new lone wolf models and updated website

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richw

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After like 3 months of just the Benchmade announcement, Lone Wolf updated their website (totally new look) and put up new models.

www.lonewolfknives.com

After looking at it a bit more, looks like they just repackaged the blackfoot/longhorn designs and made them more outdoors. I notice the MSRP came down a lot, and I wonder what that means for the materials. They did add a few new fixed knives and an inexpensive lockback. Overally it looks like they took this from a more premium production blade company to a more middle tier company.
 
interestingly, looks like some of the "discontinued" models have been sent over to various benchmade subsidiaries...

the cheyenne went to H&K and had a blade steel change, also the coated blade cheyenne was in g10, and the satin was frn, here its coated and frn:
http://www.benchmade.com/products/14950

some of the double action lone wolves are also H&K:
http://www.benchmade.com/products/14925-14975

combined with the paul lines and the harsey lines going over to benchmade, it basically looks like the LW brand is a shell of itself....
 
richw said:
After like 3 months of just the Benchmade announcement, Lone Wolf updated their website (totally new look) and put up new models.

www.lonewolfknives.com

After looking at it a bit more, looks like they just repackaged the blackfoot/longhorn designs and made them more outdoors. I notice the MSRP came down a lot, and I wonder what that means for the materials. They did add a few new fixed knives and an inexpensive lockback. Overally it looks like they took this from a more premium production blade company to a more middle tier company.
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I think the reason the MSRP dropped so much on the blackfoot and longhorn is because they are manual knives now instead of D/A.
 
GarrettWeidman said:
I think the reason the MSRP dropped so much on the blackfoot and longhorn is because they are manual knives now instead of D/A.
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they were always manual.

there a D/A versions, i forget which is which cause I can't legally own one. I know one was named warrior. I think double duty and talon were other ones. I didn't really pay much attention to them.
 
Interesting. Nice to see that they're retaining some of the Lone Wolf designs other than the Paul folders. I do wonder whether, with a $90-100 MSRP (roughly the same as the Griptilian's MSRP), they'll be keeping the S30V blades on the successors to the Blackfoot and Longhorn (the Swale and Trask, respectively).
 
I dropped by the Benchmade booth at the SHOT Show today. I visited Benchmade specifically to take a look at what became of Lone Wolf. It appears that Lone Wolf knives are indeed a shadow of their former selves. The blade I saw was stamped "China" and the salesman I spoke to didn't know for sure which alloy was used in its manufacture. But he thought it might be 8CR13.

Update: I pulled out the Lone Wolf literature I picked up at the Benchmade booth and it appears that I must have picked up the Ridge Top. The Swale and the Trask are made in the U.S. But nowhere in the literature does it disclose the alloy used in those knives.

.
 
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The whole thing is a bummer, at least to me.

I bought a Paul Defender some months ago and made buffalo horn scales for it. Came out really well.

What they're offering now doesn't appeal to me one bit.

What a shame.
 
The interesting thing is, Lone Wolf bought back all the Defenders they had on the market around the time they inked their deal with Benchmade . . . or so I was told by a sales rep at Bonds House of Cutlery in Las Vegas yesterday. And Benchmade said they would not be collaborating with Paul Poehlmann. It's really sad when you stop and consider that the Paul Defender won Blade Magazine's 2009 award for Overall Knife of the Year. :(
 
bld522 said:
The interesting thing is, Lone Wolf bought back all the Defenders they had on the market around the time they inked their deal with Benchmade . . . or so I was told by a sales rep at Bonds House of Cutlery in Las Vegas yesterday. And Benchmade said they would not be collaborating with Paul Poehlmann. It's really sad when you stop and consider that the Paul Defender won Blade Magazine's 2009 award for Overall Knife of the Year. :(
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No kidding. Some of my non-knife knut friends when seeing my Paul Defender with the horn scales were super impressed by the knife. One said it was a knife to keep for a lifetime. They all were impressed by the way the Paul lock worked. Quality stuff. FWIW, that buyback apparently didn't get the ones on Amazon...

And if they want to buy it back from me, it's not available.
 
I'm not sure what the consideration was that Lone Wolf had to give to get their Defenders back. But from what Bonds told me, there was a bit of negotiation involved in the buyback. My guess is that Lone Wolf was successful in retrieving some of their Defenders, but not all of them. And, of course, it begs the question of what Lone Wolf intends to do with them.

.
 
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bld522 said:
I'm not sure what the consideration was that Lone Wolf had to give to get their Defenders back. But from what Bonds told me, there was a bit of negotiation involved in the buyback. My guess is that Lone Wolf was successful in retrieving some of their Defenders, but not all of them. And, of course, it begs the question of what Lone Wolf intends to do with them.

.
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The Defender is a knife that can be customized quite easily, and look great. They were charging a pretty penny for some of the higher end versions of the knife. And the feel of the blade locking open and closed exudes quality.

I'm glad I got mine when I did.
 
neuron said:
Interesting. Nice to see that they're retaining some of the Lone Wolf designs other than the Paul folders. I do wonder whether, with a $90-100 MSRP (roughly the same as the Griptilian's MSRP), they'll be keeping the S30V blades on the successors to the Blackfoot and Longhorn (the Swale and Trask, respectively).
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On the new version of the Cheyenne I listed, it is n680 instead of s30v. I sent an email to lonewolf customer service asking who was making the new lw knives, either the old lw people or benchmade.

I have heard people complain about lw qc, but honestly, i think their qc is better than benchmade. I will say lw knives are a lot sharper than bm knives and while I am no expert, I am betting that lw does the ht on s30v better than benchmade.

BM is my second favorite brand, but they are just gutting the lw brand and sticking some of their red line models into LW. the idea behind LW was semi custom knives, and their different runs of handle materials was an example of that. A nak-lok chinese made knife branded LW reminds me of what GM did with cadillac when it rebranded the small cheverolets...I may actually have to boycott the brand.
 
Personally, I think BM just needs to get over themselves. I used to love Benchmade, but I think their stuff for the last few years has been over-priced and uninspired. Their designs are boring (except for the Bedlam), and the last innovation they tried was the BILT system (which sucked) on their fixed blades. I feel their over-all quality has slipped, also. The fit and finish on the few I've handled as of late haven't been nearly as impressive as my old, blue Osborne 940 (which I gave to my nephew when he went off to college). Certainly not $150-and-up impressive.:(
 
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richw said:
On the new version of the Cheyenne I listed, it is n680 instead of s30v. I sent an email to lonewolf customer service asking who was making the new lw knives, either the old lw people or benchmade.
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Good observation -- seems likely that that's what they'll be using on the new versions of the Blackfoot and Longhorn, too.

As for who'll be making them, I remember a member here posting about his visit to/tour of Benchmade shortly after the deal to acquire Lone Wolf. He said that there was a new area in the Benchmade factory that was under construction at the time of his visit and would be used to produce the Lone Wolf knives. If that's correct, it sounds like Lone Wolf won't be retaining their own separate manufacturing facilities. I'd also be curious to know whether it'll be the former Lone Wolf employees continuing to make the knives at the Benchmade facility.
 
The website only opens to a home page for me. I can't open it to see their catalog. Anyone else having the same problem?
 
mep said:
The website only opens to a home page for me. I can't open it to see their catalog. Anyone else having the same problem?
Click to expand...

jay2pointoh said:
Same here just the home page. Btw im on an htc evo 4g. Maybe the problem?
Click to expand...

The Lone Wolf catalog has been merged into Benchmade's online catalog. If you click on the "Learn More" link below the picture of a given knife on the Lone Wolf homepage, it'll take you to that knife's page on the Benchmade site.
 
Lone Wolf's "catalog" (if you can call it that) has been reduced to an 8-1/2" by 11" three-fold brochure. The product line consists of three EDC-sized fixed blades (Skinner, Drop Point and Caper) and five folders (Swale, Trask, Ridge Top, Tailout and Mini-Tailout). My feeling is that the line lacks enthusiasm and commitment on Benchmade's part. In fact, I can't help but wonder why Benchmade decided to buy Lone Wolf in the first place. Perhaps what they were really after was Lone Wolf's scale-release auto mechanism.

.
 
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