Whereas many knife manufacturers iterate, innovate, and launch new knives weekly or month-to-month, I want refinement and perfection, honed over years, in a choose few fashions. Consider it or not, there’s a sterling instance of such a 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 barely the model’s seventh folder in additional than a decade of creating knives below 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. Should you do get one, there are two completely different variations: one with flat handles and the opposite with totally contoured handles. I strongly advocate getting the contoured handles.
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Impeccable match and end -
Hand-filling deal with design -
Glorious versatile grind -
Easy and superior, deep-carry clip -
Cheap in comparison with related designs which are made in America
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Thumb oval would possibly require some finger yoga for novice
TRM Bulldog Knife Overview
First Impressions
You probably have bought a TRM knife earlier than, you’ll 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 nearly an element of two. It feels stable, sturdy, and stout, however it’s nonetheless fairly pocketable.
Testing Situations
I’ve carried the Bulldog solely because it arrived. It’s odd for me to be so in line with a single knife, as I’m usually switching knives so I can get extra data for opinions.
The Bulldog caught round for thus 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 reducing duties: meals prep, processing recycling, within the wooden store, and hearth 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 reducing away tangled woody stems from a rose bush that had grown right into a chain-link fence, to reducing up items of cheese and cured meats for lunch gave me the power to see what the Bulldog might do.
How It Carried out
The dimensions 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 via the vines and branches, because of a supremely sharp innovative and good reducing 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, nevertheless, lacked the heft to deal with the pruning job.
The identical may be stated of the Bulldog when breaking down containers for my city’s (overly) stringent recycling program. It by no means snagged or stopped, however it was simply in need of the elegant 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 could actually slice and cube with above-average efficiency, however it may possibly additionally deal with rather more demanding duties than you wouldn’t really feel comfy doing with an ultrathin slicer. If I had been giving it a quantity, I’d say that the Bulldog is 80% the slicer these thinner knives had been, however extra succesful in hard-use duties.
Locking Mechanism
The sliding bar lock was nicely carried out — simple to have interaction and disengage. The contouring on the handles is among the finest I’ve ever seen in any knife, ever. Total, the Bulldog fills and locks into your hand in a method 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 without doubt one of the best stamped clips I’ve ever used, permitting really 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 among the most interesting knives on the planet. Its mixture of efficiency, design, and execution is outstanding. However the beautiful factor is that TRM makes these knives right here within the U.S. for a really aggressive worth.
Should you needed a stockier TRM, that is your knife. You probably have a chore menu that features some actually powerful reducing 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.
