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SMKW
- Thread starter DeSotoSky
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2021
- Messages
- 1,535
Speaking of Smoky Mountain Knife Works, my son and I stopped by for the first time on Saturday. What an awesome place! We spent 90 minutes inside and I didn't even buy a knife. I know that may sound like heresy, but honestly, I have more knives than I need, and the ones I'm currently chasing are older and out of production - plus I may have bought too many this year (another showed up in the mail yesterday). 
But I definitely spent some money there. I never knew they had a separate arm of the family business called the Smoky Mountain Relic Room. I don't even think you can get to the website from the main SMKW site. Apparently, the Pipes family has three generations of history as antique and artifact dealers, in addition to selling and collecting knives. And at least one of them is an actual archeologist. The place is like a museum where everything is for sale. Military memorabilia, fossils, rocks, coins, all kinds of things. It's amazing!
On the knife side, even though I didn't buy one, it was great to handle a couple in person that I've never has the chance to before. One example is the Deploy series. I'm a lefty and am happy with my Paradigm Shift Auto, so the Deploy never appealed to me. But seeing it in person my son and I noticed that it has the same lock mechanism as the Paradigm - I've just never seen a photo of the spine of the Deploy online before. It really made me miss the days growing up of spending time at the glass counter in the local I. Goldberg Army Navy store getting to handle knives and learn from patient, older, experienced employees of mom and pop shops. I can tell you that if I could handle every knife before I buy these days, there are definitely some that I would have not spent my money on, and others that I would have, but never did.
Speaking of employees, the employees at SMKW were great. And if you'll permit me to stereotype a little, they looked exactly like the knives they were working. The two employees working the counter of the fantasy mall ninja knives looked exactly like what you would expect. The employees working the Buck and the Case counters looked exactly like you would expect. The guy at the Leatherman section looked like he fit there perfectly. The older gentleman sitting in the corner on the stool behind the used collectible knife section, looked like those knives could have come from his personal collection.
The building itself contributed to the charm; it was far from a big box store. It was more like walking through grandpa's house: up short flights of stairs, downstairs, sectioned off into rooms with waterfalls, taxidermy bears, elephants, knife memorabilia and shadow boxes of collections on EVERY square inch of wall space. Boots, cowboy hats, Lodge cast iron skillets, you name it, it's in that building. Absolutely amazing.
Here's a picture of my son with his new hat. He cut the tag off with the Range Elite I gave him at Thanksgiving.
But I definitely spent some money there. I never knew they had a separate arm of the family business called the Smoky Mountain Relic Room. I don't even think you can get to the website from the main SMKW site. Apparently, the Pipes family has three generations of history as antique and artifact dealers, in addition to selling and collecting knives. And at least one of them is an actual archeologist. The place is like a museum where everything is for sale. Military memorabilia, fossils, rocks, coins, all kinds of things. It's amazing!On the knife side, even though I didn't buy one, it was great to handle a couple in person that I've never has the chance to before. One example is the Deploy series. I'm a lefty and am happy with my Paradigm Shift Auto, so the Deploy never appealed to me. But seeing it in person my son and I noticed that it has the same lock mechanism as the Paradigm - I've just never seen a photo of the spine of the Deploy online before. It really made me miss the days growing up of spending time at the glass counter in the local I. Goldberg Army Navy store getting to handle knives and learn from patient, older, experienced employees of mom and pop shops. I can tell you that if I could handle every knife before I buy these days, there are definitely some that I would have not spent my money on, and others that I would have, but never did.
Speaking of employees, the employees at SMKW were great. And if you'll permit me to stereotype a little, they looked exactly like the knives they were working. The two employees working the counter of the fantasy mall ninja knives looked exactly like what you would expect. The employees working the Buck and the Case counters looked exactly like you would expect. The guy at the Leatherman section looked like he fit there perfectly. The older gentleman sitting in the corner on the stool behind the used collectible knife section, looked like those knives could have come from his personal collection.
The building itself contributed to the charm; it was far from a big box store. It was more like walking through grandpa's house: up short flights of stairs, downstairs, sectioned off into rooms with waterfalls, taxidermy bears, elephants, knife memorabilia and shadow boxes of collections on EVERY square inch of wall space. Boots, cowboy hats, Lodge cast iron skillets, you name it, it's in that building. Absolutely amazing.
Here's a picture of my son with his new hat. He cut the tag off with the Range Elite I gave him at Thanksgiving.
