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JALLEN wrote:

Bitter Clinger wrote:

JALLEN wrote:

Bitter Clinger wrote:Just picked up an Emerson Sheepdog with the new bearing system (in serrated spearpoint blade). It was expensive, but it has the smoothest opening action and grippiest handle of any self defense knife in my collection:

What keeps this from being one of those dreaded, and in Texas illegal, Bowie knives, undefined in the statute, AFAIK?

Size matters.

How so?

TPC 46.01, the latest version I know of, says:

Code: Select all

(6) “Illegal knife” means a:
(A) knife with a blade over five and one-half inches;
(B) hand instrument designed to cut or stab another by being thrown;
(C) dagger, including but not limited to a dirk, stiletto, and poniard;
(D) bowie knife;
(E) sword;  or
(F) spear.
- See more at: http://codes.findlaw.com/tx/penal-code/penal-sect-46-01.html#sthash.gZkw4Tcu.dpuf

AFAIK, no other definition of "Bowie knife" appears in the law, which is why I raised this point. Maybe someone knows what a "Bowie knife" is.

Thise instruments defined in (B) through (F) above can have blades less than "five and one-half inches and be illegal. A knife with a blade of more than that is illegal regardless of what type it might be.

Many people recognize a Bowie knife by the characteristic that the upper edge is sharpened back from the point to the widest part of the blade.

JALLEN wrote:

Bitter Clinger wrote:Just picked up an Emerson Sheepdog with the new bearing system (in serrated spearpoint blade). It was expensive, but it has the smoothest opening action and grippiest handle of any self defense knife in my collection:

What keeps this from being one of those dreaded, and in Texas illegal, Bowie knives, undefined in the statute, AFAIK?