Balance point for no spin?

M

Minibear464

Joined
Jul 14, 2011
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I'm starting to get into throwing knives, and planning on making one from a dead file I have. I can't figure out where the weight should be though. I've read the various pieces of advice, advocating balance from pretty much every part of the knife. Can someone tell me where it should be and why? I've always thought it should be blade heavy, so that the knife flies with sort of a foxtail motion, so the weight is leading and stops the spin.
 
I started throwing knives about a year or so ago and what got me interested was combat style knife throwing. Like you said no spin and i thought it was imposible til i got the technique down. The knives ive used are the Ziel knives. I would think that the weight should be more in the handle for this syle of throwing. But i have practiced with pencils, ink pens, files kitchen steak knives. But i am still a novice and usualy adjust to whatever it is i am throwng. Maybe someone with more knowlege of this will chime in.
 
I would assume the weight should be middle to front balanced. This is why you see some throwing knives with that teardrop shaped blade. And thinking of a dart, you can hold the tip and spin it pretty hard when throwing and it always lands point first (I know there are flights on the rear that induce drag).
 
I have always said the balance point should be in the handle side, 38 percent from the back end of the knife, but sometimes I wish I would never even have talked about balance points because people start obsessing over it instead of just learning to adjust and throw regardless of the balance point. Remember you can choke your grip up or down a little and change the effective balance point that way, among other things.
 
Ralph, if im not mistaken I think I saw in a video of yours that you even use Duct Tape to add some weight to the handle? Do you just do that until you feel comfortable with the balance or is part of it the way the angle of the handle. I don't know if i explained that very well but hopefully you get my drift. I was also thinking about wrapping mine with leather or even the grip stuff for tennis rackets. Any thoughts on that?
 
wait.. eralphthorn, as in Ralph Thorn? The DVD, thorn throwing style...!?! If so, my balance point is definitely going to be 38% from the end. If I may ask, how did you end up with such a specific number? And I'm planning on learning with this knife, and solidifying the technique, and then move onto throwing everything under the sun! :D Or that's the dream anyways. I'm trying to throw for show, for fun, and also self defense, so I figured versatility would work for all of those. Just need a good base to get started.
 
I used tape of different kinds a long time ago, usually electrical tape but also duct tape. I mention using it in my videos and book as a way to make starter weapons cheap, but it really isn't necessary. It is just an aid to beginners. I always say that but it doesn't seem to sink in sometimes. People will obsess over the balance point instead of adapting.

I haven't actually thrown any knives with tape on them in years and in fact I stripped the tape off of some center balanced knives that I had rebalanced with tape. One reason I used tape was that I used to break a lot of knives and so I had a lot of broken sword blades, etc. lying around. And to some degree tape acts as a shock absorber to help prevent things breaking. If you make a new handle out of tape you salvage that junk and get more use out of it. The custom blades I use now don't break so they don't need tape.

38 percent is derived from the golden section (google it).
 
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