Lone Wolf Paul Defender video

mongomondo

mongomondo

SUPPRESSING FIRE
Joined
Sep 17, 2006
Messages
3,290
Just recorded some of my thoughts on this knife. Didn't see too many reviews on it here or on youtube, surprising since it won a fairly big award last year.

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Nice review. I have one. For me it's a great every day knife. Although it looks like a shank, it actually has the blade shape of a paring knife, thus it's pretty handy in the kitchen, apples, etc. That being said, with its fine point, it should go readily pierce kevlar or leather. It opens quick, you can flip it up or down for quick opening in two grips. It does take a little getting used to, but once you've got it down, I can open and close it quickly and with ease. Also works with gloves.

I've put it to some hard use and it has held up very well. As you note the fit and finish is top notch (custom quality). The Paul lock is not availble as a custom, so this is one knife type that is only available as a production product.

The flat grind is perfectly symetrical and has a slightly less than 1mm final bevel. Shaved hair out of the box and still does 1month later. All it's gotten is a single round of a few swipes on 1500 grit paper when I saw a slight flat spot.

It's thick enough to fill the hand, but slim enough to be pocket friendly. The cocobolo version is also nice, with more rounded handles and good checkering. I bought mine from a store and compared them both. I like the permance of G10, although the wood was sweet, by nature it can dent, crack, etc., thus I also chose g10.

For an american made knife with a MSRP of about $170, it's a bargain. I also find it funny that this knife has not gotten more talk on the various forums. Maybe there are a lot of secret sheeples on the forums :)
 
Thanks for your experience on the hard use. I don't plan to put mine through the ringer, but it's great to hear it could take it should I need.
 
I owned one in the Coca bola scales, very classy looking. Bought it early last year. Developed play in the blade when opening and closing a number of times. Nice enough build but the blade play bummed me out and sent it back. The blade play happened over a weekend. Also when I would flick the knife open it would have a rebound effect at times and the blade would come back towards the handle and not lock open. Hope it works out for you. I bought mine through New Graham and they took it back no problem. keepem sharp
 
Since this is a Paul axial lock, the slight blade play has no effect on the locking capability of the knife. The knife is fully locked by the internal Paul lock, the play is just the slight difference in tolerances between the various parts of the lock. It is only an annoyance not a blade locking problem. However, like you, mine developed some play within the first day or two and if you're picky like me it's not acceptable.

When mine developed this problem I googled the knife, found the patent, and gathered it could be adjusted. I tried to do it myself, but the patent was too complex and I am too stupid :) This slight bit of play was the problem with the original Paul knives made by Gerber. They changed the design and now use a blade stop pin that is eccentric. The pin is not part of the actual blade locking system, that's internal to the Paul lock, but the pin is adjusted to remove the slight bit of blade play. If over or under adjusted, you won't be able to engage the lock when closed.

I contacted Lone Wolf by e-mail and they sent me instructions. However, they said they usually fix this themselves...no charge. It's not really something they want the user to do. The eccentric stop pin is set with blue locktite and they said sometimes the locktite doesn't cure properly thus it gets loose with use. I was a little unsure on the written instructions and called them. They were very helpful and wanted me to send it in for them to fix. However, being a tinker, I wanted to do it myself, so they clarified the areas that I was unsure of and I did it myself. No more blade play for me. Been that way for 3 weeks.
 
I don't know if this is relevant, but I have the defender but I have several paul axial locks. One limited edition of them developed a condition that it would not lock open. I don't know if the issue was pocket lint or? but I sent it back to them and it was returned just a couple days after I mailed it in perfect working order.

FWIW Dave
 
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