but why permit fixed blades and restrict folders?

I liked not having to worry about carrying a larger locking SAK when I lived in Germany because even they are illegal to carry as a pocket knife in the UK.

Still, knives are only dangerous weapons and should be banned from the hands of all members of the public

Andrew

Art Vandelay said:

I read lots of posts that say this or that law in the EU is terrible, but there is nothing we can do. It sounds like the chance of changing a law is so remote that there is no point in even trying. To me that seems strange. When the EU nanny state fans want to change a law they seem to be able to do it. Has any pro-freedom group ever tried to get one of these nanny state laws changed?

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It's the mainstream European mentality. You just can't change a culture.

Art -

It is a different mentality. They protest fuel prices etc, and ask for gov't subsidies (which will increase taxes eventually) but a new law restricting a knife or gun...no one minds. They have had restrictive legislation on these items here for generations...so nothing new to the current generation. No one I know from here carries a knife.

When moving here last year I had to look at my collection of knives and left most with my Dad. Just brought leatherman and SAK. Now looks like even some of these may be a bit too long...Have to go measure now.

Thanks Rayman for posting - I had not caught the change...I may be taking some more home to Dad on my trip in a few weeks. He will be happy as I got the habit from him!

Auf Wiedersehen!

Those are good points. American's and Europeans are fundamentally different in many ways. At first, I thought it was just that Europeans felt powerless to change the law, but then I remembered that Europeans do protest strongly on other issues. In the U.S. you don't see as much of the big sixties style protests anymore. Here in the U.S. people tend to donate money and time to politicians they want elected or political groups. If the politician gets elected, they might write or call the politician's office to ask that the politician vote one way or the other on an issue they care about.

It does seem that just about any group that has worked to get an exception to the knife laws has gotten one. The Sikhs, and the guys who wear the traditional Scottish thing have exceptions. Also hunters, fisherman, sailors, caterers etc can still use knives when needed. Given that, it's not too hard to see why people are not dumping tea in the harbor.