I see a lot of knife shops in Switzerland and some of these look pretty deadly. I was wondering if there are actually any laws restricting the ownership of knives, since in the UK owning anything more deadly than a letter opener seems to be illegal and so I'm surprised to see knives with 6" blades openly on sale.

Phil,

Every Swiss man has a gun at home, it makes a 6" blade seem very safe.

maybe i should also get a knife in preparation for the zombie apocalypse then. perhaps something like this:

You may not import, trade or give away the following types of knives:

• Daggers with two cutting edges (of a certain length, can't remember)
• Automatic knives
• Throwing knives
• Butterfly knives

(Art. 4 and 5 of the federal law on weapons).

Phil, I own a small number of Japanese swords (both wooden and with blades) which I shipped from the US to here when I moved. I had to declare them in detail for customs when I sent them on their special shipment - kind, value, etc - but I had no problem receiving them with the rest of my stuff and nobody in Switzerland ever asked me anything on the receiving end. I am not sure about the specific applicable law, but even though I did not buy them here, I am sure they were inspected, etc., and I have not had any requests/inquiries from anyone here. So to your question - I assume there are no problems in owning blades per se?

Of course, I don't go around with them, they are kept in my apartment in their cases

EDIT: thanks for the additional info SamWeiseWielleicht, it looks like I am legal (kidding aside, I already assumed so since no one ever raised questions on either end).

Reminds me of a couple "Kill Bill" lines:

and

I remember loading up on knives on a school trip to France. I bought a flick knife, several throwing stars and a baddass hunting knife with a built-in compass. I made it past Dover customs, but not my dad who confiscated the lot and wrote a highly embarassing letter to the Headmaster

Samurai swords are not considered as weapons under the law, but as quite a few other things carying them arround under certain circumstances might get you in trouble (fine) for "carrying dangerous objects".

If I remember correctly, O-Ren Ishii does not end too well when she meets the silly Caucasian girl...

If you have to use a knife against a zombie you're in trouble. you need range and cutting/bludgeon power.

only if you're an amateur

No, I stay well away from dancing zombies...

Federica, are your blades sharp, or are your swords one of those Iaido katanas?

My 3 year old is in a Wald Spielgruppe (walking around in the woods) one day a week. This Christmas the teacher is procuring pocket knives for all of the members (admittedly, it is optional). I find it kind of a funny gift but we just go with the flow. There aren't that many knife fights in the kindergarten so I guess it's a good thing.

a gun with a bayonet by the way.

I have to say I have kitchen knifes that are proper for German specialities...

I actually bought them in Portugal and took them on my (not hand-) luggage. When we got to the airport in Dresden, we received a notification from Lufthansa that our bags had been confiscated for security reasons and were being investigated.

One week later I got the bag delievered at home, with a broken lock glued with huge yellow Lufthansa tape, and an A3 paper where Lufthansa wrote something in the lines:

"We're sorry. Your new kitchen knifes looked like dangerous weapons on the x-ray. Here's a coupon for your trouble".


Customs in Switzerland had no problem with same set...

Bayonets can be freely acquired by pretty much anyone at almost any flea market. You probably aren't supposed to carry them on your belt when you go to work each morning, though.

O-Ren Ishii: [her last lines] That really was a Hattori Hanzo sword.

One is sharp (and properly locked, out of people's way), but I have a couple of "practice only" ones that have a blade, but it's not sharp at all.

The wooden ones hurt if you get hit in the head with them, but obviously they don't cut.

One of my favorite movies ever!!!

Unbelievable - exactly the same thing happened to me way back when I returned from a school trip to Austria. Circa 1966.
Are we brothers and we dont know?

That's not a knife!