The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details:
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Those seem pretty small. How light are they?
Brendan is much older than his 15 years when it comes to maturity. His scoutmaster has mentioned that on more than on occasion. I have drilled into my boys' heads since they were 7 that guns (then bows, and now throwing knives) are not toys. When he goes out to practice with his bow, he is incredibly conscious about his surroundings and where his younger brothers might be sneaking into. Throwing knives won't be any different.I'll chime in there,
I was taught as a youngster that a dull knife was more dangerous than a sharp one. That is because a sharp one cuts what it is intended to cut while a dull one tends to slip off the work or even seem to jump off it into your hand where it definitely will cut (Murphy's Law and all that). This has also been my experience with throwers. If you are giving these to a 15 year old, it all depends on the 15 year old and his level of maturity. He does not need to be starting this with his buddies standing around watching!
It has been too cold here to get out and make a target for him, but I have amassed a good amount of cardboard that I will be compressing and mounting to some 1/4" plywood for him to start. I figure that will help reduce rebound. Fortunately, I have some leather that I can wrap around part of the blade for safety (thanks for that idea!).These things can take wicked ricochets off targets to endanger anyone near the target area watching!! I would certainly be there (behind him) to make sure throwing is done safely, at a reasonable distance (not too close) to start and at a soft "non-bouncing" target. Multiple layers of pasteboard make a good starting target that doesn't bounce a knife much. Also soft wooden rounds as opposed to hardened barn board or dried oak etc. If all I have is a hard bouncing surface, even one layer (side) of box (pasteboard) will make a knife slow down and almost eliminate bounce if it is taped to the harder target face. As you get better, just take it off. You have to swap them out every time you throw anyway. You and he will quickly learn what bounces and what does not and may leave the knife edges taped or may expose them to increase the sticking area of a blade. Wearing a good jacket with long sleeves, zipped up to protect the neck is a good idea too when you first start, along with paying attention and getting out of the way when appropriate. Don't get distracted when a knife is in flight because some idiot behind you makes a comment. Sharp pointy knives are much more likely to stick and much less likely to bounce. The edges are very easy to dull temporarily by wrapping electric tape around the blades with a layer of leather over the edge. But the points need to be sharp. And once he gets the hang of throwing, the knife with a good useable edge has some daily uses in the field. It also helps with what was my ultimate goal which was to be able to throw anything that came to hand easily. I almost always carry a fixed blade in the woods here (very rural) and throwing was a good game when the chores were done at night. But I didn't want to carry additional knives on long hikes or camp trips just for throwing? It is always easy to dull blades with tape and any type of covering like plastic or leather without limiting their future use or destroying their design.