All About Pocket Knives

I recently acquired a collection of mostly Case knives. But among them was this Northwood knives cotton sampler that appears to have #1 hand-written on the box. What do I have?

Crickets?
I really have no idea if this knife is rare? I've seen things online that say there were only 80 made. Is that true? When were they made? Are these expensive knives? Did they hand-mark the number on the box or is it more likely something the previous owner put there? I saw nothing marked on the knife anywhere.

I can’t tell from your pictures who made it. Can’t read the tang stamp, don’t see any clues on the pictures of the box. Better (clear, in focus) pictures might help. and it might take a while before someone sees it who recognizes it and knows the answers.

Ken

All I can tell you is that it appears to have been made during the Dave Shirley era which means it was made before 2010. The only reason I suspect that is because the box and the knife both look Queen made (not GEC made) and I found one similar to yours in this thread titled "Dave Shirley Northwoods".

Dave Shirley sold the Northwoods brand to Derrick Bohn around 2009-2010. Your knife was made by Queen Cutlery before the sale although I don't know how long before.

Scroll down about 1/3 of the way and you'll see one like yours but not in Stag.

viewtopic.php?f=111&t=54959&start=75

I can't answer any of your questions about how many were made or the writing on the box.

It also occurs to me that your box looks like a standard Queen box. I suspect that it is for a Queen Cotton Sampler and not a Northwoods Cotton Sampler.

Northwoods knives that were made by Queen were packaged in a different box. Some of those boxes can be seen in the link I posted in my post above.

Your knife is a Northwoods but somebody switched out the box.

Yes... sorry about the pictures being blurry. I thought just an overall view would suffice. The lighting in my house is not very bright and I work during daylight hours.
... and thank you for the responses! Anything I can learn is helpful.

Not sure if it matters that Dave used the Black Boxes for some of his early Knives. He would put his Business Card and a note on the back of the Card

There was a business card inside the box but it was from "River Raisin Knife Co.". I guess that was who sold it to the PO. I looked for them online but the only thing I found was an older post (2007) from this forum announcing the business being started.

...So from what I'm gathering from what I'm hearing and seeing this is a Northwoods Cotton Sampler. I saw a Queen for sale on Ebay this morning. Definitely marked much differently. It's not a Queen. If the unmarked (except for the paper label) black box is indicative of Dave Shirley's "earlier" knives as well as the blade being marked "Northwoods Gladstone Mich. USA" that seems like the logical conclusion. I know the PO bought it before the change in ownership of Northwoods because of things the family told me about when he was collecting knives. The tail end of that time was around 2007 to 2008. Thanks again for all of the thoughts and opinions! It's a Beautiful knife in person. Is there anything I should do to it to keep it in this condition? It's headed for my gun safe and may be there a while.

Oneshot 8541 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:52 pm ...So from what I'm gathering from what I'm hearing and seeing this is a Northwoods Cotton Sampler. I saw a Queen for sale on Ebay this morning. Definitely marked much differently. It's not a Queen. If the unmarked (except for the paper label) black box is indicative of Dave Shirley's "earlier" knives as well as the blade being marked "Northwoods Gladstone Mich. USA" that seems like the logical conclusion. I know the PO bought it before the change in ownership of Northwoods because of things the family told me about when he was collecting knives. The tail end of that time was around 2007 to 2008. Thanks again for all of the thoughts and opinions! It's a Beautiful knife in person. Is there anything I should do to it to keep it in this condition? It's headed for my gun safe and may be there a while.

I would be very surprised to find out that Northwoods actually made any knives. To the best of my knowledge, they were always contracted out to either Queen or Great Eastern Cutlery and stamped with the Northwoods brand.

It's similar to Cold Steel knives. Cold Steel doesn't actually make knives. They have them made by other manufacturers that do make knives and they put their brand name on them. Same with Northwoods.

If your knife wasn't made by Queen, I'll eat crow but I'm pretty sure it was.

I'm wondering about the file work on the back spring. That's not something I've seen on the early Queen Northwoods knives. Perhaps River Raisin knife co.purchased a few of these and did that work.

Use a good metal preservative on the metal parts and a preservative on the stag. RenWax will work well for both. IMHO there is nothing better for protecting metal than Tuf-Glide. Those products will serve you well for firearms also. I'd recommend checking up on them at least annually and as a precaution retreat them at that time. By all means leave NO FINGERPRINTS.

Ken

Railsplitter wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 4:41 pm

Oneshot 8541 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:52 pm ...So from what I'm gathering from what I'm hearing and seeing this is a Northwoods Cotton Sampler. I saw a Queen for sale on Ebay this morning. Definitely marked much differently. It's not a Queen. If the unmarked (except for the paper label) black box is indicative of Dave Shirley's "earlier" knives as well as the blade being marked "Northwoods Gladstone Mich. USA" that seems like the logical conclusion. I know the PO bought it before the change in ownership of Northwoods because of things the family told me about when he was collecting knives. The tail end of that time was around 2007 to 2008. Thanks again for all of the thoughts and opinions! It's a Beautiful knife in person. Is there anything I should do to it to keep it in this condition? It's headed for my gun safe and may be there a while.

I would be very surprised to find out that Northwoods actually made any knives. To the best of my knowledge, they were always contracted out to either Queen or Great Eastern Cutlery and stamped with the Northwoods brand.

It's similar to Cold Steel knives. Cold Steel doesn't actually make knives. They have them made by other manufacturers that do make knives and they put their brand name on them. Same with Northwoods.

If your knife wasn't made by Queen, I'll eat crow but I'm pretty sure it was.

OK... I really don't know. I'm just going by what I'm reading into the responses. I'm such a Newbie at Pocket Knives. I know Randall Made Knives and Firearms but Pocket knives, especially specialty or unusual knives, are way out of my Wheelhouse. Please forgive my ignorance.

The bottom line is that knife was made by Queen for Northwoods knife co. somewhere between 2000 and 2008. The file work on the back spring was likely done by someone else and the written number on the box indicates the succession in that secondary customization. Dave Shirley did use some custom makers for his early Northwoods folders but those were marked as Scagel knives. That knife was made by Queen.

Many thanks to all for the information! Now, what to do with it?