How to throw a knife... the reality.

Choosing your knife. Think the longer the knife the easier the control will be (within reason). I use a single edge 11" blade, or rather several of them where my wife is comfortable with a 9" blade ( having a smaller womanly frame). I find a single edge knife also gives me access to a larger variety of throwing styles, where a double edge can only be effectively thrown from the handle without risking a good slice across the palm.

Finding a good target. I have heard everything from cardboard stapled in layers to cork to 1/4" ply wood to dense foam... Well ok sure but that crap wouldn't last me a day. so here are a couple of realistic options. A circular cut(16" around or more) from a tree that fell a season ago (Please don't go killing a tree for a target, find a dead one.) works extremely well. If you are not lucky enough to live near a forest, any place that sells lumber will be great. Cut 25 chunks of 2 by 4 blocks, stack them in five by five piles flush to the ends and nail them together eight inches back from the flush face of the stack as you will be throwing at the face of the stack. Target.

Theory. The less spinning that happens the better, its all about control. In fact we are only going to throw our knife a half a spin to make it stick in to the target. For me this is effective from 8 to 10, all the way to twenty five feet away... but I Have been at this for a number of years. Your throwing, well, it's not going to happen right away. First you have to unlearn what I call the 'Hollywood Knife Throw' and this I'm telling you everybody does when they get a knife in there hand.

Holding said knife. Balance your knife on the ball of you middle finger and turn said knife until the point touches somewhere, from the center to the lower middle of your palm with the blade facing out. Now without sliding the blade up or down in your palm more the a half inch or so make the grasp the blade comfortably.

Where to stand (in the beginning). Position yourself two body lengths (Roughly four paces) from your target. We are going to be throwing our knife by holding the pointed end blade side out as described above. For the first ten to twenty you are going to 'lob' your knife in an over hand fashion trying to gain the control of only half a spin feel free to adjust your footing (but only a half a pace or so) to accommodate the timing need to accomplish your half a spin. But two thing are critical... Keep your comfortable hand position without changing it, and keep a measured distance. Work within those boundaries to get good then step out side them.

The Throw. Ok remember those rock or base balls? here's where they come in. Your throw should feel natural, there is no snapping of the wrist, elbow, shoulder. When finally you manage the little control needed by lobbing your knife with its half a spin twenty or so times and you are ready to try to stick it in ... throw it like a ball or a rock, the comfortable throw that you know. The throw that you have used countless times... And if when you throw you knife you find yourself throwing weird, less then natural, whatever... pick up those rocks/balls and throw them all in succession... Feel the difference? I thought so. Muscle Memory.

Practice Practice, and don't be scared to go back through the formula if you find it all going wrong. We often get comfortable with the wrong things once we figure we know it.