New Product: Utilitac 1A Assisted Opener

[Toooj]

All,

I'll step in on the Clip discussion. The scallops on the handle limit the screw placements for tip up carry. The scallops are necessary to provide a secure grip on the knife. The T.A.O. mechanism is extremely robust and quick. We had to tone it down because the development prototypes were too strong and knife would jump from the hand.
Joe's AO design is pure genius. Simple; It has 6 parts and only 2 move. IMHO this may be the best of all of the AO mechanisms. Give it a try. OKC Mod is correct. It is UBER Cool.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Director of Engineering
Ontario Knife Company

 

[G. Scott H.]

The T.A.O. mechanism is extremely robust and quick. We had to tone it down because the development prototypes were too strong and knife would jump from the hand.

Must have been fun seeing all those knives flying around the shop...:thumbup:

d0nut, thanks for the great pic.

 

[John_0917]

All,

I'll step in on the Clip discussion. The scallops on the handle limit the screw placements for tip up carry. The scallops are necessary to provide a secure grip on the knife. The T.A.O. mechanism is extremely robust and quick. We had to tone it down because the development prototypes were too strong and knife would jump from the hand.
Joe's AO design is pure genius. Simple; It has 6 parts and only 2 move. IMHO this may be the best of all of the AO mechanisms. Give it a try. OKC Mod is correct. It is UBER Cool.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Director of Engineering
Ontario Knife Company

Thank you for the clarification Paul...I would remove the clip on this personally as I don't like tip down carry as I said. As you said, the assist mechanism is very potent, is there any possibility that an automatic version could be looked at?

 

[Toooj]

John_0917,

We have found that the Joe Pardue TAO is as fast if not faster than our current Military Automatics.
A full Auto version could possibly be made of The Utilitac but it wouldn't have the TAO AO mechanism; and it would not be available to the large majority of users because of the NYS Switchblade laws.
Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
Director of Engineering
Ontario Knife Company

 

[jstrange]

Any chance of getting this mechanism in the JPT-3R DROP POINT?

 

[OntarioKnifeCompany]

Any chance of getting this mechanism in the JPT-3R DROP POINT?

There's nothing saying it can't happen, and we always keep these sorts of requests in mind when making future plans. There's nothing I know of in the pipeline right now though, so it would be a while.

 

[jstrange]

There's nothing saying it can't happen, and we always keep these sorts of requests in mind when making future plans. There's nothing I know of in the pipeline right now though, so it would be a while.

Thanks for the info. I like the looks of the Utilitac 1A, just prefer a larger blade.

 

[jrawk]

I have some more photos to post, but am on limited bandwidth at work right now.

The good:
This is an awesome little AO folder. It may be the closest analog to a fully automatic I own. The deployment's "point of no return" is so close to the stowed position it's doesn't take much pressure on the thumb stud at all for the mechanism to fire. In fact, this is really the only AO folder that I am thankful to have a safety lock to avoid accidental deployment. It is my ideal size. The G-10 is machined well. All hardware is black (except for back spacers, which are a nice design by the way). Good jimping. No hotspots, even with tip down clip. Ontario knives have always been the sharpest production knifes out of box I have experienced and this one is no different. Swedge is even as well as primary grind. Lockup is perfect at 50%. Nice satin finish.

The bad:
You can see in the photo that unfortunately the safety switch is a problem for left handed carry. The switch catches on my pants leg when i'm putting it away in my pocket, pushing it up which disengages the deployment safety. Then, when removing the knife from my pocket, the opposite occurs, pushing the switch down, engaging the safety. Better design would be the exact opposite.

The way it is now after I pocket the knife I have to manipulate the switch through my pants leg material to re-engage the switch.

The Ugly:
The secondary grind ends short of the sharpening choil. *shrug*


Bottom line:
My whole-hearted recommendation to Ontario would be to reverse the mechanics of the safety switch since the knife can only be tip down carry. Or figure out a way to make tip-up work.

I haven't had opportunity to put it through any rigorous testing. But I would assume the blade hold up as well as Rat 1 or the tried and true Utilitac family.