Lone Wolf Knives out of production?

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TacGuy

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Wondering if anyone knows whether Benchmade as discontinued the Lone Wolf brand. I know BM bought out Lone Wolf a few years ago. I haven't seen them around since.
 
Several import models have been released under the Lone Wolf line as well as a few US made. The Swale and Trask are near exact copies from the old Lone Wolf line up, are still quite easy to find and were US made.
 
Lone Wolf made some nice knives. It's to bad BM bought them out, and didn't continue to offer some of the original models...
I really like the T1 and T2 knives. They weren't a bad buy back then, but now the prices are almost absurd.
It always seemed odd to me that they bought a company that made quality knives in the 100-300 dollar range, and then attached the name to lower end imports
 
TacGuy said:
Kinda like the Stryker strongly resembles an Emerson CQC7 with an axis lock?
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It doesn't really at all, other than having a Tanto blade. It's based on an older liner lock knife that BM did in the late 90s designed by allen elishewitz.
 
Plain Edge/ Bright Orange Handle, #40022-100; is this a quality, good value buy, made in the US of A?
 
I've got the Mountainside Skinner/Caper combo and I love them. Too bad they're discontinued. I guess that's what the HUNT line is for though.
 
338375 said:
Lone Wolf made some nice knives. It's to bad BM bought them out, and didn't continue to offer some of the original models...
I really like the T1 and T2 knives. They weren't a bad buy back then, but now the prices are almost absurd.
It always seemed odd to me that they bought a company that made quality knives in the 100-300 dollar range, and then attached the name to lower end imports
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T1 and T2 Harsey designs? I was hoping these were still in production. That's why I asked. :-(
 
Benchmade discoe'd the LW line, but I'll wager they will perform LifeSharp services like sharpening and tuning. Spare parts for the original, wonderful LW original line including the Harsey designs, are hard to come by. I am blessed to own a couple of these and they're keepers as investments.
 
I read that Benchmade will not repair or adjust any LW knife with the Paul lock. Not sure about sharpening.
 
I've also read this due to the complexity of the mechanism on the Paul designs. The standard Walker locking liner models like the Blackfoot or Laredo are easier to work with.
 
Well they originally said they would honor the Lone Wolf warranty. The Paul lock sometimes needs adjustment and since they are no longer in production, Benchmade may no longer have people with the skill needed to fix this unique lock. Awhile back, I put up the original Lone Wolf's instructions on adjustment in the Maintenance sub forum.
 
I loved the Lone Wolf line and I was very disappointed to see BM buy them out just to bury them.

 
Flawless fit and finish, rounded spine, solid and centered. I am also sorry that Benchmade bought LW and took some of their most popular designs in, then cheapened them and as we now know discontinued the line. That's a sad way to end the story. Here are mine:



 
Some of the early Lone Wolf knives, e.g. the Loveless ones, were still being made by Fantoni, the original manufacturer when Lone Wolf contracted out work. Because of what Benchmade did to the Lone Wolf line, I wonder if Benchmade bought Lone Wolf for the Paul skill and tooling, but couldn't make it work in their shop. Why buy a brand and destroy it, unless they wanted some type of business propietary technique, tooling, etc.?
 
I'd like a BM rep come here and tell us why they did in Lone Wolf. Then we would know that Lone Wolf was wimping out of the market or BM just bought them out to get rid of them. I thought it would be great to have BM add to the quality of an already well made knife even if it meant the prices would go up a little. If their product wasn't good enough for them to reproduce then they should have let it fly and die on merit. It's very disappointing to see the big fish eat the little fish when not to long ago BM was the little fish. At least the warranty would be covered? Not so much.It took them about 15 minutes to post a disclaimer disavowing them from any and all warranty work. I like BM but they really are a little quirky and loaded with lawyers when the competition takes a small bite out of the pie chart. It smells like price fixing to me. MAP-MAP-MAP!!!
 
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The most disappointing thing about Benchmade buying LoneWolf was that the resulting product produced at their factory was nowhere near the same quality. And when it came to warranty repairs, they said early on that the spare parts inventory for original LW models would be scarce, and sharpening might be the only thing that they would do. There I save money by using my Edge Pro anyway. Sure I can understand a business decision like buying them out, but it does look like they had something in mind in the buyout - consider the LW factory was also in Oregon.

Until a year ago there were a couple of websites I could find that former employees ran with some good knives in stock, albeit expensive...but the last time I checked they are gone. The two above I still own are now prizes and If you guys can find originals for sale, buy them if you can, they were and still are great knives.
 
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