Washington Knife Laws
Washington sets no blade length in state law and decides cases on the circumstances of possession. Automatic and gravity knives are prohibited for civilians. The numbers that will actually catch you are municipal: Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver all stop at three and a half inches.
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. 2025 – SB 5534 passed the Senate to repeal the spring blade ban. Not yet law.
Washington knife law at a glance
| Concealed carry blade limit | No blade length. The offense turns on the circumstances of possession. |
|---|---|
| Automatic and switchblade knives | Prohibited, with exceptions for law enforcement, firefighters, rescue and military personnel on duty. |
| Knife types banned outright | Spring blade knives, daggers and dirks. Making or selling them is unlawful except for commercial distributors. |
| Statewide preemption | No. Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver restrict blades over three and a half inches. |
| The statutes | RCW 9.41.250, 9.41.251, 9.41.270, 9.41.280 and 9.41.300 — read them |
Source last revised 18 June 2024
Last known change 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 Washington 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 Washington 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oregon | Legal | No blade length governs the concealed carry offense itself, but a pocketknife under four inches is excepted in restricted places. |
| Idaho | Legal | No blade length governs for ordinary carry. Six inches is the number that matters in a courthouse, jail or juvenile detention facility, where a longer concealed blade is barred. Permitless carry applies from 18. |
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 Washington knife laws
What size knife is legal to carry in Washington?
No blade length. The offense turns on the circumstances of possession.
Are switchblades legal in Washington?
Prohibited, with exceptions for law enforcement, firefighters, rescue and military personnel on duty.
Which knives are banned outright in Washington?
Spring blade knives, daggers and dirks. Making or selling them is unlawful except for commercial distributors.
Does Washington have knife preemption?
No. Washington 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 Washington?
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. Washington knife law checked against the published sources on 15 September 2026, and due for review again on 15 November 2026.