Since the beginning of time, man has used some form of throwing tool to knockout a small animal or hit a hanging piece of fruit from a high tree branch. These original throwing objects must have been made out of stone, bone or wood, but the object of the game has not changed over the course of human history. The purpose is to aim and hit your target. Here at Sharper Edges, we like throwing blades.
Fast-forward to today's world, where blade throwers mostly stick with knives, axes and stars.
KNIVES: if you’ve seen the 1995 movie Desperado starring Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek, you’ll remember the street fight scene with Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi. It was one of those first time, adrenaline rush sequences that stays with you forever. It also threw knife-throwing into the spotlight. Trejo wore a vest wrapped around his entire torso where he repeatedly pulled out what seemed like an infinite amount of blades; flinging them with pinpoint accuracy upon his many moving targets.
Historically, thrower knives were used to hunt and fight. Popular styles like the kunai originated in Japan and were heavily used by ninjas as a multipurpose tool and weapon — despite the fact they were originally invented for gardening and masonry. Now throwing knives are used mostly for outdoor fun & games like throwing axes, stars and darts. If you’ve ever visited a carnival, you know the act where the knife thrower attempts to split an apple sitting on someone’s head, or the reluctant assistant spinning on the giant rotating wheel while blades fly all around their body. Thankfully, the practice of knife throwing has become more of a domesticated sport over the years where anyone can set up a non-human bullseye board in their own backyard.
AXES: Axe throwing classes are becoming all the rage in cities across America, but why? Even before the Covid-19 pandemic inspired people to learn survival tactics and enjoy the outdoors more, the art of axe throwing has chopped its way to the top of fun activities to do; on par with battings cages, driving ranges and bowling alleys. Even in places like New York City, entire storefronts and even some bars are completely dedicated to the sport.
We already knew lumberjacks have been big ambassadors of axe throwing since the 1800’s, but over the last 20 years, outdoor enthusiasts, festival organizers, and massive pop culture movie productions like Lord of The Rings, Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead have all played a major role in highlighting the lore of axe wielding, and tossing.
From hatchets and tomahawks top splitting axes, double-bit axes and felling axes, just do a quick Google search on “Axe Throwing” and get ready to explore all the new and seemingly endless amounts of types, techniques and places to bring your date on Valentine’s Day... We're not kidding.
STARS: You may know them as ninja stars, throwing stars or Chinese stars, but they are originally known as shuriken, which in Japanese is a concealed weapon that was used as a hidden dagger or metsubushi to distract or misdirect, and were a secondary weapon to the mighty sword — sort of like these combo sets from Fantasy Master which come with two thrower knives. Coming in many different weights, sizes and styles, throwing stars are all meant to glide through air at lightning speeds. Some specific styles include star-shaped and spike-shaped designs. Star-shaped can be cross-shaped, four-pointed, six-pointed, eight-pointed, and ten-pointed stars as well as triangular, hexagonal, pentagonal and three-pointed weapons whereas spike-shaped designs could be pointed on one or both ends and range in lengths and shaft configurations from completely round to hexagonal, triangular, or rectangular. Then there’s of course, room for customization (think Batman).
We've pieced together the best throwing knives and throwing knife sets at the most approachable prices from some of our most popular brands like USMCand Tac-Force.
Looking to bury the hatchet with an old friend? Scroll through our selection of the best throwing axes that are sure to guarantee a good time outdoors from our SURVIVOR series.
Want to work on your ninja skills? Our quality throwing stars from brands like PERFECT POINT will help spin you in the right direction.
