First Look: Malone Knives Timberwolf

by Nick Italiano

About Malone Knives

Malone knives is a small family run business owned and operated by Neal Malone and his son Mason. Back in 2016 Neal was searching for a hobby that he and Mason could do together and settled on making a knife. Their first knife was created from a bar of steel, a file, and a butane torch. While it wasn’t pretty the father son team were pleased with their accomplishment and they began making more knives and gradually building up a respectable shop. By mid 2017 the pair felt confident enough in their skills to start making knives for other people, and Malone Knives was born! In 2019 Neal was laid off from his full time job, and they decided it was time to turn Malone Knives into a full time operation.

Neal never intentionally set out to make bushcraft knives, it was just a happy coincidence that Texas cowboys and ranchers utilize the same style of knives that resonate with much of the outdoor community. The pair focused on making utilitarian designs that weren’t too flashy, but had a bit of “Texas Flair” They began posting pictures on Instagram and quickly got the attention of the bushcraft community. Today Malone Knives have grown to have a fully operational knife shop with Neal and Mason working full time with a few part time employees on board! 

The Timberwolf

I have had the opportunity to check out and test one of Malone Knives’ newest models, the Timberwolf. It is designed to be a trusted tool to handle all of your outdoor tasks. It packs a whole lot of classic bushcraft features and styling that is sure to appeal to both seasoned and novice outdoors person. 

Specs

As always let’s kick it off with specs. The total length of the Timberwolf is 8 inches with a 3.75 inch blade. While opinions may vary, for me this is a full-sized knife. Keep in mind my state law only allows me to carry a knife with a blade up to 4 inches so anything in the 3.75 to 4 inch range is full size. I generally like knives in this size range because they are big enough to handle more robust tasks, while small enough that I don’t lose control when doing fine detailed work.

The blade is made from AEB-L stainless steel, one of my favorite stainless options for outdoor knives. It performs very much like high carbon steels in the sense that it is both tough and easy to sharpen, but has the added benefit of additional corrosion resistance. AEB-L is not known for incredible edge retention when compared to some of the “super steels” commonly found in high end folding knives, but having the ability to quickly and easily maintain your edge in the field can’t be beat. I was able to quickly touch up the edge in about 3 minutes on a leather strop.

The Timberwolf features a scandi grind, a favorite among seasoned outdoors people. Scandi grinds are excellent for wood processing tasks and are incredibly easy to maintain. The blade stock is ⅛ inch, giving a nice balance between strength for hard use tasks, while being thin enough to still provide good slicing capability.  

The handle is an ergonomic dream, having a classic “coke bottle” shape. The handle swells a bit in the middle to fill the palm of your hand, providing a very comfortable experience that greatly reduces hand fatigue during extended use. My handle is made from natural micarta and has a black G10 liner, however Malone Knives offers the Timberwolf in a variety of natural and synthetic handle materials.

Malone Knives does not typically ship sheaths with their knives, however high quality leather belt sheaths made by Badger Claw Leather are available for purchase on the Malone website. You could also reach out to Tim at Tobacco Road Adventures for a custom made kydex sheath.

In Use

The Timberwolf is an absolute pleasure to use, as mentioned in the specs section the ergonomics are fantastic. I did not encounter any hot spots during use and did not find my hand fatiguing nearly as much as I would with thinner broomstick style handles. I was easily able to process kindling and tinder thanks to the scandi grind. The spine has a nice 90 degree angle, performing great at wood scraping and striking ferro rods. While I am no master whittler, I have been practicing some basic whittling and found the Timberwolf to be very capable in that department. I am not big on batoning wood with my knives, but I always do some light batoning when testing and found the Timberwolf to be more than up to the task. I had no issues cutting paracord, bank line, or jute twine. The blade has a short clip-like point, aiding in piercing tasks while still having enough material behind the tip to protect it from damage.

When the opportunity presents itself I like to test my outdoor knives in basic food prep tasks. Scandi grinds typically are not the ideal choice for all food prep tasks, particularly with harder root vegetables such as potatoes or carrots. The Timberwolf performed better than expected when cutting meat and doing basic vegetable prep, I attribute this to the nice belly in the blade. While I would not regularly use it in my kitchen, it is more than adequate for camp cooking.

Speaking of the belly, I believe this would do a very nice job with game processing. While I have not tried it yet I would imagine the belly combined with an excellent piercing point, would very much lend to this task. I know most people would say that scandi grinds are not good for game processing, many Scandinavian peoples did it for centuries so it is definitely doable! 

Overall Impressions

The Timberwolf certainly makes a great impression at first glance that gets even better when you have the opportunity to use it. The handle scales are perfectly sculpted and cleanly adhered to the steel. The tubes and liner add a very classy touch to the knife. The grind was well done and performed well before any edge maintenance was done. All in all, the Timberwolf is a great knife, with a well thought out design and excellent execution. It would make a fine companion for any outdoors person as a general purpose knife and it definitely performs exceedingly well in controlled wood processing tasks. The Timberwolf is all about performance both in function and comfort, and it does all that while looking good! It really has a classic charm, while still having all the advantages of modern material technology. The choice of AEB-L steel was great, as it retains most of the benefits of high carbon, while also reducing the need to constantly maintain and clean the blade to prevent rust build up. 

The Timberwolf is the first Malone Knife in my collection, and I can definitely say it makes a great first impression. I am looking forward to continued use as part of my regular lineup of woods knives!