Knife Throwing

Valkun

Since I still have over a week before courses start again, I went out on a whim and decided to pick up some throwing knives after doing a bit of research. Mainly this involved reading through http://www.knifethrowing.info/ and spending some time practicing with a martial arts friend of mine.

The knives I bought were single piece stainless steel with a 3.5" blade weighted at the center. However, even when he tried throwing them the blades would sort of wobble through the air rather than spin end over end like would be expected. Any tips for throwing? I understand there are a number of techniques and I'd like to try to master one of the no spin varieties.

Also, the string that was wrapped around the handle was so cheap that they all tore apart within a few minutes of actual handling. I'm thinking of replacing them with brightly colored electrical tape to make them easier to find when missing the target.



Any advice, stories, cautions, and resources would be welcome.

Deviant Hands

You should start with learning how to throw an axe.


You see, throwing knives don't really kill people anyway, and they are pretty useless. They simply don't have enough mass.

If you learn to throw an axe you will learn about the finer points of throwing weapons.

Valkun

I'm not really interested in killing people, thanks.

Steel Angel

Valkun wrote: »

resources would be welcome.

Try poking around and asking questions here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=722

Other sections over there will cover stuff like maintenance and the like.

Thomamelas

http://www.knifethrowing.info/

Has some fairly good diagrams. It's been a while since I've thrown but you may want to adjust your grip. When you say it wobbles, is it an up and down with no rotation or rotation with the tip moving left to right in the spin?

Valkun

The latter. I was really just messing around a bit today so I really don't have the form down yet. It is very likely that it's just my completely inexperienced technique causing it to flail about in the air.

Uncle Long

Are the blades straight and true? It sounds like you might have a bend somewhere. Have they always been wobbly or did they turn wobbly after hitting a stump or something. Also, are you throwing while grasping the blade or the grip?

An-D

I've been throwing on and off for like two years now, and while I'm not expert, I can safely say it just takes practice to get it to do the right spin. Wobbly throws are going to happen. I'd find a big piece of plywood and just blast them into that...once you get your muscles to do the right motion in the throw, it kind of sticks with you. The whole muscle memory thing - like riding a bike.

Practice, practice, practice.

(Step into your throws...it always helps me accuracy and motion-wise)

dispatch.o

Well, I'll add in my advice.


Pick one distance and mark it. Everyone I know learned at around 15 feet. Pick one grip and stick with it, depending on the type of knife you buy. Most are designed to be thrown with a handle grip.

Buy lots and lots of knives, they don't have to be expensive, but you are going to lose and break them at first so I wouldn't buy the single knives that come with a case and cost 45$ a piece. Buy the cheap but well-weighted 5 knife sets for 30$ a pop.

Throw a lot. You get it eventually. Once you can stick it from 15 feet, move forward to 10 feet and go til you figure it out again, then drop back to 20 and do the same. Eventually you just feel it. Just takes a lot of time. It's also one of those things that you have to keep doing to have any sort of skill, I have a set in a box in my closet and last time I was in Kentucky at my girlfriends parents house I went out to a stump and couldn't stick shit.