I made a lot of trades/sales I regret today Pap, so you are not alone.

A couple of pics to show the differences in my 2 BW knives.

Several years ago, I purchased a second variation Colt/Barry Wood knife from a fellow and he included an interesting letter with the knife when he sent it to me. Apparently, he had previously sent the knife to Barry Wood for "evaluation". The letter is dated 1990 and Mr. Wood used the same lower case "bw" as a monogram in this letter as he used on the knives.
In the letter, Mr. Wood related some details of the Colt knives. He wrote that the handle slabs were cut from "Westinghouse Micarta, natural color, grade canvas". They were fastened to handle plate stampings of 304 stainless steel with standard 18% nickel silver cutlery rivets. The beryllium-copper spacer was investment cast and brazed in place inside the reverse handle plate. The blades were blanked, heat treated to RC 56-58 and ground to shape by Russell-Harrington of Southbridge, Massachusetts. Mr. Wood further wrote that that Colt's first order for these knives was for a quantity of 3000, but that the first 500 had different markings. (The knife in question was a second variation knife, and the first 500 mentioned would be the first variation knives.)

I have quite a few of the Colt branded knives and several of the Barry Wood branded knives. They are all high quality knives, but in general the Barry Wood marked knives seem to fit together better and have smoother actions than the Colt branded knives. The function of my Colt marked knives vary from somewhat loose to very tight.

- - Buckspen