Smoky Mountain Knife Works – The ExhaustNotes Blog

By Joe Berk

Sharpfingeritis is a disease, and I have it. To the tune of 15 of these knives, 12 of which I ordered today. My affliction is severe, but I don’t care.

My disease stage is probably what healthcare professionals would call tertiary Sharpfingeritis. It started innocently enough with one of the Sharpfingers entering my system. I didn’t even recognize it as a Sharpfinger until Dr. Feelgood pointed it out. Then I stopped by Bass Pro and saw the Bear and Son Sharpfinger, it was cheap enough, and I bought it. Then I saw the Old Timer Generational online, it’s made in America, and Amazon had it on sale. You know, Prime days. Bam! Just like that, I owned three of the things (the three you see in the photo below). I didn’t recognize my deteriorating condition at the time, but these purchases marked the early onset of my Sharpfingeritis. The symptoms were beginning to reveal themselves.

Then my Sharpfingeritis deteriorated even more rapidly. I found my way to the Smoky Mountain Knife Works site (they’re great people to work with), and I started poking around for other Sharpfingers. Boy oh boy, they had them!

One of the Old Timer Sharpfinger variants has brown and caramel colored Delrin handles instead of the normal black. Got to have one of those to match my other Old Timer knives. What’s that? Add to cart? You bet!

Oh, wow: They have an orange one, too. And it was cheap. Add to cart. Got it.

Oooh, an Old Timer combo pack with yellow handles and a matching pocketknife. $21.99, but it includes that matching pocketknife. That’s cool. It’s a good deal. Add to cart. That was easy.

Oooh again: Another one, this time an Uncle Henry, with Staglon handles (fake deer antler) and a challenge coin. I don’t know what a challenge coin is, but I took it as a challenge to hit that “add to cart” button. At $19.99, I was in.

Then the Rite Edge world opened before me. Laminated wood handles. $7.99. How could anyone not buy this?

Another Rite Edge, this time with more fake deer stuff. And it, too, was only $7.99. Hey, I figure every time I buy one of these, I’m saving a deer’s life.

Yet another company jumped into the Smoky Mountain mix: Frost. Oooh, this one is pretty. I thought it was another fake stag knife, but on closer inspection, it’s got wolves scrimshawed into the fake ivory handle. I like it. $10.99. Add to cart.

Frost has a fake jigged red bone Sharpfinger. I’m not too sure what jigged means, the red bone is probably really plastic of some sort, but at $7.99, how could I go wrong?

Then the heavy artillery opened up. Oooh. Double ooooh. A Sharpfinger with mother of pearl and turquoise and some red stuff inlaid on the handles. A bit more than most of the others at $19.99, but this disease is relentless. Add to cart. Got it.

I told my buddy Paul about my ordering all the above (he’s the guy who gave me this disease), and a few minutes later he told me he ordered the blue lightning model. Blue lightning? What’s that? It was back to the Smoky Mountain Knife Works site. Wow, how did I miss that one?

Paul also mentioned he ordered the antique green jigged version. Damn, I had missed that one, too, but at $9.99, it was a no-brainer for me to hit add to cart. I’m real good at no-brainer stuff. I’m not sure why.

And finally, there was the Marbles Sharpfinger. Marbles makes great knives. This was the deal of the day: $6.99. Add to cart and I was done.

Well, almost done. I’m going to have to explain all this to Sue. But that’s a tomorrow problem. Today, my Sharpfingeritis notwithstanding, I’m feeling good.

By Joe Berk

I could have titled this blog “A Swing and a Miss.” That’s how I feel about a Case folder I received a few days ago. It’s going back to the retailer.

Last year, I got on a white bone handled knife kick, and I ordered several. They were all Chinese, and I even wrote a blog about a few.

A few of my white-bone-handle pocketknives, with the Hen and Rooster on the left. All are from China. These are very high quality knives. The second one from the left is the same size as a Buck 110, it is very inexpensive, and it is a beautiful knife.

One of the ones I ordered in that buying binge was the Hen and Rooster HR1341, a large folder with white bone handles. It arrived, it was perfect, and it was beautiful. It has a mirror-polished blade. I know Hen and Rooster is a weird name for a knife company, but I don’t care. I loved that knife as soon as I saw it.

In the back of my mind, though, was the China thing, and the inevitable anti-China comments I knew any blog about things made there would attract. I also knew I wanted what is the same basic design but from a U.S. manufacturer (in this “case,” pardon the literary redundancy, a Case knife). The Case I wanted was out of stock everywhere I looked. I went back to my preferred knife retailer, Smoky Mountain Knife Works, and clicked on their “Notify Me When In Stock” link. And then I forgot about it.

Smoky Mountain didn’t forget, though. A couple of weeks ago an email floated in telling me the Case white bone large folder was in stock. It was three times the cost of the Hen and Rooster, but I had to have it. Buy now, baby, and it was on its way.

The bone handle around the rivets is very poorly done. For a $120 pocketknife, it’s not for me.

I was like a kid on Christmas morning when the Case arrived, but then I opened the box. Big disappointment. The Case knife, for all its vaunted “Made in America” quality, had rivets and scales that looked like a 6-year-old installed them. What a letdown.

The US-made Case knife is on the left; the Chinese Hen and Rooster knife is on the right. Although the Hen and Rooster is from China, it uses German stainless steel (frequently specified as 1.4116 or similar high-quality Solingen stainless steel).

Some of you might wonder: Isn’t the Case a better knife with better steel? To answer your question, I don’t know. But from a cosmetics perspective, this Case is not something I want. And if they couldn’t get the cosmetics right, who’s to say they got the heat treat right? Nope. Not for me. I’ll stick with my Chinese version.