Schotf7 Review

[Kampfer]

I been always a fan of the out the front knives, liking the cool / intimating look of them, but unfortunately federal and state laws prohibit ordinary citizen like me from purchasing and carrying an Auto OTF knife. Then I discovered Schrade’s ASSISTED opening knives, Schotf7 is the one I purchased and I would like to share my thoughts on it with you. This is my first time reviewing a knife, so I am sure I left out some important information, please feel free to ask questions if you have them.

[Kampfer]

First of all, is it legal? 
Schrade states their out the front assisted opening knives are assisted opening.  They are federally legal. After checking with my local state laws I have the same finding. However, since almost all out the front knives are autos, people will likely to mistake OTF7 as an auto as well. Will LE officers mistake it as an Auto and arrest you? All depended on when, where, how the knife was handle and who spotted it. You may won the case in court with helps from an attorney, but it would be a nightmarish process.

[Kampfer]

Operation:
OTF7 is a large, out the front, assisted opening knife with a 3.5” drop point blade made of AUS8 steel. To deploy the blade, first turn the safety off, then give the trigger a push, the blade will then ejects itself into locking position in lighting speed with a satisfying sound. To retract the blade, press the button near the front of handle to unlock the blade, then pull the trigger all the way to the back of handle, a loud click will indicate the knife is ready for action again. After a couple minutes of practice, deployment and retraction just became second nature to me, I can easily do so in one hand, in very fast speed.


There is a glass breaker built in on the butt of handle, it is intended to be use in a hammer like fashion, which I found very safe and effective .

[Kampfer]

Is it safe?
There is a safety switch locates on the left side of handle, turning it on will prevent the activation of the blade. With the safety off, it will still take a considerable amount of force to fire it, (about 2.75lbs of force, ¼” of travel), so accidental discharge is unlikely. To test it, I have the safety off and threw it downstairs, the blade remain close after the hard landing.


How much damage will it do if it did accidentally discharged?
See below test, it penetrated ¼” into the box.

[Kampfer]

Comfort of use.
The large Aluminum Handle is comfortable in hand, feels solid and without any hotspots.

Performance and reliability:
The blade came very sharp out from box, lock up is good for being an out the front knife, some side/side, up/down blade play, but zero front/back. I used it for food prep, cutting cardboard, ropes, etc it works very well. Also I stabbed it into wood as hard as I could and as fast as I could about twenty times, no ill effect on its lockup. At the time of me writing this review, I had deployed the blade at least five hundred times, it was able to eject the blade into locking position every signal time, no jam no misfire. I went to a junk yard yesterday to test the glass breaker, I smashed two car side windows without much effort. I was not wearing gloves and did not get cut.

[Kampfer]

That concludes this short review, I am not going to say you should or not should not get this knife, nor what you should use it for. Use your won judgement.

[captain spaulding]

I was very excited to see a OTF that is over 1.9" and CA legal. They always find a way around the (in my opinion) dumb knife laws.

Thank you for being the one to dive in head first to try it out for us. 

Its good to hear the deployment is not as awkward as I had assumed. The safety test has me thinking a bit. Most "true" OTF knives I have seen will stop and jump off the track if deployed into material or skin which keeps it from penetrating to far. It looks like the OTF7 might not be as safe as others I have seen. On the plus side the lock test you did shows it should not be a issue as long as you keep the lock engaged.

I would like to get one of these in the future. I doubt I would EDC it, but it would be nice to fiddle with, use around the house, and carry in a pack.

Thanks for the excellent review! 

[Kampfer]

A quick video to show how to deploy and retract the OTF7

[captain spaulding]

Any updates?

[Kampfer]

Any updates?

I been using it as hard as I can, holding up well.

[captain spaulding]

Any updates?

I been using it as hard as I can, holding up well.

Good to hear.