It was supposed to be an exclusive ressurection for Vintage Knives. Vintage never had another folder and only one other knife, a poor selling fixed blade. I bought mine from the owner, Billy, I think his name is. He was a really nice guy and had a nice small website. He thought it was the only factory slipjoint ever made with a Mississippi mark and was proud of it.
Queen didn't honor the exclusivity and let Bladeforums use the pattern, but then Vintage didn't have any more SFO from Queen. They did sell a lot of Dave Shirley made Scagel repros, Case CV, Dozier, ONS Schatts and Queen, plus actual antiques. I got a 2000 Schatt ATS34 5" toothpick from him. I think his tag line was "Vintage Knives, a piece of history in the palm of your hand." Hence the resurrection of a pattern not seen since 1902 and made on the original tooling for his first knife.
The Vintage Knives version had a historically hard pull, but it is a slipjoint that will never close on your finger. I let mine sit open for a few months and oiled it a lot to make more friendly. I carry mine regularly, just yesterday as a matter of fact. It's got a comfortable handle and a slicer flat grind. IIRC, the Bladeforums version had new tooling to address the hard pull. At the time it was made and marketed for Vintage, the name Howard was not associated with the knife at all.