Knife throwing debate

G

gqbriggs

Joined
Apr 5, 2003
Messages
3
A few questions I would like resolved if at all possible.

After viewing the movie "The Hunted" a debate began between myself and a rather knowledgeable friend the questions that where raised are the following

1.) will a knife, when thrown, spin and then stop its rotation and fly level?

2.) Does the Timberline Specwar "rifle" when thrown (i.e. speed up and/or begin flying level after two to three rotations)?

My belief is that an object in motion tends to stay in motion, hence why a knife when thrown continues to spin. As far as the Specwar speeding up when thrown, the only thing I can think of that would make that true is some form of advanced areodynamics which defy the laws of physics. Considering the Specwar (as far as I know. I could be wrong) was not designed to be a throwing knife I find this hard to believe. Please let me know if I am wrong, I usualy am when I discuss knives with this individual, so once it would be nice to be right.

Gabbo
 
gqbriggs: you are correct. it's a LAW of physics, not just a good suggestion.

The only thing that would cause an object to stop spinning after it had been thrown would be some good drag. Think of an arrow, it is not the weight of an arrowhead that caused it to fly straight, but the aerodynamics and drag of the fletching.
 
Hi

First off The Hunted throw has got to be fake

BUT

There are throws that you can do that you can make a knife fly straight for up to about 8 feet and I think that the Tracker ( being a front heavy knife ) would work for short distances.

Shirikami can throw a spike 5 meters with little spin

Knifesmith
 
When I saw this flick, I thought it was ironic that they could use some "hokie" computer generated graphics for the knife throwing that violates the law of inertia, that a body in motion tends to stay in motion, aka the knife should spin, but spend weeks having Tom Kier and another excellent trainer whose name I've forgotten, train Jones and D'nofrio on Sayoc Kali knife fighting and choreography! The knife fights were great. The knife throws were fake looking though.

Hank:cool:
 
I would prefer a heavy-handle balance to keep the knife from rotating that much...

Ookami
 
Dear All,

Here is what the guy who taught the seminar I went to said about knife throwing. Any object thrown will rotate, unless it is thrown with absolutely zero rotation, which is pretty well impossible. The speed of rotation depends on a number of factors, including the speed of the throw. Imagine throwing a knife at a target in front of you. As the knife passes over your shoulder and you hand extends towards teh target, the knife is turning in space. Thus when you let it go it will continue to turn. The faster you throw, the faster it is rotating before you let it go and hence it will turn faster after you let it go. The speed of rotation also depends on the centre of balance. Imagine throwing a tomahawk versus a knife. Or try tossing a hammer up in the air and watching it rotate. Then toss a knife and watch that.

The point is to make the point stick in the target. Hence you need to manage the rotation so that the point arrives at the target first. If the knife is not arriving point first, adjust your grip up or down the knife to control the rotation better. Holding the knife further away from the centre of gravity will make it rotate more slowly (I think). Closer to the centre of gravity makes it rotate faster. Only practice can tell you where to hold the knife for a given distance. Good luck and have fun!

Neophyte.
 
You can let the knife "slide" through out streched fingers, then the spin imparted is of a much bigger "radius" (from elbow to tip of fingers minus the "slide" factor (you're extending the radius during the "spin" before release) minus the negative spin imparted by the "counter" direction of the upper arm) this can result in a very "lazy" spin, but not "no spin" Essentially you're throwing more forward than forward/down & with no "flick" of the fingers.

This type of throw is more suited to "spikes" than knives, but is not a strong throw, although it can be very accurate (with practice) over short/med distances.
 
Or you can throw a dart, that's nearly flat (although if you look at the darts championships, where the camera is beside the dartboard, the darts do not fly straight;)
 
The throws weren't computer generated but they were fake. The FX folks had wire which can be caused to make knife spin, the knife traveled on the wires. However, it depended if we were on the set the days they shot the throws. We were usually off training one of the actors or rehearsing the stuntmen when some of these shots were done. The actors and stuntmen rotated schedules with us, when one was not filming they were training with us. Some of the scenes with the knife throw were several hours drive from where we were training at times. A film set is like a small city and several things are going on at all times. In this case one location can be five hours drive from another. So if we were due to train and rehearse, the training day would be wasted if we were driving to a location then found out it was raining there or snowing- ruining the scheduled shot for the day. If you check out the film again in the future the spins vary to zero to a few. One day they had it spinning like a hundred times before it hit the target. Thankfully that didn't make print. I was surprised at how this was much more difficult than just having the actor throw the knife. Maybe because the camera crew were usually very close to the intended target.

Hope this helps.

--Rafael Kayanan--
Sayoc Kali
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