Having problem getting my knife to stick into wood target

[knifeknewbie]

Hey guys!

I'm so glad I stumbled upon this forum while Googling. I hope the throwers in here are still active!

I just started knife throwing last week. Got a Cold steel Pro Balance knife, and am attempting to learn the no-spin technique with Ralph Thorn's tutorials.

I started by throwing at this old 5-layer plywood table top, propped up against the wall. It was hard at first, but whenever by chance I got it right, the knife sticks.

Yesterday, I managed to build my own 'target'. (Pics below)

BUT I noticed that even after throwing and getting the knife dead on, the knife tip sticks into the board, but drops right back out!

It happened a few times, and I was puzzled. I then tried to just stab the wood as hard as I could with the knife, but when I let go, the knife just drops. It does not stick.

Am I not throwing correctly? Do I need to improve myself further, or did I just spent quite a lot of money buying the wrong wood material which is too hard?

I thought it would be easier with these wood material as they were straight grained and vertical, but it seems they are even harder to stick compared to the old 5-layer plywood table top!

Hope you guys can help me out.. Thanks! :thumbup:

 

[halzucati]

Two things determine how well a knife will stick into something. One. Blade thickness and tip geometry. Two material thickness and density. Ok, so maybe thats four. In your case I'd say your fighting thin hard material combined with a high angle tip geometry. From your tip indentations it looks like your only penetrating about 1/4 inch in or so.

Some things to try:

1. Throw harder. More tip penetration through brute force.
2. Change your target to something softer and thicker. 2x4 boards side by side work well.
3. Increase the rigidity of your target mount. Every but of force that gets lost in target wiggle is that much more that could have gone into the "stick"
4. Sharpen the tip of your knife.... Though this is a last resort as all other suggestions should be tried before this. Wood is easier to get and usually cheaper than steel. Plus unless your good with a file, you can just as easily make things worse.

Hope this helps. I'm happy to help of I can.

- Hal Zucati

 

[halzucati]

Just for reference, this video shows both an end-cut of a large log and 3/4" plywood being used as targets.
Note that I've secured the ply wood to the end-cut with wood screws.
Also note that I used both no-spin and 1/2 spin throwing techniques on each target to show a variety of strikes and penetration depths.

Note how the end-cut "heals" to a much larger degree than does the plywood.

Hope this helps illustrate what I mentioned in my previous post.

- Hal Zucati

[video=youtube_share;KjI-p4RfXK4]http://youtu.be/KjI-p4RfXK4[/video]

 

[halzucati]

I've just recently finished a full scale testing setup that I'm using to test different target media with my knives.
The stuff shown in this video is the wood rounds and vertical broad-facing 2 x 4's.

The first video shows the sticks, the second the misses. I found that wood grain is the key.
Sticking is easiest when the grain is pointing AT the thrower... like in wood round or the ends of 2x4's.]

At any rate, these illustrate what I'm talking about.


#1
[video=youtube_share;fPoCoxPKKsc]http://youtu.be/fPoCoxPKKsc[/video]



#2
[video=youtube_share;8L7R68NOaX4]http://youtu.be/8L7R68NOaX4[/video]

- Hal Zucati