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IT'S FUN TO THROW A KNIFE

It's fun to throw a knife. Not only is knife throwing fun, it is also great sport, entertainment, recreation, a body developer, a mind relaxer, and a stimulant-all rolled into one! It can also be a wonderful hobby, pastime, or even a profession, depending on how you go about it.

Practically any man, woman, or child from an early age on up can learn to throw a knife with skill and accuracy. All it takes is practice once the fundamentals are mastered.

These fundamentals are easy to learn because anyone who can throw a stick, baseball, or rock, crack a whip, or cast a spinning rod can also quickly learn to throw a knife. The only other requirement for successful knife throwing is to use a weapon that is properly designed and balanced and is of sufficient length and weight for maximum control.

Sportsmen knife throwers are increasing in numbers every year at a rapid pace. From the early 1950s, when suitable throwing knives were designed and became available for the first time, to the present day, when various throwing types have been perfected and widely distributed by top-notch cutlery dealers throughout the United States, knife throwing as a modern sport has grown and thrived.

Perhaps this rapid growth of interest in knife throwing is because the sport is fundamentally still a back yard recreational activity, with only a small amount of throwing room needed. The fairly recent availability of inexpensive, well balanced, and virtually unbreakable throwing-knives has also helped.

Less obvious reasons-but important ones-are the desire of growing numbers of sportsmen to use the throwing-knife as a hunting weapon, which necessitates considerable back-yard practice, and the interest generated by many returning servicemen, who took up the sport with deadly seriousness while overseas.

Vast numbers of throwing-knives were airmailed to servicemen stationed in Viet N am from dealers in the United States, and these special weapons served a double purpose. They relieved the boredom of camp life by providing recreation and also helped many a G.I. in a desperate, close-quarter combat situation.

As a modern sport, knife throwing has many advantages. All a sportsman needs is a good knife-or set of knives-designed for the purpose, whether made to throw by the handle or balanced to throw by the blade. Both techniques will be fully described in the following pages. A suitable target is cheap and easy to construct, and only a small portion of the back yard is needed for the throwing range.

There is hardly any other sport that can provide so much recreational pleasure at such small cost as knife throwing. It can be enjoyed as a "solo" activity or can be expanded to include other throwers for keen competition.

A certain amount of care and several appropriate safety measures are required in practicing the sport, since spectators are drawn "like bees to honey" whenever a serious knife thrower goes out back for a practice session. This should not, however, present any great problem, and suggestions will be offered herein that will enable the thrower to deal with the situation.

The art and science of professional knife throwing will also be fully described and explained, although it is for the sportsmen knife throwers, who may someday outnumber the professionals by more than a million to one, that this book is primarily written.

It's fun to throw a knife because it is a sport in which individual skills can be developed to a very high degree. And remember that anyone who can throw a stick, stone, or baseball can also learn to throw a knife. There is no great "mystery" that has to be revealed. Expert knife throwing, like great proficiency in any other sport, is developed by natural aptitude and instinct combined with that one magic ingredient:

LOTS OF PRACTICE!