Here are the knives that are legal, illegal to own in Pennsylvania (2024)

Christian Alexandersen | calexandersen@pennlive.com

Understanding Pennsylvania's knife laws

Millions of Americans carry knives every day.

They carry pocket knives for camping, bowie knives for hunting, razors for opening boxes and assisted knives for everything in between. They are useful tools and dangerous weapons.

As a result, both state and federal governments have passed laws regulating what kinds of knives can be purchased, transported and carried in each state.

Pennsylvania, is no exception.

Pennsylvania’s criminal code prohibits any “dagger, knife, razor or cutting instrument” thats blade is “exposed in an automatic way by switch, push-button, [or] spring mechanism.”

The code prohibits the possession of implements used “for the infliction of serious bodily injury which serves no common lawful purpose.”

Here’s a breakdown of what types of knives can and cannot be carried in Pennsylvania:

Shutterstock user Viktor Prymachenko

Assisted opening knife

Assisted opening knives, also know as one-handed knives, are allowed to be carried in Pennsylvania as they do not use a spring or mechanism to open them.

EDDY RISCH

Pocket knife

Pocket knives are allowed to be carried in Pennsylvania.

Shutterstock user Gavran333

Switchblade

Both state and federal law prohibits owning a switchblade, also referred to as an automatic knife.

The U.S. Congress passed the Federal Switchblade Act in 1958. The law prohibits the transportation, possession, sale and distribution of switchblade knives.

Switchblades are defined as any knife “having a blade which opens automatically -- (1) by hand pressure applied to a button or other device in the handle of the knife, or (2) by operation of inertia, gravity, or both.”

Shutterstock user vvoe

Bowie knife

Bowie knifes are allowed to be carried in Pennsylvania. The state criminal code does not limit the size of the blade that can be carried, like many states do.

Shutterstock

Butterfly knife

Owning a butterfly knife, also known as a balisong knife, is allowed in Pennsylvania.

Shutterstock user KANIN.studio

Gravity/Paratrooper knife

Gravity knives, also known as paratrooper knives, are illegal under the Federal Switchblade Act.

The law prohibits the transportation, possession, sale and distribution of switchblade knives.

Switchblades are defined as any knife “having a blade which opens automatically -- (1) by hand pressure applied to a button or other device in the handle of the knife, or (2) by operation of inertia, gravity, or both.”

A gravity knife, as the name suggests, uses gravity to drop the blade from its handle.

Shutterstock user Alexeysun

Razors and boxcutters

Razors and boxcutters are allowed as long as their bladesare not“exposed in an automatic way by switch, push-button, [or] spring mechanism.”

AP Photo/Petar Petrov

Dagger

It is legal to carry a dagger, as long as it has a "common lawful purpose."

Wikimedia Commons, user Jerryk50

Ballistic knife

Ballistic knives, which uses a spring mechanismto shoot a knife out like a missile, are illegal to own under state and federal laws.

In Pennsylvania, the criminal code stipulates that people are prohibited from owning any “dagger, knife, razor or cutting instrument” thats blade is “exposed in an automatic way by switch, push-button, [or] spring mechanism.”

The code prohibits the possession of implements used “for the infliction of serious bodily injury which serves no common lawful purpose.”