During the summer I went on a two week camping trip and decided to take my machete, I read the knife laws and decided to carry it in plain site strapped to my pack.
While waiting for a train two police men came up to me and asked me If I was carrying a machete, I said yes i was and Iam not trying to hide it which is illegal, one said well carrying a blade over 4 inch was. I told them what I was using it for and the older copper told me to take care of it and not to wave it around in public.
The younger one looked a bit confused and the older one explained that I had given a good reason to carry the blade and he was happy that my intention's were good.
So if your in the UK make sure you don't hide it and have a good reason to carry a big blade.

Originally posted by boymonkey74
During the summer I went on a two week camping trip and decided to take my machete, I read the knife laws and decided to carry it in plain site strapped to my pack.
While waiting for a train two police men came up to me and asked me If I was carrying a machete, I said yes i was and Iam not trying to hide it which is illegal, one said well carrying a blade over 4 inch was. I told them what I was using it for and the older copper told me to take care of it and not to wave it around in public.
The younger one looked a bit confused and the older one explained that I had given a good reason to carry the blade and he was happy that my intention's were good.
So if your in the UK make sure you don't hide it and have a good reason to carry a big blade.

The guidelines due to the knife crime amendment of the criminal justice bill calls you to bury your large sheath and locking knives at the bottom of your rucksack or to lock them in the boot or glove compartment of your viechle. Even with that good reason you was lucky to have a older cop in an area with good crime solving rates. In a bad crime resolution area or with 2 young cops they would have probably arrested you confiscated the machete and your trip would have been ruined by detention while awaiting trail. The current knife laws are too open to interpritation and up to the individual officers discresion so think first what you need and if your going to take that size of blade try to arange a car or van so you can lock your rucksack in the boot