Throwing a Khukri

Joined
Jun 23, 1999
Messages
110
Let me preface this post by saying that I don’t think I’ll ever risk the nice horn handle on any of my khukris by throwing one of them at a target. However, I’ve heard/read stories about Ghurkas throwing their khukris, and seen questions posted by people regarding the throwing of a khukri. Honestly, I never put much stock in the feasibility of throwing a khukri (even in a last ditch scenario), therefore, I humbly pass this along...

June 18th I attended a demonstration by knife throwing world champ John Bailey.
He was a really neat guy, and not only took the time to explain the types of the knives he throws, but the ‘how and why’ of making it all work.

After demonstrating throws with various sizes of throwing knives at different distances and targets (including a certain purple dinosaur character), he reaches underneath his table and starts pulling out miscellaneous edged implements like:
-A U.S. bayonet...sticks that in the target
-Scissors...sticks those in the target
-Throwing stars made for a TV series...sticks those in the target
Then he pulls out a khukri and asks, “Anybody know what this is called?”
He explained a little history of the khukri, the Ghurkas, and then proceeded to talk about
the perils of throwing a khukri.

In short...the common overhand knife throw will always impart a forward spin, if the
back of the blade hits first, a khukri can roll off the target and come back towards the
thrower almost as fast as it went towards the target. It seems strange, but he demonstrated the phenomena with a throw towards the bottom of the target. Sure enough, it came back...tumbling to a stop in the wood mulch that was spread around the demonstration area. His next throw was “dead-on perfect” with the blade splitting wood in the target and the handle parallel to the ground. The power and “thunk” of that khukri hitting the target was very impressive (or maybe a better word would be, “serious”). If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have believed you can get a khukri to perform like that.

He has his own throwing technique, if you’re interested in finding out more, take a look
at ‘Technical Assistance’ on his webpage:
http://www.throwingknives.com

Chris S.
Orlando



[This message has been edited by Chris S. (edited 06-18-2000).]
 
Excellent post, man. Excellent post. Now we know it's possible. However, here's a practical question: In a combat situation, why would you want to throw your khukuri? (I can think of 1 reason only, but I'll let everybody else lay in first).

------------------
Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
 
There are,at least three reasons Craig. Nothing left to lose,distraction and hope for the best.Buy time.

Rather like trading altitude for airspeed.Don`t run out of both.


Happy landings.
 
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