Knives and Tools: The Law and Teaching Kids

What this page covers

We already have two detailed tool pages. Blades and multi-tools explains fixed and folding knives, blade shapes, steels, multi-tools, axes and saws, and looking after tools in our climate. Sharpening covers angles, stones and getting a truly sharp edge. Start there for choosing and caring for a tool.

This page fills in what those pages leave out: the law, and teaching children. It’s general information, not legal advice. Laws change, and the rules can be different where you’re going, so check the law and the rules where you’re going.

Knives and Canadian law

Most Canadians who carry a knife carry it for work, farm, camp and household jobs, and that’s normal. The law is mostly about two things: certain types of knife, and how and why a knife is carried.

Some knives are prohibited

Section 84 of the Criminal Code defines a “prohibited weapon” to include a 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 in or attached to the handle of the knife. In everyday terms, that covers switchblades and gravity knives, and it can cover knives that flick open with a snap of the wrist.

The Canada Border Services Agency issued a customs notice in 2018 explaining that it classifies certain centrifugal opening knives, ones whose blade can be flicked open and locks, as prohibited weapons for import by individuals. If you buy a knife online from outside Canada, or bring one home from a trip, it can be seized at the border.

Any object can become a “weapon”

The Criminal Code’s definition of “weapon” turns on use and intent: roughly, anything used, designed or intended to cause injury or death, or to threaten or intimidate someone. That means an ordinary pocket knife is a tool when you use it as one, and can be treated as a weapon when it’s carried or used to threaten or harm.

Concealed weapons

Section 90 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to carry a weapon concealed unless you’re authorized under the Firearms Act. Read with the definition above, the practical lesson is simple: carry a knife as a tool, for tool jobs.

Places with their own rules

Even a perfectly legal knife isn’t welcome everywhere.

• Air travel. The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) allows knives in checked baggage. In carry-on, a knife with a blade of 6 cm or less is permitted within Canada and to international destinations other than the United States. No knives are allowed in carry-on on flights to the United States, and, in CATSA’s words, “Concealed knives of any type or length are not permitted.” That refers to CATSA’s own category, explained on its website. Check CATSA’s knives page before you pack.
• The United States. Knife laws vary from state to state, and some are stricter than Canada’s. Check before you drive south, and before you fly.
• Schools. Many schools ban knives, including small pocket knives, for students. Talk to your child’s school before a knife goes in a backpack.
• Government buildings, courthouses, hospitals, concerts and sports venues often screen for or ban knives and tools.
• Workplaces have their own policies. Some require a particular kind of safety knife.
• Scouting and youth groups have their own standards. Scouts Canada, for example, limits members to knives with blades 10 cm or shorter for program activities, unless a longer knife is approved with a program and risk management plan.

Choosing a tool that stays legal

For gear advice, see Blades and multi-tools. From a legal and sensible point of view, for adults and kids alike:

• Pick a plain tool. A small multi-tool, or a simple folding knife you open with your fingers, does almost every everyday job.
• Avoid anything that opens by itself. No button, spring or gravity opening, and nothing designed to flick open with a wrist snap.
• Skip the “tactical” look. Knives styled as weapons send the wrong message, and some designs may be prohibited.
• Buy in Canada from a reputable seller, rather than importing something that may be stopped at the border.
• A blade that locks open is safer for users of any age, because it can’t fold onto your fingers mid-cut.

For many families, a multi-tool is the best first choice. Gary’s pick, if he could carry only one thing, is his multi-tool. More on his everyday carry is on the everyday carry page.

Teaching kids knife safety

Kids who learn to use a knife properly, with good habits and an adult close by, learn more than whittling. They learn responsibility, patience and respect for tools.

Scouts Canada’s standards for knives, axes, saws and other camping tools set out a few principles any family can borrow:

• Introduce it properly. Youth are introduced to equipment with the appropriate safety knowledge and supervision.
• Skills first. Everyone using the equipment should have the skills and experience to use it safely.
• Keep blades small. For program activities, members use knives with blades 10 cm long or less.
• Protect hands. Members using knives for food preparation are advised to wear cut-resistant gloves.

Earn it, like a permit

Scouts Canada uses a Scout permit card with a Knife Permit section. The young person pledges to follow the Fieldbook for Canadian Scouting, to show proper handling, care and use of the knife at all times, and to carry the permit whenever they carry their knife, and a leader fills in the date. You can do the same at home: make your own family “knife permit” card, list the rules, and sign it together once your child can show every one of them. Loss of the card for breaking a rule makes the point without a lecture.

When is a child ready?

There’s no magic age. It depends on the child’s maturity, coordination and ability to follow rules, and on how much supervision you can give. Start with jobs like peeling a carrot or whittling a soft stick, sitting down, with you right there.

Gary’s six grandkids each got cut-proof gloves, safety glasses and a multi-tool. His camp with them is described on our camping with kids page.

The safety rules

These are the habits most knife-safety lessons share, including a Scouting safety tip on knife use. Teach them one at a time, practise them, and model them yourself.

1. Make a safety circle. Before opening a knife, stretch out your arm and turn in a circle. If you can touch anyone, or anyone could walk into that space, move. Scouting materials sometimes call that space the “blood zone”.
2. Sit down to cut, with your elbows on your knees and the work held out in front of you, not on your lap.
3. Always cut away from your body, and away from the hand that’s holding the work.
4. Close or sheathe it when you’re not cutting, and before you stand up or walk.
5. Pass it closed, or handle first, and let go only when the other person says “thank you” and has hold of it.
6. Use the right tool for the job. A knife isn’t a screwdriver, a pry bar or a hammer.
7. Never throw a knife or stick it into trees, tables or the ground. It’s dangerous, and it ruins the knife and whatever it hits.
8. Keep it clean and sharp. A dull blade needs more force and is more likely to slip.
9. Put it away when you’re done, in the same place every time.

Gloves, glasses and first aid

Cut-resistant gloves

Wear a cut-resistant glove on the hand that holds the work, because that’s the hand that gets cut when the blade slips. Scouts Canada advises cut-resistant gloves for anyone using knives for food preparation. Gloves come in children’s sizes. They’re cut-resistant, not cut-proof, so the rules above still apply.

Safety glasses

Wood chips, snapped wire and bits of whatever you’re cutting can fly. Safety glasses are cheap, and kids often think they look pretty good in them. Wear them for whittling, for cutting wire or cord under tension, and any time you use the pliers on a multi-tool for something that might snap.

First aid

Keep a few bandages close by whenever knives are out, and teach kids to stop, apply pressure and tell an adult if they get a cut. Our first aid page covers cuts, and the mini first aid kit page shows kids how to build their own small kit.

A first knife or tool for a child

Whatever you choose, it should be legal, small, simple and easy for small hands to control:

• A small, simple folding knife or a kids’ multi-tool. Scouts Canada’s limit for program activities is a blade of 10 cm or less. For a beginner, a shorter blade is easier to control.
• A blade that locks open, or one stiff enough that it won’t close easily on fingers.
• Nothing that opens automatically or flicks open.
• A rounded tip is worth considering for very young beginners.
• Gloves and safety glasses that fit, bought at the same time.

Start with supervised jobs at home or at camp, and let the tool stay with you between lessons until the child has shown they follow every rule. Knots and whittling go well together; our knots page has a few to start with, and Bushcraft covers more outdoor skills.

Care, storage and sharpening

• Store knives where young children can’t reach them, and teach older kids that the knife lives in its spot when it isn’t being used.
• Clean and dry a knife after use, and add a drop of light oil to the pivot now and then. Our dry dust and chinook condensation are hard on steel; see Blades and multi-tools.
• Keep it sharp. Learning to sharpen is a great next skill for an older child. Our Sharpening page explains how, from guided systems to a quick touch-up.
• Check tools before each use: a loose blade, a lock that doesn’t hold or a cracked handle means the tool stays in the drawer until it’s fixed.

Sources

• Justice Laws Website, Criminal Code, section 84 (definition of prohibited weapon): laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
• Justice Laws Website, Criminal Code, section 90 (carrying a concealed weapon): laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
• Justice Laws Website, Criminal Code, section 2 (definition of “weapon”): laws-lois.justice.gc.ca
• Canada Border Services Agency, Customs Notice 18-01, Centrifugal opening knives: cbsa-asfc.gc.ca
• Canadian Air Transport Security Authority, Knives: catsa-acsta.gc.ca
• Scouts Canada, Knives, axes, saws, stoves, lanterns and other camping tools standards: scouts.ca
• Scouts Canada, Scouts permit card (Knife, Stove and Lantern, Axe and Saw, Match and Fire): scouts.ca
• Scouts Canada (Canadian Path), safety tip “Knock on Wood” (knife safety, 2016): scoutsca.s3.amazonaws.com