It is illegal for someone under the age of 18 to be sold a knife or other bladed article such as a multi-tool. That also means that the law has been tightened up to cover online purchases which were otherwise a relatively easy way for someone under 18 to get around the law.
We have a number of procedures to make sure we comply with the law and to ensure that knives designed for hunting or fishing don’t end up being used for other purposes.
Thus, there are different delivery rules that apply when you purchase an article that you need to be over 18 to own:
- Before we can despatch your order, we will ask you to send through a copy of your passport or driving licence photocard which has your date of birth on it as proof that you are over 18. If no satisfactory ID is available then we will refund and cancel the knife part of your purchase.
- Under the law, we are unable to deliver knives to a residential address. We will check that your delivery address is a business address (which could be your local post office or delivery office who can hold the package for you to collect). This is to prevent someone else within a household, who might be under 18, signing for and taking delivery of your package in your absence.
- Your parcel will have a note on it stating “This package contains a knife and must be signed for by the addressee only”. This is to ensure that only the person we have verified as being over 18 takes delivery of the package.
- We will only use a tracked and signed for service to deliver your package – i.e. you won’t be able to have the package left in a safeplace. This is to ensure that the parcel isn’t left by the postman in a place where a minor could get access to it.
If you are in any doubt over the procedures we use then do please contact us and we can clarify matters for you. Otherwise we hope the above is clear.