Whereas many knife manufacturers iterate, innovate, and launch new knives weekly or month-to-month, I favor refinement and perfection, honed over years, in a choose few fashions. Imagine it or not, there’s a sterling instance of any such knife manufacturing.
Massachsetts-based Three Rivers Manufacturing (TRM) doesn’t launch a brand new knife each week or month. As a substitute, it really works on and refines fashions over years and releases them utilizing Shigeru Miyamoto’s product launch schedule — “when they’re prepared.”
The Bulldog is simply the model’s seventh folder in additional than a decade of creating knives beneath its personal label (It’s been a U.S. OEM for many years), and it earns its spot in a steady of stellar blades.
In brief: It is a brawnier N2 with a sliding bar lock and a knife solely TRM might make — a tough use, sub-4-ounce folder.
Notice: The Bulldog is new for 2024. It’s also a TRM knife. These two issues mix to make it a really hard-to-get merchandise. If you happen to do get one, there are two totally different variations: one with flat handles and the opposite with totally contoured handles. I strongly suggest getting the contoured handles.
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Impeccable match and end -
Hand-filling deal with design -
Wonderful versatile grind -
Easy and superior, deep-carry clip -
Cheap in comparison with related designs which can be made in America
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Thumb oval would possibly require some finger yoga for novice
TRM Bulldog Knife Assessment
First Impressions
When you have bought a TRM knife earlier than, you can be stunned if you get the Bulldog; it is a blade with actual heft.
It’s not heavy in comparison with most knives, however at 3.6 ounces, that is bulkier than the N2 by virtually an element of two. It feels strong, sturdy, and stout, but it surely’s nonetheless fairly pocketable.
Testing Circumstances
I’ve carried the Bulldog completely because it arrived. It’s odd for me to be so per a single knife, as I’m frequently switching knives so I can get extra data for critiques.
The Bulldog caught round for therefore lengthy as a result of it was exceptionally versatile. Because it was in my pocket for fall cleanup, it received a number of use exterior. It additionally noticed its fair proportion of use doing my regular chopping duties: meals prep, processing recycling, within the wooden store, and fireplace prep.
Because the Bulldog arrived in the course of fall, I used to be exterior cleansing up our yard. For comfort’s sake, I additionally made various meals across the campfire within the yard. Switching from chopping away tangled woody stems from a rose bush that had grown right into a chain-link fence, to chopping up items of cheese and cured meats for lunch gave me the flexibility to see what the Bulldog might do.
How It Carried out
The scale limitations of the chain hyperlink fence tremendously restricted which knives I might use, and because of this, none of my fastened blades labored. The Bulldog hacked and (don’t inform anybody) pried stuff aside with ease.
It chomped by the vines and branches, due to a supremely sharp innovative and good chopping geometry. It additionally sliced up the sopressata and cheese cleanly, although there was a noticeable dip in efficiency in comparison with different knives with thinner blade inventory, just like the TRM N2 and the Kershaw Bel Air.
Each of these knives, nonetheless, lacked the heft to deal with the pruning job.
The identical may be mentioned of the Bulldog when breaking down packing containers for my city’s (overly) stringent recycling program. It by no means snagged or stopped, but it surely was simply wanting the chic slicing motion that you just get from thinner blades. When pressed into thicker cardboard, just like the corners of an equipment field, it crushed the duty.
Therein lies the Bulldog’s efficiency area of interest: It will possibly slice and cube with above-average efficiency, however it will probably additionally sort out far more demanding duties than you wouldn’t really feel comfy doing with an ultrathin slicer. If I have been giving it a quantity, I’d say that the Bulldog is 80% the slicer these thinner knives have been, however extra succesful in hard-use duties.
Locking Mechanism
The sliding bar lock was properly carried out — simple to have interaction and disengage. The contouring on the handles is a number of the finest I’ve ever seen in any knife, ever. Total, the Bulldog fills and locks into your hand in a manner that I’ve not skilled in a really very long time.
Solely the contoured Natives or the Spyderco Shaman have the identical hand-filling really feel. And the clip right here is among the best stamped clips I’ve ever used, permitting actually deep carry with simple retrieval.
The Bulldog’s thumb oval is sort of good, however most likely too cramped for a “Spydie Flick” (that’s, opening the knife with one’s center finger, which may be quicker than utilizing a thumb to open the knife). Nonetheless, the knife pops open with a thumb properly.
Conclusions
TRM builds a number of the most interesting knives on the planet. Its mixture of efficiency, design, and execution is exceptional. However the gorgeous factor is that TRM makes these knives right here within the U.S. for a really aggressive worth.
If you happen to needed a stockier TRM, that is your knife. When you have a chore menu that features some actually powerful chopping duties however doesn’t fairly justify a hard and fast blade, that is your knife. As a “jack of all trades” folder, you gained’t discover higher.
