[url]www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/calawquery?codesection=pen&codebody=knife&hits=20[/url]

The code sections are above.  The only 4" rule is for knives carried into government buildings, or government meetings (i.e., city counsel).

Due to the law's misapplication of "dirk or dagger", you cannot carry concealed any fixed-blade knife, regardless of size.  (A dirk is a knife with 50% or less of the [b]2nd[/b] side of the knife sharpened, while a dagger is a knife with more than 50% of the 2nd side sharpened.  Except under Kalifornia law which says it means any fixed-blade knife that can hurt someone.)

You can carry a fixed-blade as long as it isn't concealed.  By law, a knife carried on your belt ("suspended from the waist") is NOT concealed, regardless of whether it is visible or not.

You can carry concealed any otherwise legal single-edge fixed-blade, regardless of length, as long as it is folded when concealed.

You cannot legally possess any knife that isn't obviously a knife.  This includes even junky "novelty" knifes such as lipstick knives, coin knives, pen knives, etc.  You can't have any knife or sword that is concealed in a stick or cane (i.e., martial arts-type stuff).  You can't have a ballistic knife (one that shoots the blade, usually spring-loaded).

You can legally possess switchblades/gravity knives, but you can't sell/loan/give/carry/think bad thoughts about any switchblade with a blade over 2".

Blade length is measured along the sharpened portion of the blade.  Any unsharpened "heel" at the base of the blade does not count in the measurement.

-Troy

Are you kidding?  The PRK knows it can't ban knives entirely, so they are slowly (or not so slowly) adding more and more restrictions.  They don't want you carrying a knife (or any other object that could in any way be used as a weapon, regardless of it's purpose), and are making incremental progress at that goal.

It's the same with guns.  They'd like to ban and confiscate them all, but that would be "throwing the frog in boiling water."  They prefer to put the frog in the water first, then heat slowly.

-Troy

Worn on the waist, it is not legally concealed, no matter if it's visisble or not.  Again, you couldn't carry it, say, as a neck knife under your shirt, or strapped to your arm or leg under clothing, where it would be concealed.

-Troy