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AKTI's Role:

As a nonprofit association, AKTI’s role is to be the reasonable and responsible advocate for the knife-making and knife-using community, providing the focal point for sensible evolution, development, and the consistent enforcement of knife legislation. Knives are important tools first.

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AKTI Supports Knives for Landscaping and YardworkAKTI Supports Knives for Architects and DraftingAKTI Supports Knives for Hunting

Save Our Knives!

Do You Use a Knife?

Most Americans use knives as tools in our everyday lives. We use them to cut food; cut cords and ropes; help us with our work; make hunting, fishing and other forms of recreation safer; and much more. Knives are useful and often vital tools that make our lives easier and safer.

To ensure that Americans will always be able to buy, sell, own, carry and use knives and edged tools, the American Knife and Tool Institute serves to educate knife owners, lawmakers, law enforcement officers and the media about the importance of knifes in our everyday lives. AKTI is a respected and credible source of knife legislation information, legislative input, and industry information. We work to effectively change restrictive knife laws and promote reasonable and responsible laws and enforcement.

Popular Knife Resources

You’ll find our website, AKTI.org, to be a valuable resource for knife information. Here are some of our most popular pages:

  • Finding Knife Laws. A place to search for local, state and federal laws that apply to knives and knife owners.
  • AKTI Approved Knife Definitions. Ever wondered what criteria define a particular type of knife, or what makes one knife legal while another is not? This Knife Definitions PDF explains more about types of knives and legal definitions as well as some history on various types of knives like Bowie knives, switchblades and more.
  • Knife User Data. A PDF with most recent statistics on those who use knives.

You can find more knife education and legislation information throughout the AKTI.org website.

Knife Industry Connections

AKTI is pleased to work with many of the most popular knife manufacturers in the U.S. We also have industry members who have or do serve on our Board of Regents and as Advisory Members, representing companies including:

Become a Member

Learn more about how to help AKTI in its work to promote the safe and responsible use of knives in the U.S. You can also become a Grassroots Supporter and find out how you can personally help advocate for knives and tools.