Quick question: what knives are legal to possess in Taipei?
Switchblades? Four-foot swords? Dull round-tipped butter knives? Is there a blade length limit?
I usually have a nice Victorinox “Swiss Army” type knife on me, which a friend gave to his groomsmen at his wedding a few years ago. I also have a small switchblade (1.5" hook blade) when traveling, in case of a serious car wreck. I’d just as soon not piss off the nice Customs people, though.
Since nobody’s answering, maybe we should assume that the “knife laws” are filed somewhere along with the “traffic laws.”
There are some shops here that sell swords. I bet they would know. (I mean, if you can carry a sword around, what can’t you carry?)
All I know is that switchblades are a no-no.
CK
In general speaking, the law norm some bad form in Taiwan.
It
[quote=“llkkmarx”]In general speaking, the law norm some bad form in Taiwan.
It
You can get a swiss army knife over in your bag, I think. I brought mine over, but then stupidly put in in my carry-on on the way back home and U.S. security confiscated it.
I’ve been to shops here that sell hunting knives. Big ones. Probably not legal to carry concealed, but then everyliu mang (low-level ganster) in Taiwan carries a knife, or worse, and there are a lot of these guys running around.
I asked my Chinese teacher. Surprise, surprise - 4-foot swords are illegal. So are switchblades. Swiss army knifes are OK. However, laws in Taiwan are ignored, although I believe anyone carrying around a sword would be stopped.
Knives that are longer than a certain length and have sharpened edges on both sides. There are further restrictions on knives, such as gator teeth on the back.
Swords are illegal in Taiwan if they are sharpened, but you can get a permit from the police to have one that is sharpened. Most of the swords in Taiwan are not sharpened. So if you go to a knife shop, you will notice that there are big swords, but they are not sharpened.
There are illegal sales of the sharpened swords. If you get caught with one, the police can charge you and deport you. I was caught with a letter opener (the officer said it was a knife). The put me in court and after I showed the judge the receipt from the knife shop across the street and the box which said ‘letter opener’, he let me go. Actually, I got the letter in the mail that said they dropped the charges.
cipos
LOL what about a reverse blade sword?
There are switchblades and swords on sale at Guang Hwa Computer Market. You can buy knives that look like dagger from a woman selling stuff at Tong Hwa Market at midday. She sells things that look like thin black tubes but if you pull on one end, it’s a 1 foot dagger. She also sells a wireless KTV mike setup that includes two microphones. Choose your weapon.