Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge, TN

Cold Kill

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What are the knife-related attractions in the 2 towns? I am going down there for all of next week, and figured I should be prepared for the most important shops to go to first.
 
Whenever I go down that way I always stop at Smoky Mt. Knife Works, in Sevierville. I don't buy but maybe one knife there per trip, but it's huge and like a museum that sells knives and everything related.
 
Whenever I go down that way I always stop at Smoky Mt. Knife Works, in Sevierville. I don't buy but maybe one knife there per trip, but it's huge and like a museum that sells knives and everything related.

Ditto on Smoky Mt. Knife Works. They have a lot of cheap imports that are easily avoidable but have a good selection of name brands also. The Case and SAK sections really stand out. There is also an old knife store in downtown Gatlinburg that you can kill time in while the ladies look elswhere. Prices are usually MSR plus at this one.
 
If you are a muscle car fan there is a car museum on the same road as Smoky Mt. that shouldnt be missed. They have a great collection.
 
smkw is well worth a stop, prices are not that great. it is close to the interstate.

there used to be a place called the acorn in gatlinburg that sold randall knives etc. there was another cheapie knife store as well.
i avoid that area like the plague, hwy 66 is a nightmare. prefer the townsend side much more. little river outfitters is a first rate flyshop and worth a visit if you like fishing at all

the aquarium in gatlinburg is much nicer than you would expect though
 
Unless someone reopened it, the Acorn is closed. Last time I was there (2010) it had been replaced with another junk store. SMKW has a ton of stuff, but very little selection of higher quality knives. And what they do have can be found on the internet for much cheaper prices. They have some serious markup. Lots of people working in there that barely know which end of a knife is sharp,
I remember when SMKW was in a little antique mall not far from its present location. Was a much better place to find and purchase knives then IMO.
I always stop there, but rarely ever buy any knives.
 
Unless someone reopened it, the Acorn is closed. Last time I was there (2010) it had been replaced with another junk store.

I bought a Gerber magnum folding hunter from the Acorn during a family vacation to the Smokies when I was a senior in high school. I paid $40 for it, which was a fortune to me at the time. I spend hours in that shop looking at almost every possible knife before I made my choice. It was the only place I had ever been where I could actually see the knife brands I had read about in hunting magazines as a kid. I still have that knife and it's one of the few I'll never willingly part with. I used it to field dress my first deer.

Back in 2004 the wife and I decided to take a weekend trip to Gatlinburg, since we had both been there as kids but never as adults and never together. I was really looking forward to going to the Acorn and browsing the selection of high-quality knives. I was almost heartbroken when I went into the store and saw that their inventory was almost nothing but cheap imported crap. Granted, they always carried that kind of stuff, but they also used to carry high-class stuff. All the decent brands were nowhere to be found. Closing it would almost a mercy killing.

As others have said SMKW just off the interstate is probably the only place left to really see a large selection of knives. I don't find their prices to be all that terrible, but they certainly aren't the cheapest either, unless you can catch something on closeout or on sale.
 
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