• OTF knife stands for 'Out The Front' knives.

• It is often referred to as OTF switchblade, and as such it falls into the large category of automatic knives that all come with some kind or another of firing-button on the handle, whether with a clearly defined predominant appearance or concealed. The firing-button, that one presses on in order to deploy the blade; it is always located somewhere on the handle. That’s basically how the legislator sees it and distinguishes it from the spring-assisted knife and all other folding knives.

• There two main types of OTF knives. The most popular is the Pop-Out Pop-In type, also called SA-OTF or “Single Action”; one push of a button fires the blade, a second push retracts it. The less popular is the “Double Action” DA-OTF knife. It means that one pushes a button to fire that blade but needs to pull back the blade manually in order to retract it back into its handle. The latter, the DA OTF switchblade is much more powerful and sturdy than the popular Pop-In Pop-Out which is ‘more fun’, maybe.

• Some automatic knives are designed for tactical purposes, mainly, other switchblades make excellent hunting and all-purpose knives that help a lot hand-handicapped persons. On the other hand, it can be easily said that all OTF knives are weapons.

• The purpose of any OTF automatic knife is combat, fight, call-it any name you want. It is not of big use in slicing and dicing. It is not a pocket-knife, and it was not built to cure nails. It is very common for the blade of an OTF knife to wobble as it is affixed to a moving rail. Some manufacturers: S&W, Sharde and maybe others, are adding a special lock that holds the blade, more or less fixed, when deployed.

• The tactical advantage of an OTF switchblade resides in its ability to penetrate a mass by the sheer power of its deployment spring. It is especially true with the DA type that has an additional firing force due to its manual armament.

• Any knife can be dangerous to handle; the OTF automatic knife is the most dangerous of-all.  Most do not have a safety lock, whatsoever. OTF knives are very easy to fire, and they do not look like knives at all, when folded. A child, even a toddler will, and quite rapidly, find the way to fire it open. One should never leave an OTF knife lying around anywhere at anytime; it should be in your pocket, on your belt or locked up, same as any other weapon.

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