Hawaii Knife Laws
Hawaii changed its knife law in May 2024 and the dust has not settled. Butterfly knives were banned from 1999 and automatics were barred; both were opened up by that change, but courts have read it differently and the practical position is still unclear. Dirks and daggers may not be carried concealed on you or in a vehicle. There is no statewide preemption, so a county rule can be stricter than the state’s.
This is not legal advice, and we are not lawyers. It is a plain reading of published summaries and the statutes they cite, kept current on a fixed schedule. Local ordinances are frequently stricter than state law and are not all captured here. Check the statute, and check your city, before you carry.
Recent change. 2024 – HB 2342 legalized butterfly, switchblade and gravity knives.
Hawaii knife law at a glance
| Concealed carry blade limit | No blade length governs, except that dirks and daggers may not be carried concealed on you or in a vehicle. |
|---|---|
| Automatic and switchblade knives | Allowed since May 2024, but not concealed. The 2024 change is still being read differently by different courts, so treat anything definitive about Hawaii automatics as provisional. |
| Knife types banned outright | Butterfly knives were banned in 1999 and that law was among those changed in 2024. Dirks and daggers may not be carried openly or concealed, or kept in a vehicle. |
| Statewide preemption | No. Counties may write rules stricter than the state’s. |
| The statutes | Hawaii Revised Statutes 134-51, 134-52, 134-53 and 302A-1134.6 — read them |
Source last revised 25 July 2026
Last known change 2024
Next review 15 November 2026
How fresh this is, and how you can tell
Two dates sit above, and they are not the same thing. Checked by us is the last time a person went back to the sources and confirmed this page still matches them. Source last revised is when the American Knife and Tool Institute last updated its own Hawaii page. A 2021 revision date is not automatically wrong — it usually means nothing has changed since — but it does mean nobody had looked recently, and that is exactly the gap this page exists to close.
Common questions about Hawaii knife laws
What size knife is legal to carry in Hawaii?
No blade length governs, except that dirks and daggers may not be carried concealed on you or in a vehicle.
Are switchblades legal in Hawaii?
Allowed since May 2024, but not concealed. The 2024 change is still being read differently by different courts, so treat anything definitive about Hawaii automatics as provisional.
Which knives are banned outright in Hawaii?
Butterfly knives were banned in 1999 and that law was among those changed in 2024. Dirks and daggers may not be carried openly or concealed, or kept in a vehicle.
Does Hawaii have knife preemption?
No. Hawaii has no statewide preemption, so a city or county can be stricter than the state code, and several are. Check your local ordinance as well as the statute.
Can I keep a knife in my car in Hawaii?
Where a state has a concealed carry limit, a knife in a glovebox or a door pocket is generally treated as concealed. Read the concealed line above and apply it to the vehicle. If that line says concealment is not the issue in this state, the vehicle is not the issue either — but where you drive to still is, because schools and courthouses are barred everywhere.
Where this comes from
Two independent sources, cross-checked against each other, and the statute text where they disagree. The automatic knife column is the American Knife and Tool Institute’s state automatics table, checked against Knife Rights’ own switchblade legality table and their legislative update log. Everything on a state page is quoted or closely tracked from that state’s AKTI page, and we print the date AKTI last revised it so you can see for yourself how fresh the underlying work is.
Where a source is older than a change we know about, we say so on the page rather than quietly leaving the old answer up. That is the whole reason this is checked every two months.
Elsewhere on Popular EDC
The knife law map for all fifty states, the knife steel comparison chart for choosing the blade itself, and every Popular EDC tool in one place.
Data updated September 2026. Hawaii knife law checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.