just ain't worth it
Pretty much all of the statutes on the books around the country refer to these "dirks, bowies, brass knuckles, swithblades and other horrendous weapons of mass destruction"....just kidding here.
As an avid and long-time knife collector, I've kept abreast of such issues and my admonition is this....."IT AIN'T WORTH IT".....if a LEO finds you toting some sort of concealed blade, he's going to arrest you with pretty much absolute certainty....he's also going to confiscate your blade....then you're really gonna be pissed since you might be toting some high dollar piece and you know he's going to throw it into an evidence locker...there to languish until your court date. Then you'll have to hire a good attorney.....at (oh, let us say) $225.00 per hour and, and, and...well....you get the picture.
I hold CCW permits in two states and neither of them allow or permit the carrying of a large concealed knife...fixed or folder....operative term here is that the CCW statutes specifically speak to handguns and are silent on the issue of large knives....my Attorney General friends say that means....knives ain't allowed....at least, not larger folders and most certainly, not fixed blades.
While these statutes are intentionally vague, common interpretation and usage has pretty much resulted in the following axioms regarding the carry of blades:
1) Don't tote a concealed fixed blade knife....regardless of blade length, blade design, sheath, .....yada, yada.
2) Don't tote an "automatic" knife...though the truth of the matte is that if you dig really deep, you'll find that most states don't have an out and out prohibition against these dreaded monsters
3) If you tote a folder, keep the blade lenght below 4" or thereabouts.....I've read of many a case where some innocent smuck gets arrested whilst toting a $500 custom folder with a blade longer than 4"......arbitrary interpretation of non-existent laws by some local gendarme.
With a collection of over 200 custom and semi-custom blades, I have numerous choices for daily carry.....I choose a MelPardue/Benchmade collaboration that looks really pretty, doesn't intimidate and has a blade lenght of less than 3". Prior to the SEpt 11th mess, I transported this knife freely on flights both in and out of the country and no one ever gave it so much as a glance....except to comment that it looked "pretty".....
Just my IMHO and two cents worth