It’s been a while since we’ve had a real ‘first’ in the knife world – and by ‘a while,’ we mean precisely a year ago today, when the KnivesShipFree Experimental Edged Object Development, Testing, Refinement, and Manufacture Division (KSFEEODTRMD for short) released the Deepest Carry Clip, which allowed pocket knives to fit snugly 8 inches below the unseemly seams of our jeans. But this crew of hyper-dedicated knife scientists and engineers may have outdone themselves this year with the LiveFire, the world’s very first Out the Back automatic (OTB).
As is often the case, the road to success was littered with failed experiments. “Our first prototype was an OTS, or out-the-side automatic,” KFEEODTRMD Head Researcher, and self-described full-time visionary, J Rouch discloses. “But that necessitated left- and right-handed models, and in our testing we punctured too many pairs of jeans.” Next up, there was the brilliant but ill-fated OTT, the Out the Top auto, which deployed the blade directly up from the flat of the handle. “Seeing this one in action was something I’ll never forget,” Rouch recalls. “But the blade had to be very small to fit into a standard-thickness knife handle…we were so close to a breakthrough – we just hadn’t looked low enough yet.”
Thus, the LiveFire was born. Functionally, it works just like any other double action auto: slide the toggle, and out comes the blade. But instead of going forward, aggressively into the world, the LiveFire blade calmly rockets out the back, away from any standers-by. “The effect it has on non-knife people is outstanding,” Rouch tells us. “There is nothing more calming to the average person than seeing a sharp object moving away from them.”
But Rouch and his crack team didn’t stop with one major innovation. “Everyone knows that AI is changing the way we do everything,” he says. “How we use our computers, how we use our phones – so why not how we use our knives?” KSFEEODTRMD software engineers developed ChatOTB, an onboard AI assistant which constantly monitors the user’s biometrics, sleep patterns, prevailing trade winds, the current phase of the Chinook Salmon breeding season, and several other key pieces of data to deploy the LiveFire blade at precisely the right moment, every time. “No more wondering, ‘Should I take out my knife?’” Rouch promises. “Thanks to ChatOTB, the LiveFire knows when it’s needed before you do.”
And last but not least, the LiveFire will be one of the very first products in any category to arrive with Bluetooth 6.0 functionality. “Frankly, we have only begun exploring the potential of this wireless communication in the knife space,” Rouch admits. In combination with ChatOTB, the LiveFire automatically connects and interfaces with wireless devices all around it. Toasters shoot toast out upside down, smart refrigerator doors swing inwards instead of out, and Netflix movies in the vicinity run backwards all the way through. “You haven’t lived until you’ve watched On Golden Pond in reverse, with your trusty self-deploying LiveFire by your side,” says Rouch.
KnivesShipFree is celebrating their latest creation with a “Backwards Launch Party,” where early adopters hand their LiveFires back to the KSF crew, who then repackage the knives, box them up, load them on to a truck, and drive them back to the warehouse, where they are disassembled into their component parts and returned to the underground KSFEEODTRMD research facility.
Knife in Featured Image: KnivesShipFree LiveFire
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