I can't say with certainty, and I apologize for speculating, but based on observation and comparison, I strongly suspect that they are contracted out to Bear & Son. The knife is very similar in blade profile to Bear Scout knife series, all versions of which were suddenly discontinued, although they were fairly popular, just before the time the Colonial 2205 started production.
Colonial had an unfulfilled contract since 2001 for the NSN 5110 00 162 2205 that required production from within the USA (hence the 00 country of origin code), but as you say no factory. In regard to the contract, I was able to dig up this:
http://www.bu.edu/washington/2001/1...y-gets-4-5-billion-contract-for-pocketknives/
I think that billion in the title should have read million. Once Ontario discontinued their version (which was made by Queen) Bear was about the only manufacturer that had the tooling and capacity to make the knives (tooling was purchased from Camillus when they went under) but Colonial had the contract. I suspect they are collaborating, but like much in this hobby, there is guessing and then there's knowing....
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