South Dakota Knife Laws
South Dakota state law lets you carry a knife concealed at any length unless you carry it with intent to commit a felony, and it restricts no knife type. The catch is the city: there is no preemption, and city rules barring concealed carry are common. Rapid City restricts blades over three inches, Sioux Falls bars types such as bowie knives and dirks, and Aberdeen requires a license. South Dakota repealed its switchblade ban in 1976, the first state to do it.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.
South Dakota knife law at a glance
| Concealed carry blade limit | 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. |
|---|---|
| Automatic and switchblade knives | Legal. South Dakota repealed its ban in 1976, the first state to do so. |
| Knife types banned outright | None outright. |
| Statewide preemption | No, and city rules barring concealed carry are common. Rapid City restricts blades over three inches, Sioux Falls bars types such as bowie knives and dirks, and Aberdeen requires a license. |
| The statutes | South Dakota Codified Laws 22-1-2, 22-14-8, 22-14-23, 23-7-7 and 13-32-7 — 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 South 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 South 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 |
|---|---|---|
| North Dakota | Legal with conditions | 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. |
| Minnesota | Restricted or banned | No blade length governs, and concealment is not the issue. |
| Iowa | Legal | Five inches. A dagger, razor, stiletto, switchblade or any knife with a blade over five inches is a dangerous weapon and may not be carried concealed. |
| Nebraska | Legal | Three and a half inches. Any dagger, dirk, knife or stiletto with a blade over three and a half inches may not be carried concealed. |
| Wyoming | Legal | No blade length governs, and open carry is unrestricted. The concealed deadly weapon rule carries exceptions from 21 for people without violent crime or drug convictions. |
| 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. |
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 Dakota knife laws
What size knife is legal to carry in South Dakota?
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.
Are switchblades legal in South Dakota?
Legal. South Dakota repealed its ban in 1976, the first state to do so.
Which knives are banned outright in South Dakota?
None outright.
Does South Dakota have knife preemption?
No. South 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 South 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. South Dakota knife law checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.