Hogue knives

Dergyll said:
Really? I could've sworn the concensus was they make really good quality FF knives that are sometimes better than benchmades, such as the deka and hogue ritter...I could be wrong.

Either way, I think most of their knives are pretty ugly but the quality is there. I've had 2 Dekas and both have been great quality knives with a very smooth deployment and lockup.
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They definitely have some ugly knives. They need to get bring in some new designers.
 
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The Hogue emperor scorpion, which is similar to an EX-01, was my first knife and I love it. Fit and finish on all my hogue were perfect, with a mirror edge and even grind.

However, I remember a russian youtuber who did controlled hard use of knives and the Hogue EX-03 didn't passed his tests by far.

(there are english subtitles)
 
Hogue inc bought HK knives from Benchmade. Hogue knives was started. They bought machinery and started producing USA made knives.

They’re knives are built well. They’re blades are are done well. Good heat treat. Most of their knives have their final sharpening done by hand.
 
jeepin said:
They definitely have some ugly knives. They need to get rid of Allen Elishewitz as a designer and bring in some new people.
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This is one of those eye-of-the-beholder situations. It was Elishewitz's designs that turned me on to Hogue knives to begin with. I currently have 5 Hogues, and they are all Elishewitz designs. 🤷‍♂️😄 Totally cool if you don't appreciate Allen's designs like I do, but I for one hope they keep working with him. 👍

edit: to the op's question: I had one Hogue that I sent back due to side-side play that I couldn't remedy, but the rest have been great. Discounting that one poor example, which you could run into from almost any maker, quality is very high with Hogue knives.
 
I got a Magnacut Deka the other day, and it does remind me a lot of a Bugout, albeit a little more sturdy. Too early to tell on the overall quality, but Hogue's edges are about as good as a factory edge gets.

K.O.D. said:
In 2018 or 19 I believe is when Benchmade decided to go "woke" and discontinued the Doug Ritter and HK lines as well as melted down guns for the Oregon police that were turned in under the gun buy back thing. This pissed a lot of people off, myself included. They are supposed to be an outdoors company, but the above actions as well as supporting politicians who want to limit our rights is something that I cannot support.

I digress, but that is why Ritter now works with Hogue, as well as why HK went with them. Hogue, specializing in gun grips, is not going to do what BM did.
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The guns Benchmade helped destroy were seized by the local police department, and had nothing to do with any sort of buyback. Once they no longer have evidentiary value, the PD is required destroy them. Whether Benchmade helped or not, those guns were going to get cut up. As far as the political donations go, I guess I understand the sentiment, but also can't fault a business for playing nice with their local politicians [also worth noting that Kurt Schrader, the Democratic Rep who received donations, voted against the gun control bill that was passed the other day].
 
OrangeBlueOrangeBlue said:
I got a Magnacut Deka the other day, and it does remind me a lot of a Bugout, albeit a little more sturdy. Too early to tell on the overall quality, but Hogue's edges are about as good as a factory edge gets.


The guns Benchmade helped destroy were seized by the local police department, and had nothing to do with any sort of buyback. Once they no longer have evidentiary value, the PD is required destroy them. Whether Benchmade helped or not, those guns were going to get cut up. As far as the political donations go, I guess I understand the sentiment, but also can't fault a business for playing nice with their local politicians [also worth noting that Kurt Schrader, the Democratic Rep who received donations, voted against the gun control bill that was passed the other day].
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Yes, and imagine the uproar if any of those guns had gotten back out on the street and were involved in a shooting!
 
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I personally love Hogue knives, perhaps my current favorite knife company. I wasn't too sure about them at first, because they do seem to charge quite a bit for 154cm but I decided to pull the trigger on an EX-01. Once I got that EX-01 in hand I was so impressed I ended up grabbing an EX-A01, EX-02, EX-04, HK Exemplar, and a HK hadron all in quick succession not long after. I'm planning on picking up an EX-03, Exploit, and Ballista I.

https://imgur.com/a/Vif2ce6

As others have mentioned, Allen Elishewitz has some polarizing designs, but for me personally I'm a big fan. Hogue has incredible fit and finish with mirror polished edges from the factory, and one thing that I give them props for is doing button locks right. Zero blade play on all of my button lock Hogues. I also like the tactical aesthetic, and there doesn't seem to be many tactical manual button lock knives on the market right now. Another factor I don't see many people touch upon that I think that makes Hogue great is the different variations of their knives. They offer so many different colors and different finishes. If you look at the Deka there are 20 different variations to choose from (including exclusives), there is truly a knife for everyone. Unfortunately, it seems as of late they've been discontinuing some variations of the EX-01, EX-03, and X5, as well as axing the entire EX-02 and EX-04 line. I'm guessing they're trying to streamline the manufacturing process and save some money by getting rid of the more niche configurations and models, which saddens me but is completely understandable.

I've never tried the deka or the ritter RSK yet, but from what I've heard and seen online these knives are both taking some market share from their Benchmade counterparts.

Overall, excellent company. I bought one of their knives and they became my favorite company overnight. Try a Hogue, you won't regret it! (Once again the EX-02 and EX-04 are now discontinued, go grab them if you want them!!)
 
wicat3 said:
This is some good info. I asked because all the info I had found was mostly reviews on YouTube. A good majority were knife reviewers who had things that they compared to benchmade. The two that I have been looking at was the hogue trauma and the deka. The trauma is always being related back to benchmades triage and the deka is related to the bugout by benchmade. The only time I’ve really heard of hogue was in firearm accessories so I wasn’t sure if it was like smith and Wesson where they primarily make firearms but for budget make knives but aren’t taken to seriously.

I’ve liked the hogue line for the few I’ve looked at and want to look into the Ritter as well.
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It's funny. Smith and Wesson makes nice guns but puts their name on some real junk when it comes to knives. They had a mega blow-out clearance sale about a year ago and I looked over their entire knife catalog. There were one or two knives in better materials but they were either "tacticool" or tip-down only or something. The rest were mostly 8Cr13Mov or 7Cr17Mov and a bunch were assisted. I ended up trying one of the manual knives in 8Cr13Mov that dipped below $10 with the sale. The quality was on par with the sale price, to say the least. :confused:

Meanwhile, Hogue makes good knives, including for Sig and HK. A lot of the Hogue designs are not for me but the quality is there. My main complaint is that Hogue doesn't offer more scale options for their knives. My first experiences with Hogue are from the fantastic grips they make for guns. Whether the padded rubber grips for the LCR or X-frames, or the beautiful and very comfortable hardwood grips they make for all sorts of wheelguns; anyone who hasn't tried them should. If they offered that kind of service for knives like the Deka or RSK, I'd be all over it.

As far as Benchmade, I'd agree that Hogue quality is better. Another issue has been brought up and while it matters a lot to me, we aren't supposed to talk about politics or where a company donates their money in this forum.
 
Won a few in giveaways and such. I don't care for alot of Alan's designs due to ergonomics, but the deka and Ritter are pretty nice. The fixed blades are nice as well. Their fit and finish is great for the price point. I've seen a few misses on carbon fiber with machining tearout, buts it's minor and doesn't cause a use or comfort issue. As far as the Ritter thing, it's unfortunate he had to take it somewhere else when benchmade shut down the project. Regardless I think it's a solid knife.
 
I once owned a Hogue Ritter and a Benchmade 20cv Griptilian at the same time. At least with my two examples I thought the Benchmade had slightly better qc out of the box. The edge was sharper and centering was better. I also thought the closed retention on the Benchmade was much stronger and the two springs just felt more robust. The Hogue version flopped out easily but I guess others could think that's an advantage.
 
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