North Dakota Knife Laws
North Dakota’s number is five inches, and it applies to carrying concealed without a license. A blade of five inches or more, and any switchblade or gravity knife, counts as a dangerous weapon for that purpose. Owning, making and selling automatic knives is not restricted at all. There is no statewide preemption, so a city may write its own rule.
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.
North Dakota knife law at a glance
| Concealed carry blade limit | Five inches. A blade of five inches or more, and any switchblade or gravity knife, counts as a dangerous weapon for concealed carry. A North Dakota concealed weapon license lifts that. |
|---|---|
| Automatic and switchblade knives | Legal to own, make and sell. The five inch line and the switchblade mention apply to carrying concealed without a license, not to ownership. |
| Knife types banned outright | None outright. |
| Statewide preemption | No. A city may write its own knife rule. |
| The statutes | North Dakota Century Code 62.1-01-01, 62.1-02-04, 62.1-02-05 and 62.1-04-01 through 62.1-04-03.1 — read them |
Source last revised 27 February 2021
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 North Dakota 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.
Crossing the North Dakota state line
Knife law stops at the border and the next state does not have to agree with this one. If you drive, these are the states you are most likely to carry into, and what changes when you do.
| State | Automatic knives | Concealed blade limit |
|---|---|---|
| Montana | Legal | No blade length governs. Montana retitled its concealed weapon law in 2017 to cover firearms, so any knife may be carried openly or concealed. |
| South Dakota | Legal | No state blade length governs; concealed carry is lawful unless you carry with intent to commit a felony. The city rule is what is likely to catch you. |
| Minnesota | Restricted or banned | No blade length governs, and concealment is not the issue. |
A knife that is lawful in your pocket at home can be unlawful the moment you cross, and nobody stops you at the line to tell you. The map for all fifty states covers the rest.
Common questions about North Dakota knife laws
What size knife is legal to carry in North Dakota?
Five inches. A blade of five inches or more, and any switchblade or gravity knife, counts as a dangerous weapon for concealed carry. A North Dakota concealed weapon license lifts that.
Are switchblades legal in North Dakota?
Legal to own, make and sell. The five inch line and the switchblade mention apply to carrying concealed without a license, not to ownership.
Which knives are banned outright in North Dakota?
None outright.
Does North Dakota have knife preemption?
No. North Dakota 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 North Dakota?
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. North Dakota knife law checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.