Northwoods Gladstone MI

[cwcovington]

Are all Northwoods from the Gladstone MI era made from Queen materials? I am trying to learn more about this era of Northwoods so any input at all is greatly appreciated.

 

[Matt_WY]

Try and do a search for a thread on Dave Shirley or Northwoods knives. I kind of remember reading some posts that go through the early Northwoods history.

 

[Peregrin]

Glad you guys are liking the Northwoods.

A little history.

Dave Shirley started the company. He had Queen make his knives. He was always dodgy about who made his knives....but they were Queen. He would ask them to do a few more steps to make the F&F better. It worked.

A few years back, Dave Shirley was dying of cancer. He called me to see if I was interested in purchasing Northwoods and Scagel. Long story short, we did.

Since that time, we have done some changing to the line. We took the fixed blades out of Northwoods because we couldn't find someone to make them to the quality we wanted and at a price we were comfortable with. We focused on folders.

We wanted to shift the focus to be traditional folders, but with some kind of significant upgrade--steel, grinds, sheath, etc. We have been honest about who is doing the work to make our knives. Both Great Eastern and Queen have done work for us. We have also called on Bark River to do some grinding for us. The end result is a product we have been very proud of.

We have come out with several new knives since then. The latest being the Bullet Jack. It has been fun!

Scagel is another story for another day.

Here's a post from Derrick Bohn, KSF knives from 2013. Sad for all of us, he passed some years ago.