What happened to the PAUL (axial) lock?

humblerodent

humblerodent

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May 28, 2011
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I've never owned one, but it seems like a very interesting idea. I was wondering why there aren't really any knives produced these days with this lock. Benchmade/Lone Wolf stopped using it and the Ritter Mk4 is no longer available.

Can anyone who owns a knife with a PAUL lock speak to its Pros and Cons?

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I bought my dad the Ritter MK4, It's more of a right handed design.
 
From what I understand, the lock has always been very difficult to properly assemble. I don't know if benchmade simply owns the rights to the lock after that buyout or what, but since its never been huge and they already tout their axis lock, its no surprise they've stopped.
 
You and seem to be the only people wondering. I tried to find one for a while with no luck. I recently found this with the lone wolf Site still listing knives for sale. They are a good bit more expensive than the benchmade version so I haven't tried to buy one yet. Will pm you the link.
 
Awkward lock to use and assemble. It's interesting, but I don't care for it as anything more than a novelty gentleman's knife lock.
 
I had two Lone Wolf Defenders and they both developed blade play after a week.
 
It is a sturdy lock. To deploy the knife one handed can be a little awkward but gets easier with practice. The lock works well with either hand. The adjustable stop pin on some models is a bit of a pain to adjust, and I suspect may be a contributing factor to the knives no longer being made. I am sorry to see the Paul lock out of production, I always wanted one back in the 80s and 90s when Gerber was making them and finally got a Lone Wolf version a couple years ago that I have had in the EDC work knife rotation for a while, I am not sure I like it better than the AXIS or ball locks but I think it is a good and unique locking system that I like about as well.
 
A couple of Lone Wolf (not Benchmade) Paul Lock examples I've played with would disengage if you did a gentle "karate chop" to the spine. Not saying it can't be a sturdy lock, but I know of at least a couple of examples that weren't so tough. :o
 
I have a Lone Wolf Defender. Has blade play. I attempted to correct it, took quite a while to put it back together and get it adjusted back to the level of blade play it had before. Novelty lock rings true to me. And one of the scales cracked badly also. In my opinion, one of the poorest executed knives I have owned. How did it win Blade Knife of the Year in '09?
 
"Knife of the Year", as far as I can tell, means "Most Distinctive or Interesting Knife of the Year." :)
 
I have to disagree with most comments. I find it one of the best knives I have owned.
Granted you wouldn't take it for a hunting trip, but for a gentleman's carry it is sweet.
It locks up solid, no blade play, maybe a tad slower to open (Maybe).I have a lone wolf defender edc and love it.
 
I have to disagree with most comments. I find it one of the best knives I have owned.
Granted you wouldn't take it for a hunting trip, but for a gentleman's carry it is sweet.
It locks up solid, no blade play, maybe a tad slower to open (Maybe).I have a lone wolf defender edc and love it.
 
Benchmade bought the Lone Wolf line and listed the knives for only a single year. They assembled some, whether from parts on hand or new parts I don't know. The word on the Benchmade world is that the knives were very expensive to produce and were therefore discontinued.

As far as reliability of the lock goes, the lock is extremely sensitive to the adjustment of its eccentric stop pin. I'll bet that most, maybe all, of the problems result from the stop pin rotating slightly.
 
I had a lone wolf paul defender for a bit. nice knife really. it was fun and cool, i got rid of it to fund my burger lexk. no regrets there
 
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