Sometimes in the movies a thrown knife features as a murder or combat weapon. I’m wondering if that’s actually possible. A knife is not a dart or a javelin. When you throw it, it does not fly straight but tumbles end-over-end. So, how do you make sure it hits the target point-first? You could do it as part of a circus act, I suppose, since you get to throw it at a set distance from the target, and practice from that distance. But in actual combat you wouldn’t have that luxury.
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Probably not possible except for a very few highly skilled practice-until-his-arm-falls-off persons.
Former (hobbyist) knife thrower here. Basically, you can manipulate the amount of spin put on the knife to ensure that it hits point-first from whatever distance you are from the target. You don’t need to adjust too much - the main adjustment is to decide whether to hold the knife from the blade or handle, with minor adjustment on spin at that point.
Hard enough to do while standing still and throwing at a stationary target. Essentially impossible to do in the heat of the moment at a moving person’s small vital targets.
I read an interview of a circus performer who used his knife throwing skills twice in WWII. Once to take out a sentry quietly from a few 10s of yards away, the other was to kill an officer who had just been pretending to be dead while he took the officer’s knife as a souvenier. Cite would be Knives Illustrated magazine sometime in the early 90s.
Bolding Mine
I’m not looking to start an argument, but if you did anything short of nearly severing their head, wouldn’t they be screaming bloody murder? Even a strike through the heat would be noisy and messy. When we got trained on sentry removal, the idea was to destroy the wind pipe so that no air could pass through the larynx. It’s hard to picture doing that with a thrown weapon.
Agreed. Based on 10+ years of doing this for fun, I would call bullsh*t. Not against the poster - I am sure they probably did read this somewhere, but I see all kinds of ridiculous things in print.
Its hard enough to hit the target at all. To be sure of hitting a 2-inch square target in the throat (the only target that would ensure silence) at 10s of yards beggars belief.
I use to throw screw drivers in place of knives and it’s just a matter of adjusting the throw to maintain a 1/2 rotation.
I’ve thrown knives for years. The thunk when it sticks in a tree is very satisfying. As a combat skill though, knife throwing is right up there with darts.
The best quote I’ve seen on combat knife throwing is “Don’t do it. You’re just going to alarm and arm your enemy.”
Testy
It’s still quieter than a gunshot. Maybe the nearest help for the sentry was a quarter-mile away. Let him scream, but make sure nobody gets off a shot.
I don’t think the knife would paralyze the sentry’s trigger finger, though, and if he’s alive enough to scream, he’s going to be alive enough to get off at least a raise-the-alarm shot. Unless he’s unarmed, in which case why bother with the knife, just walk up and give him a noogie.
Big Knife with a hard throw could kill someone for sure. I’m thinking Bowie, and they are some of the easiest knives to get to spin just right. My favorite throw is into a shaken full beer can, really great visuals. So, I and a whole lot of others could actually hit a living target and probably kill it, the screaming would most likely be severe.
Like chacoguy said earlier, the windpipe has to go, and even then you are probably going to cut yourself as well.
You may or may not be able to hit point-first, but in the middle of a “situation,” getting thwacked by a knife certainly serves as a distraction.
Actually, even cutting the larynx can be pretty loud with the air escaping through thin slit (making, I’ve been told, a loud hissing/screeching noise). It’s better to stab into and through the side of the neck, or better yet, the back of the head above the C5 vertebrae or into the kidney (claimed to be paralyzingly painful and will sever the renal nerve, resulting in death in tens of seconds). FM21-150 US Army Combat Field Training Manual (warning: PDF) lists the Army approved way of sending someone’s soul to hell using your field knife or other non-projectile weapons. (Based on my on martial arts and ground fighhting training, I have some significant doubts about the “Belgian takedown” and suspect that “Neck Break With Sentry Helmet” is best left to Arnold Schwartzenegger movies.) I have practiced sentry takedown using training knives (“the only smart reason to use a knife in combat,” according to my edged weapons instructor) and it is a lot harder than it may appear in movies, especially when the sentry is not near cover, is in motion, and may be wearing protective gear or LCE that obstructs target areas. Not impossible, but highly risky, so when I watch The Guns of Navarone with the heros dispatching guards on average every 3 minutes and 17 seconds, I find it highly amusing.
At any rate, I’d have to agree with the above poster that stories of taking down a sentry with a thrown knife are likely apocryphal at best. I am by no means an expert at knife throwing (“Why would you throw away your weapon?”) but beyond the difficulty of hitting a movable target at variable range, it would be difficult to assure adequate penetration into a vital area, even the neck (which is surprisingly well-muscled and resilient). Any throw to the thorax would be highly likely to get stuck in the ribs or do some other non-critical damage. The range of a thrown knife is also pretty abysmal; even the best knife throwers I’ve seen can’t reliably hit a head-sized target at more than 30 feet. Tomahawks and throwing axes have a bit more range but you’re still not going to hit someone at 100 feet or more, and any well-prepared sentry post is going to be cleared for at least that distance.
Most of the knife throwing you see in the movies and on television is utter bolsh, actually filmed by running the frames in reverse (to make it appear that the knife has gone into the target) and quick-cut with the hero throwing a knife (usually one not even well-balanced for throwing). You’d be far better off with a suppressed .22LR High Standard or Ruger, or a bow, than a thrown knife.
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I am also skeptical of the account, just wanted to include that I had read of someone claiming to have used knife throwing in actual combat.
In my pathetic attempts at knife throwing, I have given up entirely on rotating the knife, because it spins and then the knife hits the subject with something other than the point, not entering the tree trunk or ground.
So what I did was hold the knife by the handle and bring my arm forward to release it in such a way that the blade leads. This only works if the blade is heavier than the handle. Accuracy is awful.
It is really very easy to throw a knife and have it land point first. Hold the blade toward you, grasping the blade. Point the handle toward the target (preferably a tree rather than a sentry), bring your arm back over your shoulder, bring it back down quickly pointing the end of the handle and let go. Surprisingly, it will make a half turn and hit blade first.
I thrown any number of them this way, from a special forces “killing knife” to just a jackknife. Or, as had been said, a screwdriver or almost anything similar.
In any sort of combat, military or civilian, the basic rule is that if you throw a knife, then you no longer have a knife to fight with.
Does it just do the one half turn, regardless of how far away the tree is?
Throwing knives are specially balanced. I’ve seen them for sale. For consistent accuracy that’s what is needed. You can throw regular knives, but why waste the time with something that’s not balanced. Throwing knives usually don’t have handles ither.
Regardless of distance from target?! How is that possible?!
I would imagine it’s the same as throwing horseshoes. The idea is to control the spin. It’s all in the grip and motion. Distance doesn’t even factor into it. Well…in horseshoes it does.