losangeles
New member
Yeah, though it is a lot of fun trying to hit a target in the backyard. 
Knife throwing-Who can do it?
- Thread starter PzGren
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I got into it as a kid. Once I understood that it's a matter of visualization, it was pretty easy.
Half turn, full turn, 1 1/2 turns, two turns.... that's as far as I got. The trick (for me at least) is to see what you want the knife to do, concentrating on the point, all the way to the target. If you have this firmly in mind at the instant of release, you've got it made. If you lose your concentration, you'll miss.
The longer knives, 10-12" at least, are easier to learn with. I have a bush knife that I cut down from a machete that's 14" long. The point of the Bowie-shaped blade is on the centerline of the handle. I can hit with that one out to 15' or so.
The usual 7" "throwing" knives are about useless. If you want to learn, get a big, heavy, cheap knife and practice on trees. Hold the knife by the blade and visualize the knife turning over and the point entering the target. Start at 8 or 9 feet. The bigger the step and the faster the throw, the slower the turn.
You'll figure it out. It's kinda fun.
John
Cape Canaveral
Half turn, full turn, 1 1/2 turns, two turns.... that's as far as I got. The trick (for me at least) is to see what you want the knife to do, concentrating on the point, all the way to the target. If you have this firmly in mind at the instant of release, you've got it made. If you lose your concentration, you'll miss.
The longer knives, 10-12" at least, are easier to learn with. I have a bush knife that I cut down from a machete that's 14" long. The point of the Bowie-shaped blade is on the centerline of the handle. I can hit with that one out to 15' or so.
The usual 7" "throwing" knives are about useless. If you want to learn, get a big, heavy, cheap knife and practice on trees. Hold the knife by the blade and visualize the knife turning over and the point entering the target. Start at 8 or 9 feet. The bigger the step and the faster the throw, the slower the turn.
You'll figure it out. It's kinda fun.
John
Cape Canaveral
Blackwater OPS
New member
After reading all this today I went out and tried it with an old buck knife. After some pratice I could see improvement, but when I change my distance I was back to square one. I think it would be impossible to hit a target with any reliability if the distance was a dynamic factor.
Exactly. That's why I always laugh at movies that have some action hero killing people easily and efficiently with a throwing knife.
I even saw a really bad action movie where a female action (was it Pamela Anderson? It was some woman you'd know, but I forgot who) hero killed some dude by throwing one of those plastic Delta Darts. I think they referred to the thing as a carbon fiber throwing knife or a composite throwing knife or something.
Just IMAGINE how hard you'd have to throw one of those to get it to stick into flesh or muscle!
Stupid movie. Anyone remember what it was called or who was in it?
-blackmind
I even saw a really bad action movie where a female action (was it Pamela Anderson? It was some woman you'd know, but I forgot who) hero killed some dude by throwing one of those plastic Delta Darts. I think they referred to the thing as a carbon fiber throwing knife or a composite throwing knife or something.
Just IMAGINE how hard you'd have to throw one of those to get it to stick into flesh or muscle!
Stupid movie. Anyone remember what it was called or who was in it?
-blackmind
Actually, it's not. If you learn to throw by figuring out how many turns the knife makes in a certain distance, then it'll be true. Unless you're throwing at a distance where the knife will be going point first, it won't stick.
If you learn the way I did, distance isn't nearly as important. At around 12 feet, for instance, I can throw holding the knife by the handle (one full turn) or by the blade (turn and a half). It's a matter of controlling the way the knife behaves in the air by using throw speed and wrist action.
John
Capt. Charlie
Moderator Emeritus
And how far up the blade you're holding it when you throw.
Have any of you put this into practice by actually throwing at a moving body that is "dynamically" changing its distance to you?
Sounds great in theory that you can modify the throw, grip, etc., but are you speaking from having done it? Did you have a friend run around the yard with a big picnic table held in front of him or something?
-blackmind
Sounds great in theory that you can modify the throw, grip, etc., but are you speaking from having done it? Did you have a friend run around the yard with a big picnic table held in front of him or something?
-blackmind
greeneggsnham
New member
I almost didn't tell this story for fear of being considered a quack or something, but during my short college days before the military, I lived in a fraternity house, and happened to work for the University Police Department. We had one member who was later blackballed because he was vulgar and abusive. I was just past my pledgeship and living in the house and found myself alone one day outside. He snuck up behind me in the front yard and grabbed me in a bear hug and wouldn't let go, so I whacked him with a tree limb beneath me. He was not playing around. A fellow about as large as me, he was the winner of the Sigma Chi Fight Nights. He managed to peel the skin off my big toe to the point of it being a hanging bloody mess. As I hobbled up the steps a baseball sized rock slammed into the door about a foot past my head and as he screamed, I turned to see him charging me across the yard. We had been bar-b-q'ing a few days before and a large dirty meat fork was lying on the steps. I quickly grabbed it and hurled it and it hit him about twenty paces away at a full charge. It stuck out of his head between his eyes like in a cowboy and indian movie and he simply crumbled to the ground and didn't move. The guys came pouring out of the house about the time he collapsed in mid stride with fourteen inches of meat fork sticking out of his head. I thought I'd killed him, and so did everyone else. He lie there not moving with his eyes open. Common sense did not prevail, and he was thrown into the back of a pickup truck and we took him to the hospital where it was determined that he was drunk, and that the fork had not penetrated his skull, but simply slid under the skin as the forks bent. Lesson: I had practiced throwing knives maybe two days a month for the past several years. In a personal combat experience, the training paid off, and was very effective at stopping a large intoxicated, and known violent aggressor. I hope no one ever has to rely on this in an actual situation as it was then, and is now, many years later, simply horrible.
cracked butt
New member
Instaed of trying to pound a round peg into a square hole, why not use something made for throwing: Shurikens. When I was a kid my friends and I would buy these 'ninja throwing stars' at the local flea market for about $1.50- 3.00 a piece and have a blast with them for countless hours. Heck, all of the boys in my 7th grade class got once suspended for 2 days for throwing them at trees on the playground as they were asy to conceal and bring to school for throwing fun.
Blackwater OPS
New member
I would have kept the fork and stabbed him in a few pressure points.
Mannlicher
New member
I can throw a knife just fine. Only problem is that I can't hit anything with the pointy end.
Gee, I forget how many times I reground a knife blade to put a point back on the blade. I even got good enough to do it without hurting the temper of the blade.
My best advice is to buy something strong and pointy. My cold steel tanto is good but if buying something to learn on I would go with an estwing hatchet since they are all metal from handle to blade and I would buy a piece of bar or something as well, like a prybar or something with a point on the end.
I never learned how to change turns and what not, I sort of started throwing and with changing distances and throwing objects my brain kind of picked up on adjusting how I hold things. As mentioned everything has a balance point and your arm speed changes things as well a bit.
I compare it to how I learned to shoot a bow and arrow in the scouts over 20 years ago. There were no sights on the bow and you just learned how to point shoot the bow through lots of repitition. If you changed the distance and target height you were shooting at a lot you started learning the trajectory of that bow with that weight of arrow.
And I should mention it was darn funny when I got a compound bow with sites on it.
I like being able to throw things. I do it with all sorts of stuff and I won't say I am great at it but when I am throwing a few things every day I get up to around 80% or so I guess. I do lots of yardwork and build things and take things apart. Doing this gives me hammers and pry bars and rebar and shovels and all sorts of stuff to throw around. Mostly when taking a break it is nice to throw my prybar or something somewhere so it is sticking out and noticable when I get back from break.
And someone mentioned throwing stars and I hated those things because I bought the cheap ones and tried to sharpen them.
My dad had all sorts of old tools and never threw anything away so one day while looking through stuff I found some tiny circular saw blades. I believe they are for the original dremal type stuff that came way before the dremel of today.
Anyway these blades were like a circular saw blade but about 4 inches in diameter. So they were like a throwing star but way better made than anything I ever bought as a throwing star. Of course they were also darn dangerous and could tear your hand up if you held it wrong.
I don't plan to ever throw a knife at an opponent or anything else. I just enjoy it as a hobby and skill.
My best advice is to buy something strong and pointy. My cold steel tanto is good but if buying something to learn on I would go with an estwing hatchet since they are all metal from handle to blade and I would buy a piece of bar or something as well, like a prybar or something with a point on the end.
I never learned how to change turns and what not, I sort of started throwing and with changing distances and throwing objects my brain kind of picked up on adjusting how I hold things. As mentioned everything has a balance point and your arm speed changes things as well a bit.
I compare it to how I learned to shoot a bow and arrow in the scouts over 20 years ago. There were no sights on the bow and you just learned how to point shoot the bow through lots of repitition. If you changed the distance and target height you were shooting at a lot you started learning the trajectory of that bow with that weight of arrow.
And I should mention it was darn funny when I got a compound bow with sites on it.
I like being able to throw things. I do it with all sorts of stuff and I won't say I am great at it but when I am throwing a few things every day I get up to around 80% or so I guess. I do lots of yardwork and build things and take things apart. Doing this gives me hammers and pry bars and rebar and shovels and all sorts of stuff to throw around. Mostly when taking a break it is nice to throw my prybar or something somewhere so it is sticking out and noticable when I get back from break.
And someone mentioned throwing stars and I hated those things because I bought the cheap ones and tried to sharpen them.
My dad had all sorts of old tools and never threw anything away so one day while looking through stuff I found some tiny circular saw blades. I believe they are for the original dremal type stuff that came way before the dremel of today.
Anyway these blades were like a circular saw blade but about 4 inches in diameter. So they were like a throwing star but way better made than anything I ever bought as a throwing star. Of course they were also darn dangerous and could tear your hand up if you held it wrong.
I don't plan to ever throw a knife at an opponent or anything else. I just enjoy it as a hobby and skill.
Blackmind,
I didn't realize that what you meant by "dynamic" was.... "dynamic".
No, I've never tried throwing at anything moving. That would be a tough one.
Most of my throwing has been at targets that were at varying distances. Walk away from the target 4 paces, turn and throw. Then do it at 7 paces, 3 paces, 8, 5, etc. Turn right, left, throw overhand, underhand, backhand. Never could throw across the body, right-to-left. Can't control the release somehow.
John
I didn't realize that what you meant by "dynamic" was.... "dynamic".
No, I've never tried throwing at anything moving. That would be a tough one.
Most of my throwing has been at targets that were at varying distances. Walk away from the target 4 paces, turn and throw. Then do it at 7 paces, 3 paces, 8, 5, etc. Turn right, left, throw overhand, underhand, backhand. Never could throw across the body, right-to-left. Can't control the release somehow.
John
Capt. Charlie
Moderator Emeritus
I always try for a half flip, and I've found that the further away the target, the further up the blade (towards the hilt) you want to hold it. But I do it for fun. I'm with most others here in believing that knife throwing in combat just isn't practical for anyone except for a very, very few.
.greeneggsnham
New member
I'd be willing to bet that I'd never be able to duplicate that move, and I am very certain that it was as much luck and fate than it was anything else.
the possum
New member
Haven't really practiced it in a while. I could stick 'em about every time with a half rotation throw, but I've never had enough coordination to actually hit what I was aiming at a high percentage of the time. Same thing with baseball.
That said, I've killed several critters over the years by throwing a knife from close range.
That said, I've killed several critters over the years by throwing a knife from close range.
Never could throw a knife.
I am deadly to 40' with a #3 Phillips screwdriver though. They aren't heavy enough for much farther.
Do quite well with a 3 1/2 lb splitting axe or a hatchet to 50-60 feet.
By the way, it does not matter how that 3 1/2 lb hits, edge, top, handle first, you are not getting up.
Sam
I am deadly to 40' with a #3 Phillips screwdriver though. They aren't heavy enough for much farther.
Do quite well with a 3 1/2 lb splitting axe or a hatchet to 50-60 feet.
By the way, it does not matter how that 3 1/2 lb hits, edge, top, handle first, you are not getting up.
Sam
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