UK postal laws for blades are changing

[croft farm]

I recently ordered a replacement Paring knife from amazon and had to produce ID to the driver! this note was on the items descriptive page!

Age Verification Required: This product is not for sale to people under the age of 18 and will require an online age verification check. To confirm the recipient is over 18, valid photographic ID with a date of birth may also be required upon delivery. The driver will input your year of birth into their device and may then require an ID check to complete the age verification process. The driver will not be able to access your information once the delivery is complete.

[Mechanic]

Originally Posted by Siwi

Not offended by someone asking for a source at all. In this case, the source is Royal Mail's own website - if you look under terms and prohibited items it explains the current rules and what will be changing on 22nd April, including explicitly that you can no longer use their age verification to do so. Prohibited goods - items you can't send through the post Several other sources are also reporting this story. It's not been confirmed yet by other couriers but given the way the law is worded it is highly likely they will also follow this practice - not least because it was using Amazon that one child managed to get a knife sent to them. There may be some way that other couriers use age verification to continue sending legal blades, but we don't know that yet.

Thank you Siwi for your reply. I looked at the page you provided and several links within it. I have to admit I felt a bit confused as I opened more and more links which all seemed to go back to the same pages, very circular. I suspect some the actual language that I was searching for is within 'The Offensive Weapons Act of 2019', but I had trouble trying to navigate that ordinance(?).

I finally almost stumbled upon this because I skipped the very *first* (duh.) link for businesses, 'https://business.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/867', which pretty much states everything you are saying, and no where does it say it has to made out of metal to be a "blade", so there's your carboard knife too. It still seems implausible, but there you go.

It'll be interesting to see what happens come around April 22nd, at least for an outsider.

Thanks Siwi (and Vermin_King) for your patience with me,
Dave

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[romanmodels]

I have ordered one box of 100 #11 scalpel blades and 5 boxes of the 11p which I prefer as they have finer tips. from scalpel and blades. should keep me going for some time.

[Siwi]

Be aware if you're bulk ordering replacement blades that not all blade shapes fit all handles, at least in the case of Swann-Morton.

With a bit of careful use, using scissors for some cuts and resharpening an old blade to use for things like cutting thick board that will blunt it, I can eke out the life to only use about ten blades a year.

[dhanners]

After cogitating on this a bit, I’m prompted to wonder, “So what? This is our biggest problem?? We should count our blessings.”

While I’m loathe to make Jeff Bezos even richer, I’ll order blades through Amazon, bypassing Royal Mail.

The law doesn’t seem unreasonable in the grand scheme of things. We’re not losing any rights. I dare say no model will go unbuilt because His Majesty’s mail carriers are encumbered from delivering hobby blades. We’re a resourceful lot and we’ll figure out how to deal with it. It is, at worst, a minor inconvenience.

There are parts of the world dealing with real problems. Democracy and freedom are under assault in many corners of the globe. There are actual threats to our livelihoods. This isn’t one of them.

No sooner did I post this than a Royal Mail truck drove up with a delivery from Boots. I asked the carrier about the hobby blade prohibition. He said he hadn’t heard anything about it and that I should ask HQ. Said I would.

[Siwi]

Originally Posted by dhanners

After cogitating on this a bit, I’m prompted to wonder, “So what? This is our biggest problem?? We should count our blessings.”

While I’m loathe to make Jeff Bezos even richer, I’ll order blades through Amazon, bypassing Royal Mail.

The law doesn’t seem unreasonable in the grand scheme of things. We’re not losing any rights. I dare say no model will go unbuilt because His Majesty’s mail carriers are encumbered from delivering hobby blades. We’re a resourceful lot and we’ll figure out how to deal with it. It is, at worst, a minor inconvenience.

There are parts of the world dealing with real problems. Democracy and freedom are under assault in many corners of the globe. There are actual threats to our livelihoods. This isn’t one of them.

No sooner did I post this than a Royal Mail truck drove up with a delivery from Boots. I asked the carrier about the hobby blade prohibition. He said he hadn’t heard anything about it and that I should ask HQ. Said I would.

Oh, certainly. The planet is burning, a handful of billionaires control everything, Ukraine and Gaza are still getting mashed, we are on our fourth unelected prime minister and the country is economically ruined.



However, it's still worth sharing things so that at least people can be informed and prepared. And it's worth calling out stupid decisions.

[romanmodels]

at the end of last year, i had trouble getting the double-sided razor blades from Amazon as I am at work during the week so there was no one home to sign for them and they would not level with a naboure. had to reorder from someone else.