How to Forge a Throwing Knife

I didn't win the race to post the first forged knife on the site, so i'll have to settle for second best. rocketscientist2105 posted "i want to try making a throwing knife (bascically a rod with the end flatend, no sharpening nesscicary). Can I use rebar instead of a car spring?" on jtobako's knife forging instructable, and i thought that i could post an instructable on that.
After repeated threats to my physical wellbeing and a bit of wheedling by rocketscientist2105, i was finally persuaded to put a link to his orangeboard.
http://www.instructables.com/member/rocketscientist2015/

Step 1 Select the Steel

I'm posting this Instructable assuming that you already have a hot enough fire, an anvil of sorts and an appropriate hammer, as well as all the other stuff. The first step is to find the steel you're using to make the knife with. My suggestion to you is: Use a tool.
Tools are made from hard steel, right? They usually are.
If the tool you're using has to put up with a lot of bending and twisting and hammering and general abuse, it'll probably be a meduim carbon steel, or a spring steel. Either of these is fine, in fact you could just use a bit of a car spring like jtobako did, that'll do the job perfectly, because throwing knives need to be flexible. If the tool you're using has to be hard and wear-resistant, like a file or a drill bit (I don't recommend using drill bits.) then it'll most likely be high carbon steel. I used a file. The first thing we need to think about when forging files is that they have teeth. Forge them with the teeth still on and you'll trap scale in the gaps, then fold the teeth over. it'll be terrible. Grind the teeth off the file. it helps if you anneal the steel before you do this. To anneal steel, get a good fire going and chuck the steel in. Let the whole piece get to a dull red heat and then let the fire die off slowly. If you anneal the file, you won't wear away your grinding wheel too quickly.

Comments

[shmyt]

It would have been better to have it double edged IMHO, it looks awesomer that way.

[EaglesSoar09]

Nice sound effects on the first pic.

[Landon Sullivan]

This seems like I could do this relatively easily with an eye bolt. Could this be done or is the metal wrong for the task?

[bananna39]

Nice, but I noticed this in step 7.

"There's no eral need to polish the blade..."

[icecoldcelt]

It may be late to comment, but I find it to be much easier to start from the other end of the loop, making it curl like a finger and then making the 90 degree bend with the loop through the horn.

[Proffessor Luke]

Have a look on Sk8master's 'How to throw a knife'. It isnt that bad.

[Notbob]

This might sound stupid but.... how do you properly throw a throwing knife?

[I AM NOT MICHAEL JACKSON!]

I've always found that throwing a knife is either all your own or by the book. The "by the book" way is really anal and you apparently have to throw it perfectly vertical (over your head) which really hurts my power. But the base ball way is kind of over the shoulder and is more horizontal. That is where my strength is. But thats just me. Also try to feel the throw. When you first get your hands on a knife, you want to get a feel for it. By this I mean you want to know how its going to spin before you throw it. To do this find your main hand position and stick with it. Say you hold it by the blade and you want to get a half spin and thus a hit. You have to experiment with different distances and hand positions. When you find a good distance, keep throwing from there. You will get a memory of the distance of a half throw. Mine is about 3-4 feet. But that depends on the size of the knife. From then on you can judge how many half spins it takes to make a full 180-360-450etc spin and increase the distance between you and the target. You can keep going from there and you're only limited to how far you can throw. Good luck.

[TheDeviant13]

a look at this instructable might help http://www.instructables.com/id/Knife-Throwing/

[blugyblug]

Search, theres an ible I read somewhere. Its mainly common sense though. (See how far it travels when the knife does 1 full revolution)

[IkilledKenny]

I have been throwing knives for years and there is one thing that is most important. When you start, get about 10 or 20 IDENTICAL throwing knives (or as many as you can afford, they are cheap.) Everyone has there own way of throwing, and you hold the knife in a different position for almost every distance, after awhile you will find the right grip for the right distance, it almost just happens by itself. Make sure you don't flick the knife like in the movies, let it slide from your hand in a smooth fluid motion. You should end up with your fingers extended like you are pointing at the target. If you have any other questions, just lemme know.

[Pumpkin$]

don't worry about being judged XD I find that when throwing knifes like this you want to find the center of gravity (were it balances evenly on your finger) and place the back end of it in the little line in your palm that's between the middle of your palm,the bottom of your hand, and the tendons that pull your thumb inwards and then holding however you would like to throw it in a stiff manner like a frisby stopping mid throw and releasing it

[Masteroffencing]

if u search throwing knife on here it pulls up an ible about it but i learned when i was like 7

[OldOwlIronworks]

i found that six normal strides from your target and releasing it when strait out. an multiple of six will work as well...

[Vendigroth]

It's certainly not a stupid question, but i don't know for sure.
I stuck it into the shed door from 10 feet by holding it at the balance point thensort of...throwing it....
Practice is key, eh?

[Notbob]

thanks. as my parents always say: practice, practice, practice!

[die_dunkelheit]

I think I might make my first Istructable on how to throw a knife... Do you think that the website admins would have a problem with it?

[Vendigroth]

Do it, there's lots more dangerous stuff here.

[sona]

Examples are: firewire, fire breathing, most of tetranitrates instructables, potato guns, this I know because on certain computers I use instructables is blocked for being: terrorist/millitant/extremist. Wow insane lack of punctuation. But i've never considered myself sane by any means. So... yeah there's way worse stuff out there.

[blugyblug]

Waoh! Terrorist/millitant/extremist Aww man thats hilarious. This 9/11 world is very paranoid. But sometimes they just go over the top.

[sona]

=( I haven't done an instuctable yet. Might do one on game maker...

yup paranoia runs deep in the human genome.

...Never considered myself totally human either.

[Notbob]

Probably not seeing as the group "most to very dangerous" has more dangerous things then that. Although i wouldn't be able to give you a definit answer seeing as i'm not an admin.

[die_dunkelheit]

Well, I made the decision about 2 seconds after posting that question to go ahead and make the Instructable. It's about 90% done.

[die_dunkelheit]

My Instructable is UP!! CHECK IT OUT!! titled "Knife Throwing"

[robotmastern]

id be carefull with the axe in the vice as i broke mine that way

[cava002]

hahahahahaha LOL irritaiting neighbors

[josh1324]

Great instructable! I never thought of using a sledge hammer as an anvil, great idea!

[thoraxe]

make sure you dont hold the blade too long on the grinder or it will heat the steel and damage it. Make sure to dip it in water

[Austringer]

Since he's heat treating it later, it's still soft and overheating it here won't damage the final product. Over heating the final product will send you back to step six. Most steels when normalized (allowed to air cool) are reasonably soft. Some need to be annealed, which is usually done by burying the hot metal (dull red maybe) in sand or vermiculite to cool slowly enough to stay soft. A few will air harden so that once made hot you pretty much have to have a computer controlled oven to anneal them and one you're done forging them, they're hard. If you are working with the right alloy and have an electric oven you can skip the watching the colors run part of the tempering process by putting your hardened piece of steel in the electric oven, setting it to self clean, and making yourself a sandwich.

[stoobers]

I think thoraxe is right. I was taught by a machinist that when grinding a carbon or high speed steel, you can't reclaim the overheated areas. You had to grind them clean off. Some types are hardening are a one way trip! Once it turns purple, its gone for good.

[thoraxe]

oh, i didnt read dat part

[valkiraun]

Excellent instructable. However, i am in the situation where I do not have a forging workshop (anvil and immense heat) so what should i do then?

[Vendigroth]

Take a bar of softened steel, some saws, files and sandpaper and work from there. It'll take a shile, though.

[finfan7]

I am definitely going to make one of these but as i was reading this i realized something that made me laugh. You tested it by just chucking it at your shutters. heheheh

[Vendigroth]

there's no point mking something if you can't test it on the shed. Smoeday, i'll get the bugger to collapse!

[sona]

Try doing a manmade sinkhole. I believe this can be accomplished by pumping water into the ground, though i'm not sure of the specifics.

[BARBARIANROCKER]

I test my stuff on the family cats.... Man they run fast.

[killerjackalope]

I beat you to it, three times over now... we had a great shed, I built a really heavy duty roof for it so i could sit on it, too many people one night and the walls decided to give way... I then used the roof which cam off undamaged on the nest shed, which gave way to a slight miscalculation in explosive power. The first one was when I was ten and my mum asked me to start the car (big old volvo) and i forgot to put it into neutral. that said putting a two tonne car through a shed is fun. Now im building another roof for the bin bit (wierd houses have them...) it's good strong fence all round so another sitting roof! what will destroy is this time? a rocket bicycle?

[AnarchistAsian]

how about an anarchist?

[sona]

I don't know about destroying sheds (aside from my suggestion to vendigroth.) but you can always make id destroy other things by running an electic current through it. only works on sheds made from conductive metal =( though that should keep the squirrels out.