Are you allowed to carry any knife you want in the military?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “air force knife regulation“
About Josie
Written by: Josie
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Are you allowed to carry any knife you want in the military?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “air force knife regulation“
About Josie
I haven’t been able to find any military restrictions on knives for U.S. military personnel. After I retired, I worked at the largest firearms store in Orange County, Califexico. Not a day went by without at least one marine from Camp Pendleton coming in and buying a quality fixed blade to prepare for deployment to A-stan. Nobody ever mentioned any official restrictions and they tried them all before selecting their purchase. One ‘Force Recon’ marine mentioned that his commanding officer felt that if having a blade could save his men’s lives, he’d just overlook any chickensh*t regulations. And all the blogs talk about which knives, both fixed blades and folders, that our troops carried in Iraq and A-stan. Common sense plays a big part in the selection because ‘a knife’ is also seen as a functional tool and not strictly an ‘assassin’s weapon.’ And the SEAL’s that I saw back when I was in all carried quality fixed blades. And I honestly have no idea what any other nation’s military are required to carry. Sorry I couldn’t be of greater assistance.
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On my deployment to Iraq for some stupid reason I bought some great huge blades with me, they were so annoying and in the way and kept getting caught in webbing and camp net and everything else you can think of. No one said anything,and thankfully we did all our missions at night so none of the guys who’d been on multiple deployments saw me looking like a damn fool. Within a week or so I went from shlepping a borderline machete about to this folder that I’ve carried ever since. Much handier and useful and unobtrusive.
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This is more of a nostalgic story with a bit of humor thrown in rather than just an straight answer.
During the 22 years that I was in the Army, you could carry any personal knife in the field. My first enlistment was in the infantry and the most popular knife was the folding Buck. Because of it’s size, you could carry it on and off duty. The hard wood handle was easy to personalize. We put finger grooves in and spent considerable time, usually on CQ, oiling and polishing the blade so that it would ‘flick’ open with one hand. For a fixed blade, I recall the choices mainly revolved around the K-bar and the new black handle Buck. Both were very dependable knives in the field and fit nicely on our LBE.
Then ‘Rambo’ was released! First Sergeants and Commanders everywhere tried to keep the troops from spending 3 or 4 months worth of paychecks on custom man portable bladed killing systems over a foot long. Soon, revisions of unit SOPs stopped the madness. Meanwhile, those who did purchase their Conan the Barbarian man killers found out quickly just how impractical and humorous looking in real life they were.
I had been in SF for about a year when I chose to replaced my K-Bar with a knife based on what the older team members carried; which were utilitarian in nature and suited for escape and evasion scenarios. I chose a 10″ long knife with a high carbon steel blade and a walnut and steel tube handle that I purchased in Germany. It didn’t have the visual impact of a Crocodile Dundee knife but it was dependable and it served me well. The long scar on my left hand suggests that knife also taught me my limitations concerning drinking and dressing a deer at home.
Thanks for reading.
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Navy SERE issued me a KaBar wannabe knife. Perhaps my memory is bad—maybe I bought it?
It was useful, kinda, in a way.
About a week into starvation, I saw a bird’s nest atop of a little 10 foot tree that seemed burnt by fire. So I put the blade in my teeth and climbed toward the top of the skinny, burned out tree. Then mama bird came home—Hawk, and pissed. She and I fought for a minute of saw, her diving at my then floating back away, over and over while I swung that knife with one hand, holding onto the tree with the other.
When she left, I muttered, “There better a damn egg in that nest.” There was. I just popped it in, shell, raw, and all.
In my flight survival vest, we had a knife. They told me to lash it to a pole with string to make a spear to catch fish.
i don’t recall there being any regulations in the Navy in the 70s.
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When deployed to a combat zone, any reasonable knife will be acceptable. Typically if it’s 8″ or less and isn’t some cheap piece of fantasy crap you’re good. So if you want a knife from Cold Steel, Kershaw or K-Bar, you’ll be fine.
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Be more specific.
This is the knife regulation I was subject to during most of my time in the United States Navy:
7. Possession of Knives
a. Knives necessary for proper performance of duty are authorized in places and at times where such duties are performed aboard NAVBASE Kitsap. The Revised Code of Washington. RCW 9.41.270 states, “It shall be unlawful for anyone to carry, exhibit, display or draw any dagger, sword, knife or other cutting or stabbing instrument, or any other weapon capable of producing bodily harm, in a manner, under circumstances, and at a time and place that either manifests an intent to intimidate another or that warrants alarm for the safety of other persons.” Any person violating these provisions shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor. An appropriate knife may be accepted as recreational equipment while actively engaged in, or while en route to or from, an appropriate activity, (e.g., hunting, fishing, shell fishing or newly purchased from NEX with receipt).
b. Personnel residing in Bachelor Housing, Visiting Quarters, Transient Quarters, or MCSFBn Barracks are prohibited from keeping daggers, swords, or other cutting or stabbing instruments, or any other weapon as outlined in paragraph (a) above, that have the main purpose of causing bodily harm. Such items shall be stored in the NAVBASE Kitsap Armory, space permitting. MCSFBn Barracks personnel must turn their weapons over to their armory. Knives used in the proper performance of military duties are authorized in Bachelor Enlisted Quarters and Bachelor Officer’s Quarters, but shall be kept locked up to prevent theft when not in use.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnic.navy.mil/content/cnic/cnic_hq/regions/cnrnw/installations/navbase_kitsap/om/unmanned-aircraft-reporting/_jcr_content/par1/pdfdownload/file.res/NAVBASEKITSAPINST%25205530.14B%2520CH-3.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiKlKLBtLPlAhVUs54KHbwUCy4QFjADegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw3toS829OTnc5jTc7Dn2d-d
You might notice a few things about this:
It’s a regulation specific to a particular base. Big Navy does not care what kind of knife I have, it cares that base commanders and unit commanders have the tools to enforce policies suitable to their missions.
It is not specific to a particular unit, e.g., a ship. Whether I was shipboard or in a shore unit, my unit’s policy was, in general, “Be in compliance with the base regulations as to what stuff you can carry around. If we want you to have something that the base doesn’t generally let people carry around, or don’t want you to have something the base generally does let people carry around, there will be special arrangements and a lot of paperwork beforehand.” One example; we normally can’t bring personal electronic devices into the parts of the base where security-sensitive work is done. But for a deployment, it is a generally accepted cultural expectation that you get to have a reasonable amount of personal electronics with you, at least in your rack (and definitely not in the Engine Room, these were nuclear vessels). Prior to a deployment, we all brought our personal electronic devices to the IT chief, got stickers over the cameras and stickers to label them as cleared, put them in a box, and then they were transported into the secure part of the base in a government vehicle on official business, rather than in a personal capacity.
It incorporates reference to local civilian law. One of the elements of the mission is to avoid unduly annoying and in turn being annoyed by local civilian authorities.
It is very vague. It doesn’t tell you a goddamn thing about what kind of knife you can have, nor does it say “only knives issued to you by the military.” Rather, it defines allowable knives in terms of purposes: en route to an appropriate recreational activity, or necessary for performance of duty.
Why doesn’t it say only knives issued to you by the Navy? Surely the Navy knows what kind of knives are necessary for performance of duty? Well, here’s the thing– if it’s issuing you a knife for a duty, whoever issued it might know it’s necesary, but:
I saw very, very few knives that were ever issued by the Navy. Lots of screwdrivers,wrenches, all manner of other tools, but not knives.
Such knives as were issued were never issued personally, they were boat property and stayed on the boat unless you were ordered to dispose of it. The people at the gates to the secure part of the base, responaible for searching you for contraband, would never see those knives in your possession except as part of an official government shipment while still in packaging such that they have no idea what such a knife even looks like.
Those guards have no idea how to do your duties. Some are Masters at Arms, some are Marine MPs, either way, they don’t maintain ships.
So does that mean that most of us didn’t need a knife for our duties? We weren’t issued one after all. Well, technically we were under no obligation to have a knife in our possession most of the time. There was never a lawful order to have one. But a lot of duties are not officially defined. A knife is a very versatile tool for doing things for which there is not a well-defined method. There was a cultural expectation that a good Sailor below the rank of Chief carried around a privately purchased, cheap, ready-to-be-mistreated knife of some kind to be prepared for whatever duties might be found for them. Usually on a multitool. The slang term for multitool in the Navy, “diggit,” is also a (sometimes mildly derogatory) slang term for a Sailor who buys completely into the program, drinks the Kool-Aid if you will. You might be asked to remove gum from the floor, perform a temporary expedient repair of a minor defect in a fire extinguisher, remove a sign, god knows what ,and it begins with the question “Do you have a diggit?” If you don’t, you’re a slightly less reliable Sailor– not in any official way, they won’t call you out for it, but they will remember. If you do and make a good faith effort, but the problem doesn’t get solved by your efforts, no big deal, the problem might have just been less suited to this kind of solution than the superior who asked you to do it thought, they understand. If you do and solve the problem, that will be remembered. And sometimes they don’t even think to ask. If you see a Chief struggling with a jammed copy machine, and you pull out a diggit to fix it for them without them even speaking up, they might question your intelligence, but they’ll like the initiative, and be amused by the show. If you succeed in fixing the jammed copy machine, without even damaging their document in the process, with nothing but the knife blade on your diggit, that’s big points. (Officially, the copy machines are maintained by contractors, not Sailors. Even the copy machines aboard submarines, that sometimes break while deployed. You can see why there might be an incentive to ignore that rule).
So how does this get interpreted as far as what knives are alllowed? Even though purchase at the NEX is listed separately, under the recreation rule, we can start with an assumption that any knife or multitool available at the NEX is allowed to be carried on base. If you can make a colorable argument that that knife is suitable for the performance of duties, then you can carry it. If the guards can imagine it being used in the performance of duties, they will not bother asking the question. The NEX has a pretry broad selection, tailored to tastes common among Sailors. And of course, the guards don’t memorize what’s available at the NEX, although they have a pretty broad idea and are probably carrying some sort of knife purchased from the NEX themselves. So if it’s vaguely analogous to something available there and fits in your pocket or unobtrusively on your belt, like these, it will not even be questioned:
This is available at the NEX, and will not be questioned if your guard is a Master at Arms, but will be questioned if your guard is a Marine MP, because what the fuck are you doing Sailor, that’s our knife:
Anything vaguely similar but not this exact design is fine, though.
This begins to be questionable, but if it fit safely in your pocket, in a sheathe, you can probably end the inquiry by saying something about mooring lines. Your Chief might raise his eyebrows if you pull it out for a task he sets, unless it actually does involve mooring lines.
These are right out:
CJRB CUTLERY Folding Knife Crag
Before leaving for Vietnam in May of 1970, my uncle made a knife similar to this one
and gave it to me. I carried it almost daily during my tour and no one ever said a thing (except maybe a few jokes).
I still have it.
HENCKELS 8-pc Steak Knife Set
We’re issued a Gerber multi-tool we’re allowed to wear while in work dress. In the field It’s up to your unit, but usually as long as it was under 6 inches and was a hunting style knife in a black sheath it was okay.
This is in Canada. I can’t comment on other nation’s policies.
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Nope, you are given a military k100 usually made by kbar. You are not suposed to sharpen it past the way it came. Mine was always so sharp you could shave with it anywhere on your body. Still is!
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I have no clue with the current military.
When I was in knives were a lot less of an issue. Basically they didn’t seem to care as long as you didn’t get silly and try to carry something like a sword or kurki when deployed forward.
On the other hand the folks most likely to use them carried either a issued KA-BAR or something very similar such as a Cold Steel. Those most likely to stay on base carried all kinds of strange things.
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When I served in the Finnish military in the 80’s, everyone carried a personal knife.
The sexy carbon steel bayonets had a strange tendency to get lost during training. If you lost one, you had to pay the replacement cost (classified). Thousands were lost so they were no longer issued for regular training.
My personal knife was a traditional Sami stuorraniibi . My family lives in the deep south (60° N) and we have no Sami ancestry, but the design has universal appeal.
It has been passed down in the family to each generation that enters military service. I too passed it down to the next generation so I do not have a picture. It is a simple utility knife that looks something like this:
Size does not matter unless you need to cut down a small tree.
Finland has 17 billion trees.
Smith & Wesson Extreme Ops SWA24S 7.1in S.S. Folding Knife with 3.1in
I have made knives, to order, for members of the military who were going to Iraq, to Afghanistan. Since they gave me particulars, I can’t say how much latitude they were allowed. But they have all been different from each other, and not at all the standard KABAR.
I can’t tell you whether its’ “any knife you want” or “any knife you want within reason” or even “no bigger than this,” I haven’t seen any rules, and I figure I should give these fine people the respect of making what they ask for.
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At the time when I was in the service I carried various knives but noone cared. If they ever did, it was for safety.
The captain (company commander) did voice his concerns with the Gerber Gator machete since a soldier nearly lost his fingers using it. The steel is soft and won’t hold an edge.
It’s not a good blade to use in Norwegian woods.
I guess the triple edged blade might raise a brow.
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Yes as long as it meets international law. You would still have to carry the issued bayonet as well. I carried two daggers along with the mandatory equipment
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Kind of. Knives aren’t issued. When I was in the army I was a combat arms soldier and traditionally in the field we had a pretty decent size knife (I used a Ka Bar). In garrison, I carried a heavier folding knife. I’ll stress, no one carries a special knife to use as a weapon. It’s just unnecessary weight.
By the time I left the military, most of the time I just carried a leatherman tool. If I was really going out out in the field I had a very expensive Randal model 18 combat survival. I waited a year for it and that even with a military order preference.
now, most soldiers are not combat arms and someone just walking around with a big knife on their belt is going to get crazy checked.
so yes, I’d say any belt sheathed folding knife/tool is acceptable. Larger fixed blade knives are for soldiers in the field. Once in the military, people realize these things cost money and don’t spend money on them. Most military people have a pocket knife that’s as close to free as possible :-).
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Depends on your job. Navy IT guys aren’t allowed to carry a knife except a small Swiss Army style. SEALS can carry anything they want provided they can still swim with it.
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For the most part yes but largely would depend on your unit leadership. Do not I say again do not go buy a John J. RAMBO knife. Your first hump or forced march about mile 5 you will have rubbed a raw spot on your thigh or hip from that ain’t stupid unpractical dead weight. Plus you will have miles to enjoy that new stinging sensation every step of the way.
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It really depends on the unit and the job. Elite units tend to have more flexibility in what weapons are carried. The job also can have an impact. Many people will carry a utility knife if it’s required for the job.
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It would depend. When I did my service we were issued a traditional Mora knife.
It was described as “only useful to remove gravel from your boots”, but you could probably also do some lighter woodwork with it. It’s just a traditional carpenter knife. There’s no guard on it so stabbing would be risky.
As boy will be boys and some may try to compensate for something or whatever one brought a 30 cm (10 inches) survival knife to use instead. It was accepted.
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The marines are the only ones allowed to carry on their dress uniforms, but that is full sword.
Other branches, unless there is a reason or function for the knife, if its visible, I gotta say no. Uniforms are worn for similarity. Everyone is the same. Everyone is issued the same gear.
Now, I’m not gonna tell some chef, working in the mess hall, he can’t carry any knife he wants. But that’s not my speciality, chain of command, or any of my business. Lol.
There can circumstances in combat, where personal weapons are allowed. I was only a radio operator. No one issued me a knife. Nor was I trained in HTH.
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Pretty well no.. When off duty you are subject to the carry laws of that state you are stationed. On duty there are carry rules your unit will provide.
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Somebody on here noticed his SOP noticed non issue knives were banned from belt kit.
Working in the flight line makes perfect sense.
Spotted in Walmart a “combat tomahawk” 🙄 stuck it on his pack
Next day a van on Tomahawks was added to the SOP🤣
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Any? I wouldn’t say that but within reason yes. Paratroopers always carry a good knife just in case of emergency.
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Obviously, from the other answers, it not only depends on what country’s military you are asking about, but what branch of service and what unit you are in. In units I have been a member of we all carried a Leatherman, SOG or Gerber multitool on our belt or in a pocket when in BDUs. In the field it was personal choice and often two or three fixed blade knives such as a CRKT on our LBE, a Kabar, Gerber, Buck or Randall in a sheath on our belt and sometimes a smaller more easily concealed dagger or boot knife in addition to the multitool. It often just depended on the mission. I have never heard of any rules or even command guidance on what we could carry but then the units I was in were made up of professional soldiers. Not Rambo wannabes or idiots who would be a danger to themselves or others if they had a sharp object in their hands. I usually carried a Kabar (either version) or a Randall Model #16 SP#1 Fighter as my field knife. All three were very dependable, took a lot of hard use and kept a good edge with minimal work. Some of my comrades also carried a small, several inch long knife on their dog tag chain and another concealed as a belt buckle. For us it depended on the mission and personal preference.
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I can only speak for the Army, in the field or on deployment pretty much anything you want. In garrison that is back home day to day knives are usually restricted to folding knives either in a sheath on the belt or in your pocket, reason being any accessory you have can’t alter the appearance of the uniform.
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Well, I can only speak for my experience in the US Marines. I keep mine in a bag in a drawer, and in the morning, I pick a knife, and a multi-tool. It could be a Gerber Auto-6, or a classic K-Bar, or a Buck 110 Auto, or a Leatherman Free… I’ve always kept a machete in between my truck seats, and I carried a custom made combat axe on my back, with the old K-Bar on the front plate carrier in Iraq & Afghan (with an infantry Battalion). Through all of that, nobody ever said one word to me… except, “Don’t let the MP’s see that, they’ll make you store it in the armory, blue falcons.”
I joined the Air National Guard after the Marines. All my friends had and were very proud of their knives, especially the ones that were illegal for our state. We showed them off to each other, and talked about the latest Emerson that we had all pre-ordered for our collections, and so on. But, we knew not to let our management see our knives. They would’ve been taken, and we would’ve got some paperwork. We weren’t allowed to have our own knives on the flight line, let alone knives illegal for the state.
Im not in the military anymore, but I still keep my knife rotation going. 👍 Here’s my tools for today.
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Within limits. The military issues bayonet / combat knifes when applicable, in the Army it’s the M-9.
Soldiers typically have a small utility knife or a muti-tool. But you not going to be allowed to carry around your own personal Bowie knife, hunting knife, short sword, broad sword, Samurai sword, fencing foil, cutlas, Calvary sword, Officer sword, NCO sword or any other sword for use in combat.
Hacking people to death only works for terrorist, insurgents and their kind.
Military authorized swords are for ceremonial use only.
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Most armies are quite tolerant when it comes to privately purchased knives. In all the three armies I served with, I could bring my own knife:
As a german paratrooper, I first had a big Bowie knife that I had bought in a hunting shop in my hometown. It was so big that you couldn’t carry it on your belt (it looked too stupid ) so I always had to put it in my backpack.
Later, I bought a Gerber Parabellum folding knife in a knife shop in Southern France. Very good knife but quite expensive.
A Gerber Parabellum. (Photo: The Knife Blog)
I also had a Gerber in Bosnia. After a military shop had opened near our base, we practically invaded it to get our hands on some fancy equipment, including knives. In the following days, some pillows, pieces of furniture, and other things in our barracks were destroyed as we had to find out which knife had the sharpest blade. I went with a stiletto-like knife which was only good for hurting people and nothing else
In Kosovo, there were no army shops but I found a good and solid folding knife in an abandoned farmhouse. Unlike the knives I had bought before, I actually used this one quite often: to spread jam or butter on my bread, to cut sausages, or to peel out hand grenade pellets from people’s legs and arms.
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As long it is legal and it doesn’t go against your unit or posts policies. My usual “kit” when I went out was a Gerber and a Leatherman on my right belt, a swiss army knife in my LBV, and a 3 1/2″ or 4″ buck knife in a sheath. Leathermans were good for some jobs, Gerbers were good for other jobs, the Swiss army knife was a good mini tool for small jobs. The buck knife was good for cutting up summer sausage or notching a junk tree to make a booby trap.
Personal carry knives were a must out in the field as there were many uses for them from cutting 550 cord, trimming brush for camouflage for your vehicle or position, freeing your buttons from a camo net, or various other items you run into. Just follow the laws and the policies of your unit or post, and determine what blade is right for you.
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Are you allowed to carry any knife you want in the military?
Which military are you asking about? This may be a shock but different countries have different rules.
In the US military the answer is generally yes, so long as it’s legal. Remember that you are still bound by state and federal laws. Some laws have exceptions for service members, some laws do not.
For example, let’s say you wanted to carry a ballistic knife powered by a blank cartridge. That’s regulated by the NFA (unless it was an issued item, then it would be a different story) and so you would have to get a tax stamp from the ATF or else it would be illegal, and since it would also be legally a firearm (and not just a knife) military regulations would also prohibit it.
Finland, by contrast, is famous for the puukko knife , but its military doesn’t supply knives on the assumption that any Finn who doesn’t have one is not a particularly good Finn.
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Military uniform regulations cover outward appearances. Generally, what you wear under your uniform or what you carry invisibly in your pockets is your business. In a working or field environment exceptions are made to allow for carrying multi-tools or knife pouches. A large fixed blade knife would probably be deemed unnecessary unless the mission or duty justified it. As a Navy diver, I carried a ka-bar style knife when engaged in diving operations, but only then.
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Surprisingly, those who are tasked with defending the US are not allowed to just walk around armed on US bases. I ended up in the middle of a knife fight once between two hot headed Marines. I didn’t know one had a pocket knife. He ended up in the brig and discharged, the other guy ended up losing rank for hazing, and I was reprimanded for putting myself in a dangerous position to keep the two guys from tearing eachother apart. My husband still can’t believe I did that. After that, they were really strict about who had knives around the shop, but many specialists require having knives on a daily basis, mine did not and thus, stateside, carrying knives is not permitted. In a war zone though, it is highly encouraged. I was sad when they cracked down on knives after the attempted stabbing because I really liked my mini Swiss army knife scissors. But I understand why they made that move.
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In the Coast Guard they never cared if you had a knife. Some were a necessity, Gerbers, marlin spike knives, and diving knives had uses on cutters and small boats. Officers even have swords for rare formal occasions. Nobody ever said anything to anybody carrying knives in 20 years, unless they needed to barrow it. On the ship the even bought us knives. I’m sure if s…
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Last I knew you could carry whatever knife you wanted. I wore a Kbar knife and carried a Leatherman pocket knife.
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Back in the 1980’s on the submarines I served on, everybody in the engine room carried a folding knife. Buck brand were the most popular. I don’t remember any guidance on what you could not carry but a sword would have been useless for why we carried them. What I was most proud of was everybody saw it as a tool and we never had one pulled as a weapon.
Spring Assisted Knife – Pocket Folding Knife – Military Style
Long ago I would have said Yes. I carried a straight razor, the cup and the brush, and even knew how to use them. Although I much preferred the twin blade disposable razor and Barbasol in a can.
Now you Can’t go to the VA with a knife longer than 3″. They took my Buck 105 away and never got it back. I spent a lot of time customizing that handle, as they tend to slip. It was nice. When I went to get it, after two days in ICU and a day in stepdown, they didn’t know what I was talking about. So some Special VA Qualified Cop now has a knife with an otter with a huge erection carved on the handle.
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Generally I would say yes but it is probably more up to your commander. Many soldiers I saw spent outrageous amounts of money on equipment, the issued stuff was just as good and free.
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Almost as a rule, unless it’s an issued item normally, No. There were some who had Bowie knives and such in Vietnam can’t recall if there was any issue made of it. Now if you’re talking about a folding pocket knife with nail file, scissors etc. Shouldn’t be a problem but any knife is a weapon so you should get a determination from your superiors before you make a mistake that the punishment will most certainly outweigh the crime.
Semper Fi USMC 68 – 71
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In the Army Infantry we could carry any civilian knife we wanted but when going to combat you must bring your military issued bayonet that fits on the end of your M-4.
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Not necessarily. More than once I had to chew a soldier a new one because he’d gotten the notion to try bringing some weird ass fantasy blade that looked like it was made for a sci fi film. Nor did we allow switchblades, stilettos, et. al. Nor ridiculously long knives, though a machete or something of the sort attached to the rucksack would fly, if you weren’t so much of a jackass that we didn’t trust you with it (but you’d have a rifle or machine gun… the military is a bizarre world, okay?).
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Sweden here.
When I did my military service in the late nineties you were allowed to carry a “normal” knife, in Sweden that pretty much means a standard Morakniv. A guy in my squad tried to show up with a huge Rambo-looking blade but the officer told him to leave it at home. The explanation was that those knives are more of a security hazard because they will probably break and are always of lower quality than a Morakniv.
We were not issued any knife in our standard loadout.
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