The Drop: Glow Rhino Fermi Tritium Knife

It's a big EDC market out there, and tons of awesome gear is released all the time. We made The Drop to help you discover the latest and greatest essentials worth a spot in your EDC.

Enrico Fermi was a physicist who made the world's first nuclear reactor in Chicago. Glow Rhino designed the Fermi folding knife to be a homage to that historical figure with its unique tritium glow-in-the-dark elements that elevate this pocketknife beyond the typical EDC folder. If you're unfamiliar with tritium, it is a rare and radioactive isotope of hydrogen. Because it glows in the dark, tritium gets used on watches, key fobs, and sensitive equipment indicators that need low-light legibility. And unlike radium, tritium is generally considered safe at the trace amounts used in industry and EDC gear. The Fermi is one of the first times it appears on a folding pocket knife.

The Glow Rhino Fermi features a 3” drop point D2 steel folding blade secured with a liner lock. D2 tool steel offers exceptional hardness, but it is susceptible to rusting. With its black PVD finish on the blade, the Glow Rhino Fermi gets ahead of that problem by providing it enhanced resistance against corrosion. The all-black look of the Fermi knife continues with the grippy G-10 handle scales on its handle.

While the Fermi features a blacked-out appearance, its styling is more minimalist than tactical. What truly sets it apart from other knives is the use of tritium in the handle scales and the thumb studs. Both sides of the G-10 handles have cutouts with a tritium inlay, and the colored thumb stud also features a tritium insert finial. That colored thumb stud is one of the few non-black elements of the blade, aside from the tritium inserts, the exposed steel edge of the blade, and the logo on the knife. You can pick between five colors for that thumbstud, including black if you only want tritium to be the contrasting color element of the knife.

What we like: The tritium elements of the Fermi look stunning in the dark, and it also makes the knife easy to find in low-light situations. And while Glow Rhino specializes in making EDC gear with tritium, they partnered with EDC knifemaker Bestech to make the Fermi, bringing their know-how and pedigree to the table in producing a quality blade for everyday carry.

What to watch out for: If you want to avoid your EDC gear having glow-in-the-dark elements, the Glow Rhino is probably not for you. If you need an exceptionally dark bedroom for a proper night's sleep, the tritium glow may become annoying enough to be disruptive.

Final verdict: The tritium elements of the Glow Rhino Fermi knife offer the everyday carry enthusiast a unique way to add glowing color to an EDC. It will match well with any other EDC gear featuring tritium, especially if you CCW.

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