I’m really intrigued by the Switch, a multitool that you can add or remove components from yourself.
The circular hole/pivot point reminds me of my own pocket knife, the Gerber Remix, which I carry with me constantly.
The Remix is a skeletonized…well, remix of the older Gerber Chameleon, of which I owned two before I got this one.
When you use this knife, you slip your index finger through the hole that the blade opens around. This has two benefits: 1) it’s nearly impossible for your hand to slip off the knife handle and onto the blade, sparing you the possibility of stitches and a hospital trip, and 2) allowing you to hold the knife and your hand in a far more natural position while cutting. (If you’re the paranoid urban prowler type like me, it has a third benefit: if you have to pull it in a fight, it’s basically also impossible for anyone to take it away from you.)
It seems like such an obvious, valuable design…and yet I’ve never seen another knife that uses the open pivot point this way. It looks as though the Switch might, but I can’t really tell from those concept pictures. (It looks as though the body of the tool might be too wide to comfortably put your finger through.)
Imagine how much safer all knives would be if they had this simple feature! I mean, it would work for fixed-blade knives and even for kitchen and utility knives.
This, to me, is what clever design is all about.