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#151638 - 10/18/16 10:15 AM More about Colt/Barry Wood Folders
Buckspen Offline
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Registered: 07/19/12
Posts: 508
Loc: Ohio
You can find and read Barry Wood’s original patent by using Google Patents and the patent number 3702501 (https://www.google.com/patents/US3702501)
There is a section on Colt/Barry Wood knives in John Ogle’s book “The Book of Colt Memorabilia” (Blue Book Publications, 2014) on pages 105-106 and 109-110.
The name of Barry's knife "shop" was actually Engineering Design & Services (38. S. Venice Bl. Venice, Calif. 90291).
There are three major variations in these knives. The first production knives were marked with the Colt logo on the hinge pin and on the right side of the blade. There were maybe 500 of those produced. The second variation (also called the "three logo knife") was marked on the hinge pin, the left side of the blade and inside one of the handles with various Colt logos. The third variation was only marked on the hinge pin and the left side of the blade. The third is by far the most common variation.
There are also a number of different sub-variations of the third type knife. Some blades were marked with the patent number, and/or the word "stainless" near the hinge pin. The most interesting of these sub-variations were the ones that were hand marked with the assembler's individual logo or signature initials. A few years ago, I obtained copies of some log book pages from Wood's shop. Using the list on the log book pages, I've been able to identify about ten different sets of initials and the men who used them.
Some third variation knives were marked by the assemblers on the inside of one of the handles near the rivet closest to the hinge pin. Here is a list of Colt knife assemblers and their marks:
“bw” was Barry Wood (Barry apparently assembled very few of these knives himself, as examples marked by him are quite scarce.)
“MI” was Mike Irie (Mike is still making custom knives and usually has a table at the annual BLADE show in Atlanta.)
“JA” was Jimmy Allen
“BB” was Burt Woodworth (usually looks like capital “B” with a sideways capital “W”.)
“SG” was Steve Gilbody
“CL” was Chuck Lacher
“DR” was Don Rhodes
“HB” was Herbert Bosley III (He sometimes marked knives “HBIII” as well.)
I have also seen a couple knives marked “TW”. I don’t have any information on who that might have been; however, the mark could be a variation of “JW”. James Wood (Barry’s son) also reportedly worked in the shop and assembled some knives. Another reported assembler was named Pete Mackey and he used a small stick figure of a man to sign his knives, but I have never seen one marked in this manner.
The knives were originally shipped from Colt with a leather belt sheath that was stamped with the Colt logo on the front and back. It is generally thought that Alfonso's of Hollywood made these sheaths. That makes sense on two levels. Alfonso's is geographically fairly close to Venice where Wood's shop was. And I have seen at least three sheaths for these knives marked with the Alfonso's logo. Some sheaths are tan in color and some are dark brown, sometimes almost black. The knife and sheath were packed in a small box with the Colt logo on the lid and a yellow and black label on one end of the top. The model number was always U1050 and the “brown” box has always been checked on knives that I have seen. Usually the box top is covered with paper having a wood grain pattern very similar to gun shipping boxes that Colt used about the same time. The box bottoms were black. Also, some of these knives were shipped in tan colored, plain "kraft" boxes with the Colt yellow and black labels.
- -Buckspen
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#151641 - 10/18/16 10:40 AM Re: More about Colt/Barry Wood Folders [Re: Buckspen]
BladesNBarrels Offline
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Registered: 09/19/05
Posts: 1352
Loc: East Tincup General Store,Colo...
Great information!
I do see Mike Irie at shows I attend.
I will have to ask him about working with Barry Wood.
Thank you.
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David Loomis
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#151665 - 10/18/16 01:20 PM Re: More about Colt/Barry Wood Folders [Re: BladesNBarrels]
Buckspen Offline
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Registered: 07/19/12
Posts: 508
Loc: Ohio
David - I spoke with Mike at Blade 2015 and asked about repairing a Colt folder that I have on which the action is rather loose. He said he no longer has the tools or part to repair these knives.
He still makes pretty nice knives, though!

-- Buckspen
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