My Throwers

Nixelplix

Nixelplix

Joined
Mar 26, 2003
Messages
6,778
I just thought I'd share a couple of throwers I've made:
throwers4pp.jpg


I call the big knife "The Cleaver"-- even though it doesn't look like a cleaver, it weighs over a pound and is good for busting up small logs.

The other one is a chachram that I made-- pretty fun stuff.

They're both beat up and dirty, but they are tough and take a lot of abuse and are fun to throw.
 
How did you make them?
I've never had the pleasure of trying a chacram, do you throw effectivly the same was as a frizbee or is it the same sort of style as xena:warrior princesss(old show on five (UK))
 
I cut the knife out of a 1/4 inch thick piece of high carbon steel I found-- you can see a couple of drill holes that were in the plate when I found it. I cut it out using a table saw with a metal cutting blade. Then I ground a thick "axe" edge on it and hardened it using a small forge and some old motor oil for a quench. Tempered it in the oven-- 2 one hour sessions at 400 degrees F.

The chachram I cut off the end of a pipe using a bandsaw in a machine shop. It wouldn't fit in my forge so I left the metal soft. I throw it overhand, holding it in a sort of a pinch, since it is harder to control its direction and give the throw a lot of force throwing frisbee style.

I can't remember exactly how Xena threw, but I do remember that it would magicly return to her and this one doesn't do that.
 
Great work, i've not the tool to make that work, but one day...

The disk is really nice, it's could be interresting to throw that. I'm thinkink that xena one was a little magical :D .

@ + ben
 
Nixelplix;

What culture does the "chachram" come from ?

How about making a "boomerang", similar to the one in the Mad Max film.
That way, it wouldn't need Xena's "TV magic" to return back, as a true boomerang should be able to,.... after decapitating an extremity or two. ;)
 
I bet you could make a metal boomerang that would return. It would probably work, as long as it wasn't too heavy. I don't know if I would try catching it, even if I did have a chain mail gauntlet. :D
 
Maybe a boomerang manufactured from aluminium, or a metal of similar weight and strength, with a mean chisel gring along the edge......
I'm with you on catching the return though, as no matter how think the chain-metal gauntlet is, there's no guarentee that my accuraccy would be spot on, and the returning 'rang could severe the arm below the gauntlet. Now that would certainly "suck" to a degree.... :p

How well do your Cleaver and Chachram fly though ?, and what's the grind on the edges like ?
 
Nixelplix said:
I throw it overhand, holding it in a sort of a pinch, since it is harder to control its direction and give the throw a lot of force throwing frisbee style.
Click to expand...
Do you find it bounces back and rolls toward you, or does it try to "climb up" the target? With no teeth to grab into a target, does the chakhram stick at all?

I've had mixed luck with saw blades--some stick well, others bounce in wild directions.
 
Both of them fly just fine. The Cleaver has to be thrown with a little extra force, since it is heavy. Its got a thick edge on it, which I would compare to a wood axe's edge. With all that weight and momentum behind it, I've seen the edge chop into a target when it hits the target early (point up).

The chachram is thinner (1/8") so it has a finer edge. It has about a third to half the weight of the Cleaver. I never hardened it, though, so it is never really sharp (neither of them are, for that matter). It sticks just fine, as long as you hit the target in line with the wood grain. If you're throwing it at wood rounds, it doesn't matter how it hits, it will stick. The most difficult thing about the chachram is learning to be acurate with it.

Saw blades work better if you grind the teeth down to having a sharper edge and point.
 
Nixelpix,

First, thanks for the tip on the saw blades--I've been throwing some fairly sharp ones, but should not dismiss "duller" ones simply because they might be a little more work for me. I'll check into that.

Second, nice work all around--interesting comment on hitting with the wood grain. I'll have to consider that with saw blades as well--that seems to have considerable merit.

Third, you mentioned accuracy. What sort of things have you learned in this regard? Is it better to be closer, further, more angled? I've thrown some lighter circular implements, and watched them curve quite a bit in flight--have you observed this in your throw? What compensations have you made accordingly?

I ask only because your chakhram is one of the oldest throwing weapons on here, it's the newest darn thing anyone's posted about in a while, and you have learned considerably more than I have on its throwing nature. Please divulge more information, so I can compliment you more. :)
 
I've heard a number of things about chakhrams, but I'm not sure which ones are true.
I've read that Sikhs would wear them on a conical turban.
They supposedly threw them like a frisbee or twirled them around a finger and launched them (tried both of these-- both very tricky).
Also they say that it can chop a bamboo shoot at 30 yards, but I haven't done this yet, as it is more difficult to be accurate with horizontal throws, and haven't been able to hit the branches I've been aiming at.
I read somewhere that some of the fancier ones had cutouts or decorations that would make it whistle in flight and imparted some kind of aerodynamic benefits.
I like to chuck mine vertically overhand. It flies straight and doesn't curve in flight. longest distance I've thrown it was at about 30 yards.
:cool: :cool: :cool:
Yeah-- i've been wanting one of these for a while, and when I was working briefly in a machine shop I saw that perfect pipe and since I had access to the bandsaw I jumped on the chance to make one. I found a site to someone who was making these but I'll have to look for it again.
 
Adding: throwing vertically keeps the blade in a vertical plain, so it is easier to be acurate on the throw.
Throwing horizontally, you have to control both the height and direction of your throw to keep it accurate and is much more difficult. I haven't been trying this very much, so I don't know all the properties of a horizontal throw. It very well might curve in flight if you threw it horizontally at an angle. When thrown vertically, I haven't noticed any flight curve, even when the blade throw was angled a little.
 
Ta-da!

Looks like mine is not entirely historicly accurate-- it does not encorporate airfoiling technology-- and I could have easily done that by ginding the edge only on one side. Oh well, I still like it and it works great.

Smoky Mountain Knife Works Chakram

Atlanta Cutlery Chakram

Neither of those are the one I origionally saw for sale.

I keep on spelling chakram differently, but I've seen it spelled lots of different ways :)

edit: I'm having trouble linking to the Atlanta Cutlery one. Put "chakram" in the site search.
 
Nixelplix said:
Looks like mine is not entirely historicly accurate-- it does not encorporate airfoiling technology-- and I could have easily done that by ginding the edge only on one side. Oh well, I still like it and it works great.
Click to expand...
I'd say that's immaterial. It looks and functions correctly.

Your work is done... and thanks for the clarification on the throwing. Definitely something for me to experiment with. You've been a huge help!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top