Knife throwing is an art, sport, combat skill, or variously an entertainment technique, involving an artist skilled in the art of throwing knives, the weapons thrown, and a target.
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The desirable properties for a throwing knife differ from those of a common pocket knife. Knives used for throwing are almost always one-piece, rather than the traditional knives that have a handle manufactured separately from the blade. The purpose of this design is to create a durable knife with a balanced distribution of weight. Additionally, some throwing knives are double-edged, although the edges of throwing knives are almost always dull (to prevent the knife from cutting the thrower's hands in some grips). The knife sticks by penetration of the sharpened point into the target; Other factors such as weight distribution, overall mass and dimensions and especially durability also become important. Compared to pocket knives, the steel used to manufacture a throwing knife should generally be more malleable and less prone to breakage.
Knife throwing, whether in a martial or sport application, involves the same basic principles of mechanics. The objective in each case is for the point to stick into the target with a sufficient amount of force. For this to be successful, accuracy, distance, number of rotations and placement of the body all must be taken into account unless a no-spin technique is employed by the thrower (there are spin and no-spin throwing techniques). If the thrower uses a spin technique, the knife will rotate during flight. This means that the thrower, assuming he is throwing the same way every time, must either choose a specific distance for each type of throw or, more practically, make slight adjustments to placement of the knife in the hand as well as angle of release and rotation of the wrist. Variations in throw technique can allow great accuracy and range. Throwers may also need to adjust for throwing off-center, around corners, and while running.
"Spear" or "arrow style" or "combat style" knife throwing is an alternative throwing style practiced by a majority of knife throwers in the army. In this style, the knives are thrown so that they fly straight into the target with little or no rotation, in the manner of an arrow or a thrown spear. This is usually accomplished by a throw that resembles a shot put, accompanied by a slight downward flick of the wrist as the knife is released, in order to cancel out rotary momentum accumulated in accelerating the knife. Spear style is sometimes considered more difficult than standard knife throwing, and can be somewhat less accurate, but has the advantage that the thrower does not need to gauge the distance to the target or choose a number of rotations. In theory, it is more useful as a martial art. Spear style throwers usually use smaller knives (commonly between 5 and 10 inches in length) than typical knife throwers do, They also tend to use knives balanced with more weight towards the handle; Although the technique applies equally to larger blades such as swords.
In the USA and in Europe, there are communities of people pursuing knife throwing as a sport, similar to archery. Groups such as IKTHOF (International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame, USA), AKTA (American Knife Throwers Alliance, USA) and Eurothrowers (European Throwing Club "Flying Blades", EU) sponsor events, demonstrations and competitions. Those are an opportunity for the throwers to exchange knowledge, compare their performances, and enjoy the amiable atmosphere common to those events.
The competition itself consists, in the most common form, of a series of straight throws aimed at a set of standard wooden targets or in some cases foam. Similar to an archery target, competition knife throwing targets have a bullseye surrounded by one or more rings. A sticking knife scores points. The thrower must be standing at least a set distance away from the target, with higher distances for more challenging events. IKTHOF keeps a ranking of its members based on their performance during these sponsored competitions. The scores achieved at Eurothrowers events can be examined at the meetings' reports.
In Canada a new organization has taken initiative in trying to make knife throwing an Olympic sport but for them to do so they need financial support, from various sources this organization is called Association of Canadian Knife Throwers (ACKT) and their website is http://throwmasters.com
Although it was popularized in America in the late 19th century by traveling acts such as the Barnum & Bailey Circus, the history of knife throwing dates much further back. The art of knife throwing was first used in martial arts or hunting applications. It has been incorporated into the martial disciplines of the Japanese as well as some African and Native American tribes. In such cases, throwing a weapon when fighting is generally thought of as a risk. If unsuccessful it can leave the thrower without a weapon. However, many warriors traditionally carried two or more weapons at the same time.
Military personnel (typically special forces operators) seldom use "normal" knives for throwing, because lack of repeatability makes training and certification difficult. The Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting Knife, used by the British Royal Marines, is finely balanced for throwing. The French GIGN's knife has a liquid mercury vial hidden inside to help automatically orient the blade forward when thrown . The Soviet Spetznaz (special forces) throwing knife is actually a ballistic knife, which uses a very strong coil spring hidden in the handle to propel the blade forward on the press of a button. The holster carries extra blades, because hitting a tree or other wooden object embeds the blade so deeply, removal by human strength may be impossible.
Knife throwing as entertainment is part of a group of performance arts sometimes known as the impalement arts.[1]
Knife throwing has made many appearances in film, most prominently in action movies such as Kill Bill, Gangs of New York, V for Vendetta, and prominently in The Expendables. Many films, with the above-mentioned as notable exceptions, depict the act of throwing a knife in an unrealistic manner. Compared to the standard Hollywood throw (holding the knife by the tip, between thumb and forefinger), competition knife throwers usually hold the knife either along the length of the blade close to the center of gravity or by the handle. Additionally, the number of rotations within a distance of five to thirty feet should be no more than two.
Steven Millhauser wrote a story called "The Knife Thrower." It was published in the March 1997 issue of Harper's and collected in The Knife Thrower and Other Stories. Willie Garvin, the main supporting character in the Modesty Blaise series of books by Peter O'Donnell, is depicted as an expert knife thrower. He can draw and throw in a fraction of a second and accurately strike targets up to 90 feet away with the blade or hilt of his custom-made knives. In the young adults book series, The Ranger's Apprentice, rangers carry a set of throwing knives that they are trained expertly with to use, and can be also used as melee weapons.
The opera Queen of Knives, which premiered in Portland, Oregon on May 7, 2010 tells the story of a brother and sister knife throwing act in the midst of the student protests in Birmingham in the early 1960s.[2]
Several video games have successfully adopted knife throwing into their gameplay: XIII (2003) used realistic single-piece knives, Conker's Bad Fur Day (2001) used kitchen knives that when used without targeting would travel straight towards where an opponent's head was at the time of throwing, GoldenEye 007 (1997) could be configured in multiplayer to only allow throwing knives in an arena and featured a single player mission that involved breaking out of a jail cell unarmed, Altaïr ibn La-Ahad, the protagonist in Assassin's Creed (2007) is adept at throwing knives and targets hit will die instantly, knife throwing is also prominent in the tenth game of the Fire Emblem series. Tactical strategy games (such as Jagged Alliance 2 and Silent Storm) portray knife throwing as a silent and sometimes instantly lethal ranged attack. The popular Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 also features throwing knives as a one-hit kill weapon. In Red Dead Redemption (2010) throwing knives can be used to kill or maim enemies and used knives are retrievable from the corpses of the fallen.