The Vosteed Thunderbird appears to be designed with a deep love and understanding of what it takes to make an important knife for the EDC market. It’s giant however slim and light-weight. It’s fidgety however useful. It’s aggressively styled however refined. And, it has all of the little touches that the knifyest knife guys will geek out about.
Briefly, the Thunderbird is Vosteed’s love letter to EDC knife aficionados.
Specs
The Thunderbird is obtainable in MANY completely different sizes and variations. Briefly, I’ve the three.48″ blade model with Topo handles and S35VN metal. You possibly can study extra in regards to the specs of this evaluation pattern (supplied by Vosteed) and different variants at Vosteed.com.
Observations from Use
The Thunderbird is one among Vosteed’s extra premium choices and it reveals. The impression is one among refinement, sleekness, and a spotlight to element. Some knives are clean. The Thunderbird feels all however frictionless because the blade swings by way of its arc. It feels… fancy.
This knife is so slim and light-weight for its dimension that it brings to thoughts basic EDC knife designs just like the Benchmade 710 or 940 (however at a fraction of the fee). It has that very same form of large-knife-that-carries-easier-than-a-small-knife vibe. In that sense, it’s form of optimized for on a regular basis carry.
And while you’re carrying it, you possibly can relaxation assured it is possible for you to to entry it… all of the methods. It again flips, entrance flips, sluggish rolls, flicks off the fuller, wrist flicks, and extra. It does all of those opening strategies exceedingly properly thanks for loads of jimping in the best locations and a well-tuned detent on the Trek Lock.
Talking of the Trek Lock… Vosteed’s model of a plunge lock or button lock has actually come into its personal. This one is strong as a rock and has been spine-whacked when it was model new and once more after a number of weeks of use – no issues.
My favourite factor in regards to the Thunderbird is the blade. It has a wild however helpful compound grind that’s one thing like a conventional tanto meets a harpoon. The lengthy straight edge portion of the blade may be very skinny behind the sting and provides a ton of chopping energy. The stomach/tip portion is flat floor to place extra meat behind the helpful tip. A small swedge grind is added to make the tip particularly acute whereas nonetheless sturdy. This knife cuts.
The GT-Mascus deal with materials used is fascinating. It is extremely clean however nonetheless has an identical grabbiness to one thing like polished G-10 or linen micata which I like. It has an virtually cheesy really feel when your palms are barely damp which is reassuring. Vosteed makes use of this materials on a number of of their extra premium knives and now I see why. It provides grip with out shredding pockets.
One of many cooler touches that Vosteed provides to every model of the Thunderbird is slightly particular one thing within the backspacer. Some have glow-in-the-dark materials or some may be a space-agey metallic like titanium. On this model, they provide a piece of strong brass or copper. Mine has began to patina with use which may be very cool and can sometime (most likely) look spectacular on Instagram.
Most of my nitpicks on this knife come right down to me being a curmudgeon. First, if the harpoonish thumb ramp was simply chopped off the blade, it could be much more slim within the pocket. Second, the chunk of brass within the butt of the knife provides weight. A chunk of contrasting GT-Mascus and even anodized aluminum would weigh much less. However I admit that each of these adjustments would make the Thunderbird really feel rather less particular and lots much less cool.
Wrap Up
The Thunderbird is the form of knife that comes round when a knife maker intimately understands their goal market. It’s sensible, useful, simple to stay with, refined, and appears cool in an Instagram flat lay. I can see why they proceed to iterate on this design as a result of it appears to have all of it.
Vosteed is, as of the time of this writing, providing 20% off many knives for Mom’s Day.
