South Carolina Knife Laws
South Carolina sets no blade length and does not treat concealment as the issue unless the knife is used with intent to commit a crime. No knife type is restricted. Preemption comes from the state constitution, so the rule is the same across the state. Carrying a knife during another offense adds to the punishment, which is the provision worth knowing about.
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.
South Carolina knife law at a glance
| Concealed carry blade limit | No blade length governs. Concealed carry is not an issue unless the knife is used with intent to commit a crime or to further one. |
|---|---|
| Automatic and switchblade knives | Legal. No restriction has ever been enacted. |
| Knife types banned outright | None outright. |
| Statewide preemption | Yes, through Article 8 Section 14 of the state constitution. |
| The statutes | South Carolina Code 16-23-405, 16-23-430, 16-23-460 and 16-23-490 — read them |
Source last revised 21 May 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 South Carolina 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 South Carolina 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia | Legal | Concealment is not the issue. Twelve inches is the number: at or under that you carry freely, and over it the knife counts as a weapon needing a Georgia license or a recognized out-of-state one. The limit was five inches until 2018. |
| North Carolina | Legal | No blade length is defined. An ordinary pocket knife carried closed is excepted, and the statute does not say what ordinary means. |
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 South Carolina knife laws
What size knife is legal to carry in South Carolina?
No blade length governs. Concealed carry is not an issue unless the knife is used with intent to commit a crime or to further one.
Are switchblades legal in South Carolina?
Legal. No restriction has ever been enacted.
Which knives are banned outright in South Carolina?
None outright.
Does South Carolina have knife preemption?
Yes. South Carolina has statewide preemption, which means a city cannot write its own stricter knife ordinance. One rule covers the whole state, and that is most of what preemption is worth.
Can I keep a knife in my car in South Carolina?
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. South Carolina knife law checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.