Smoky Mountain Knife Works Events

[Andyshowfan]

Some of y'all may be interested in the following events at the knife works here in Sevierville. Some notable personalities are coming.

7/14 Mykel Hawke

8/25 Les Stroud

10/20 R. Lee Emery

http://www.smkw.com/...le=calendar.jsp

Edited June 18, 2012 by Andyshowfan

[Guest nysos]

Would love to meet Les Stroud, going to put that on my calendar and try and go.

[TN_Hiker]

Nice thanks for the heads up

[Guest rebeldrummer]

thanks for the tip....my father in law will love to go see the Gunny.

[jtluttrell]

Les Stroud....cool. A reason to go to SMKW....awesome.

[Guest bkelm18]

Les Stroud and R. Lee Ermey. Definitely gonna try and make it to those.

[Guest WAM_007]

I would love to shake hands with the Gunny, I'll be there!

[lacon]

Maybe take a Glock & ask for an autograph?

[JAB]

It would be cool to meet Les Stroud. Some of the other 'survival' shows/personalities do things that I think are extreme and just to make entertaining television. Conversely, I think even I could use most of Stroud's methods and actually survive, at least for a few days.

I have noticed that Stroud has some knives, etc. with his picture/name on the package in stores, lately (ala the Gerber 'Bear Grylls' knives.) Anyone here have any first-hand experience with them? I'd like to think that anything Stroud would put his likeness on would be good, dependable, useful equipment but you never know.

Edited July 26, 2012 by JAB

[Guest nysos]

I have noticed that Stroud has some knives, etc. with his picture/name on the package in stores, lately (ala the Gerber 'Bear Grylls' knives.) Anyone here have any first-hand experience with them? I'd like to think that anything Stroud would put his likeness on would be good, dependable, useful equipment but you never know.

I went today and saw Les Stroud, and he seems like a pretty cool guy. The main reason he was there is part of a promotion for the knife line, he spoke about 10 minutes about them. He actually said he has some other things they are working on coming out with later this year/next year, like some prebuilt survival packs and a multi-tool. My dad ended up picking up one of the folder knives, and they seemed pretty good quality. Les stated he actually does play a big part in the designing process of the knives to try and meet his specifications, working in conjuction with Camillus' R&D guys. His words were "I don't know what sort of metal and material is better to use, I just know what I want it to be able to do".

He definitely goes out of his way for these appearances. My family and I left the knife works after his Q&A session to go eat lunch and do a little shopping. We didn't get to look around much at the knife works due to the crowd so on our way back to town we stopped back by to look around. He was still there an hour and a half after his appointed appearance times, signing autographs and taking pictures with people. On top of that, he said he has been sick and caught the flu at some point in the past week while moving houses.

If he comes back through again I will definitely go. He had some good little stories during the Q&A, and seems like a pretty stand up guy. I would love to have the chance to sit around at the bar with him, buying him beer in return to endulge me with countless stories of his adventures.

Somebody asked the question at the end of what he thought of Bear Grylls. He kind of chuckled and did a good job of answering politically, but the answer came down to "you wouldn't go to Harrison Ford to learn about archaelogy now would you?".

[Guest bkelm18]

I've always had good bit of respect for Les Stroud. He really seems to know his stuff without all the theatrics and nonsense of Bear. Bear Gryills slaps his name on anything and everything to make a buck. Most of it is just junk. I hope Les Stroud fares a little bit better.

[Guest nysos]

Yes I agree. If things are as he says, then he only wanted to do this knife thing if he had that majority of say on the projects. Hopefully it works out well for him. My brother was impressed with the thickness of the machete and seemed to be designed well and plans to purchase one. I will be keeping up with my dad on the folder he purchased to see how it is doing. I may purchase one of the folders down the road, they were reasonably priced at about $27 or so.

[Mdunntn]

I definitely have to meet the gunny

Sent from secret underground bunker

[runco]

bump, to remind me. Also, I want to see/meet Mr. Lee Ermey on Oct. 20th.