No kidding. I thought some of the reports I'd heard were maybe stretching things a bit... But no... I looked up some UK government sites for their knife laws... And they're just nuts. Perhaps worst of all, -any- lock back knife is illegal. That's just stupid, and unsafe. A folding knife is legal as long as it is less than 3" and has no lock. So... About the only legal pocket knives are a few of the smaller Swiss Army models. Your basic Buck 110 folder is illegal as it is an "offensive weapon". Ludicrous.
Under these rules even a Leatherman Wave multi tool is an offensive weapon, only because the blades lock open-- without which most folders are decidedly less safe.
Australia has some goofy rules too. An Aussie colleague of mine nearly jumped out of his skin one day when I -snicked- my assisted opener CRKT one day...just to open a box or something. He couldn't wrap his head around the idea that such a thing was perfectly legal. Well... Legal in my home state anyway. I'm not sure about California, where we were at the time. :-)
As we've seen with the Second Amendment, laws, and even the Bill of Rights can be conveniently ignored at the whim of statist officials it they interfere with grander plans. At the start of her mis-administration, Jennifer Granholm decreed all assisted-opening knives to be switchblades. Her democRAT attorney general warned her that federal switchblade laws were quite explicit, and left her no wiggle room to call assisted openers "switchblades", because they followed all the federal standards rigorously. Even she backed down, although in today's world she'd probably get away with it, and get tons of praise for her "courage".
I've compared $400 switchblades to $100 assisted-openers, and IMHO the $100 AO beats the $400 switchblade at every step, especially durability and safety of lock-up. I've seen some high-end switchblades from reputable makers that can hold their own against AOs from the same maker, but at hundreds of dollars higher costs and legal hassles.
Japan and England have plenty of sword laws, too, I learned from watching the British original "Antiques Road Show". Great-grandpa's enlisted man's cavalry saber needs to be registered with the local constabulary when you find it, so it can be legally transferred. If it's not blunted, a special permit is needed from the Ministry of Really Sharp Things.