"It is an offence for any person, without lawful authority or good reason, to have with him in a public place, any article which has a blade or is sharply pointed except for a folding pocket-knife which has a cutting edge to its blade not exceeding 3 inches. The burden of proving the lawful authority lies with the defendant."
A difficult one is that a public place includes your car....so that knife sitting on the back seat is just as much of a problem as it being on your hip while driving.
It is always best to make blades as inaccessable as possible in all places exacpt the area you have lawful authority (which is best proved by having some sort of documentation to prove why you need to have it) or good reason.
My blades are always at the bottom of rucksacks or in lockable boxes ( especially as I can be carrying 20 knives alone a lot of the time) in the boot of my vehicle.
There is a saying in law that ignorance of it is not an excuse, i think there should be an addition saying that your opinion of it is one neither. Lets stay safe and sensible and give bushcrafters a good name out there and if teaching, be proffessional and cover yourself, your reputation and promote sensible use to the public as I know a great many people do.
The letter of the law really implies the third option to me, though if I was a copper common sense would push me towards the second unless I really wanted to make the arrest!
