It might sound insignificant, but it is essential to test every component before buying an automatic OTF knife. They may look simple, but they aren’t simple tools. A complex mechanism and other crucial factors are involved in their construction. Knife enthusiasts know the exact mechanism, but we are here to make it easy for you to understand OTF’s working process. We will introduce you to the important terms for making a successful OTF knife.

To begin with, please remember not all knives have just one blade. For example, a double-edged knife has two tapered sides, while some have one side dull and one side sharp. Let’s read about the two major parts of a knife – the blade and the handle. 

Handle

The handle plays an equal contribution to making automatic knives worth it. Without its wooden or stainless steel cover, you just can’t keep your OTF knife direct in your pocket. The handle is made to strengthen your grip and not hurt yourself.  

Then, this bolster acts as a metal junction or a meeting point for the handle and the blade. The joining point where a pivot pin is used is also known as a knife’s joint. If you see any material that has been embedded, you are looking at an inlay. Like the back of a blade, the metal piece that extends the length of the handle to fold knives is named the knife’s spine. 

Then there comes the lock responsible for keeping the blade at the exact place and doesn’t let it dislodge anytime. You can also affix your Automatic Knife Kits to your pockets or belts with the help of a pocket clip. The entire mechanism of automatic OTF knives enables spring to instill pressure to either keep a blade intact. 

Blade

Steel plays a vital part in making sharp and deadly blades. This hard and durable alloy, mixed with iron and other elements, is a significant component of the blade. If you are looking forward to buying Automatic Knife Kits , you will also be able to see blades made of carbon steel and stainless steel.

Conventional information on blades states that a blade is the flat and sharp portion of a weapon that can be used for cutting. The dull side of the single-edged knife will be called the back of the knife. The tip is named the tip, bevel, or slope. And the rest below the edge is called the choil.  The process of removing the knife’s blade can be referred to as deployment, after which you can are able to see the edge, which is called the sharpened area that is the edge of your blade. The front is the area with the sharpest edge. Then, there comes the grinds: flat, saber, and hollow. Retention refers to how long a blade can maintain its edge. 

Single Action

A single-action OTF knife is only able to extend the blade automatically. To keep th knife intact, you have to pull the blade back into the handle by pulling a lever.

Double Action

The double-action knife is also called dual action knife. This special knife’s blades get extended and retracted from an opening end of the handle. During retraction, the blade is hidden within the handle. And during extraction, the knife holds back its place. The out-the-front feature locks the knife when it is extended and it cannot be further pushed back inwards or outwards except when a retraction lever at the side of the handle or a slider switch near the front of the flat gets opened. This knife is considered dual action because it is pushed forward by the thumb to extend the blade and can be pulled backward by the thumb while retracting the blade. 

The working process of Double/Dual Action OTF knife.

The dual-action OTF knife involves a delicate and sophisticated mechanism. It is comprised of a few components, such as a blade and a handle. Mostly every knife needs basic internal structures in common which allow them to function properly. The plate is held at each end is a spring that is under tension. The force that each one exerts cancels one. The blade is a curved edge at its base. The handle’s slider is linked to a rocker switch that is linked to the plate made of metal. The tiny amount of force applied by the hands of the user is what alters the balance among the springs. As the slider is moved forward, one spring is slightly pushed out of alignment. The other spring pushes the plate forward by extending the blade and closing the notch in its base. As the slider retracts, it pops the plate out of the blade’s back, and the position of the two springs becomes reversed. The extended spring is compressed and misaligned, whereas the originally misaligned spring expands to press against the blade’s top-notch and retracts it.