Knoxville Worlds Fair Commemorative Pocket Knife

[Whipfinish]

Recently I found a pocket folding knife that commemorated the 1982 Worlds Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee. It appears to have been made by the Parker Company and has some wonderful cast images on both sides of the handle. Does anyone know about such a knife and its background?

Thanks

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Welcome to Bladeforums!

The best place for a question like this is The Bernard Levine Knife Collecting and Identification Forum.

 

[textoothpk]

There were many thousands of these made and distributed by Jim Parker when the World's Fair came to his neck of the woods. Boxes of a gross were given/sold to finacial supporters of the Fair. Boxes of a gross continue to be offered for sale. Smokey Mountain Knifeworks has them on their site right now... they state that they bought 16,000 of them from one of the original investers of the fair. They are priced at $4.99 each.
Phil

 

[Whipfinish]

Thanks for the welcome and for the link to the page.

 

[Whipfinish]

There were many thousands of these made and distributed by Jim Parker when the World's Fair came to his neck of the woods. Boxes of a gross were given/sold to finacial supporters of the Fair. Boxes of a gross continue to be offered for sale. Smokey Mountain Knifeworks has them on their site right now... they state that they bought 16,000 of them from one of the original investers of the fair. They are priced at $4.99 each.
Phil

Thanks for the information. I paid a little more than that with the original box but I really appreciate the information. The knife seems to be well made and has a pretty sharp blade. It appears to be a convex grind.

 

[DB1]

This thread brings back old memories - our family drove over from Asheville to see the World's Fair in Knoxville when I was 10

Is the Sunsphere still in Knoxville? That was the highlight of the trip for me, going up into that.

I might have to pick up one of those SMKW knives for nostalgias' sake.

 

[marsupial]

Yep,its still there!What a waste of money the sunsphere was

 

[u812]

Did you see the Simpsons that was set in Knoxville.It was a wig store.
About the knife,a little store called Rocky Top General Store that I worked for 10 to 15 years ago had a few hundred of them.