Pennsylvania Knife Laws
Pennsylvania sets no blade length and does not treat concealment as the issue. What the statute turns on is criminal intent. Automatic knives became legal on 2 January 2023. Philadelphia has its own stricter ordinance, and there is no preemption to override it.
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.
Pennsylvania knife law at a glance
| Concealed carry blade limit | Concealment is not a factor. The offense turns on criminal intent. |
|---|---|
| Automatic and switchblade knives | Restrictions removed as of 2 January 2023. |
| Knife types banned outright | None statewide. All knives are barred on K-12 school grounds. |
| Statewide preemption | No. Philadelphia has its own stricter ordinance. |
| The statutes | 18 Pa.C.S. sections 907, 908, 912, 913 and 6302 — read them |
Source last revised 6 September 2025
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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 |
|---|---|---|
| New York | Legal with conditions | State law applies the same whether the knife is concealed or not. |
| New Jersey | Restricted or banned | Concealment is not the issue under state law. |
| Delaware | Legal | Only an ordinary pocketknife may be carried concealed, which Delaware defines as a folding knife with a blade of three and three quarter inches or less. Anything else needs a concealed carry license. |
| Maryland | Legal with conditions | Only a manual folding knife may be carried concealed. Anything that is a switchblade or spring-activated may not be, at any length. |
| West Virginia | Legal with conditions | Age is the line, not length, for adults. Under 21 you may not carry a concealed deadly weapon, and three and a half inches is the figure that applies to a dagger, dirk, poniard, stiletto or pocketknife. At 21 and over there is no concealment limit beyond place rules. |
| Ohio | Legal | No blade length stated in the statute. |
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 Pennsylvania knife laws
What size knife is legal to carry in Pennsylvania?
Concealment is not a factor. The offense turns on criminal intent.
Are switchblades legal in Pennsylvania?
Restrictions removed as of 2 January 2023.
Which knives are banned outright in Pennsylvania?
None statewide. All knives are barred on K-12 school grounds.
Does Pennsylvania have knife preemption?
No. Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania?
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. Pennsylvania knife law checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.