Advice on traveling internationally with kitchen knives ...

[sj9603]

... in checked luggage, of course.

Does anyone have any experience? What kind of trouble will I be looking at? What are the chances of losing them? I'm debating with myself as to whether to take them with me. Many thanks in advance.

 

[Eamon Burke]

I'd leave the shigefusa at home. I travel with a CCK cleaver.

 

[welshstar]

Just make sure you have insurance

The TSA will confiscate things that look dangerous without any warning or notification.

 

[ecchef]

I flew to Asia twice with them; Continental & United. Packed them in my baggage with all the other stuff. TSA inspected it (left a nice little card) with no issues, and they cleared customs just fine. Maybe I was lucky.
Welshstar is right; insure the hell out of them. I would also take a complete inventory with pictures as well. Can't be too cautious these days.

 

[Noodle Soup]

Mostly I've brought kitchen knives home from strange places but I've never had a problem with security as long as they were in my checked luggage. Once in a while you hear about a country that won't even let you do that (England, Russia) but I would take it with a grain of salt until I've have personal experience there.

 

[mr drinky]

I suggest leaving a note to TSA and labeling the packaging too. All it takes is one clueless inspector and things can go awry. I used to travel with a somewhat suspicious looking object and I would leave a note in it as to what it was. It was never confiscated. After a while I thought it didn't matter so I stopped doing it, and the one time I didn't leave a note, TSA took it and I have never seen it again.

k.

 

[karloevaristo]

Never had a problem... the only time they asked me to open my bag was when I brought my kershaw leek with me... This was when I arrived in Singapore, and they just checked if it was an automatic switch blade (which is illegal in most places)... and that's it... they didn't even ask about the 240mm that I had in the exact same bag... kinda weird but yeah... no problem whatsoever... but I agree with mr drinky... would be a good idea to label it, just to be safe...

 

[slowtyper]

How do you buy insurance? I'm buying knives in Japan and bringing to Hk then back home.

 

[karloevaristo]

I think you insure your whole luggage... and I think that could be arranged with the airline itself...

 

[ecchef]

How do you buy insurance? I'm buying knives in Japan and bringing to Hk then back home.

Leaving Japan shouldn't be complicated; it's when you hit th eStates that things could go south.

Jon probably has some good advice here...Jon?

 

[Timthebeaver]

I have brought large kitchen knives from Japan to the UK, UK to US and US to UK with no problems. Leaving a note in the case sounds like good advice.

 

[jmforge]

I have taken knives to Belgium 3 times for the knife show. I have never been checked over there. After Ken Onion's experience with having tens of thousands of dollars worth of knives stolen by baggage handlers flying from Hawaii to a show on the mainland, a lot of us have started "declaring" knives like you would firearms and hand carrying them over to the special TSA inspection station. I have done that all three times that I went to Belgium and when I flew to Blade instead of driving in 2009. Be warned that any CITES regulated material can be confiscated when you come back into the US even if you obtained it legally here. If you have anything like that, make sure you get the paperwork before you go. Rodrigo Sfreddo had the pry a pair of fossil walrus scales off a a knife at the Atlanta airport a couple of years back even though he had legally bought them in the US the previous year.

 

[ecchef]

Rodrigo Sfreddo had the pry a pair of fossil walrus scales off a a knife at the Atlanta airport a couple of years back even though he had legally bought them in the US the previous year.

Go Team! :slaphead: