About OTF Knives (Out the Front Knives)

A Bit About OTF Knives ╋

Benefits of an OTF Knife:

One-handed opening

Easy to deploy

Great for emergency situations

100 cool points when you dramatically open it

Quick History of OTF Knives

The first OTF knives were gravity knives, which meant that you had to hold the handle with the blade opening pointed down. You would then release the blade via a button or lever, and once the blade was fully extended, it locked into place until you reversed the action and the blade slid back into the handle. Some time in the early 20th century, a spring was added so that the blade could shoot out the front of the handle, against gravity. Because the blade had to be manually retracted, these knives came to be known as single action OTF knives.

Double action OTFs are pretty much the standard today. This style of switchblade allows you to both open and close the knife by either pushing or pulling a thumb lever. While the history books are never quite clear on where any knife got its start, it seems that the double action OTF was first developed in Toledo, Spain in the 1960s.