11 New Knives You Might've Missed: MagnaMax Manix 2, Benchmade Lowden, Stiletto and More
The range of knives that landed on Gear Patrol's radar this past week says a lot about where the category stands right now, which is to say, in a very good place. The weekly roundup of 11 new releases spans nearly every use case and price point a knife person could want — from Easter egg-packing outdoor blades to medieval Italy-inspired automatics to a groundbreaking new blade steel making its way into production folders.
The headliner is the arrival of MagnaMax steel in mainstream knives. Spyderco's Manix 2 MagnaMax leads the charge, joined by the Pro-Tech x Vero Engineering Synapse 2 MagnaMax, the Pro-Tech Chavez Scapegoat Compact MagnaMax, and a Guardian Tactical offering. MagnaMax, the new CPM super steel from MagnaCut's inventor Dr. Larrin Thomas, trades some toughness for exceptional edge retention, and this wave of releases marks the first real chance for everyday buyers to try it without hunting down a custom maker.
Benchmade's Lowden 491BK-02 also earns a spot in the roundup, continuing the brand's push into value-conscious hard-use territory with its signature build quality. On the more traditional end, Böker Plus unveiled the Stiletto 3.5 in Ebony and All Black treatments — a revival of the classic Italian-inspired automatic silhouette that has become one of the year's most talked-about reissues. Spyderco's Tenacious Tanto in Natural G-10 gives budget-minded buyers an aggressive new take on the beloved workhorse, and Cold Steel's Mackinac Hunter brings a 2012 archival design back for outdoor duty.
The roundup also shines a light on smaller makers worth watching. Jimmytronics' Tarpon Utility Knife is a compact, purpose-built utility design that has been gaining serious traction in enthusiast circles, and New West KnifeWorks' Glory Folder 2.0 represents the premium end of the spectrum — a hand-finished folding knife from a maker better known for high-end kitchen cutlery. That spread, from a $30-ish utility knife to a multi-hundred-dollar custom-adjacent folder, is exactly why weekly roundups matter: there is something for every budget and every carry style.
Compared to the firehose of releases from the big brands, the takeaway from this week's crop is that the knife market's center of gravity keeps shifting toward value, interesting materials, and smaller designers with real ideas. If you've been waiting for a reason to try MagnaMax or curious about the Stiletto revival, this is the week the conversation starts.