The next knife to roll out of the shop at Three Rivers Manufacturing (TRM) will be a retro-styled framelock flipper called the Thunderbird. Reminiscent of classic American car design, the company hopes the Thunderbird will help it race to the front of the high-end production knife pack in 2017 and beyond.
Designed by company founder Les Halpern, the Thunderbird’s distinctive geometry injects some new life into familiar tactical knife attributes like a wharncliffe blade, titanium framelock, and sculpted pocket clip. The narrowing frame is embellished with deep milled out grooves to create a look that harkens back to the tail fins found on classic 1950s American-made automobiles. Its angular blade features a massive swedge and a needle tip, making for a 3.4” blade that is truly capable of detail work.
This ambitious project didn’t come out of nowhere. Three River Manufacturing is a subsidiary and the in-house brand of Halpern Titanium, a manufacturer with an influential track record.
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