James McGowan is a professional firefighter in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Due to his passion for the outdoors, he started making "hard working knives" and joined the Canadian Knifemakers' Guild in 1998. Drawing from his extensive real-life fire and rescue experiences, he has designed the CRKT production M.A.K.-1™ and Extrik-8-R™ emergency rescue tools, based on the day-to-day needs of professional firefighters, rescue workers, EMTs, police Special Response Teams, and military operators.

The Extrik-8-R™ is a lightweight seat belt cutter and multi-tool. It has finger holes and grip grooves allowing use even with the heaviest gloves. It also has a rectangular relief which is sized to be an oxygen bottle wrench. James has added a simple blade screwdriver tip to one end, and Phillips screwdriver tip to the other end. The Extrik-8-R also has a hand-tied reflective orange paracord fob.