Throwing Stars -- don't laugh

S

seionage

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Oct 3, 2010
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A buddy of mine, wants me to make some serious throwing stars for him. Something that will stay sharp (well sharper than the elcheapo ones you find) and still take a beating. Like a decent throwing knife.

He gave me one he picked up about 20 years or so ago. It's 5/32" thick, stainless (but unknown stainless).

I figure this will be a good project to keep working on my grinding.

To keep cost down, I'm thinking of 440C or ATS34 from Admiral.

If I went with non-stainless, I was thinking of 5160, maybe with a forced patina (I'm assuming you can force a patina on 5160, but I've never tried).

What hardness would you recommend for any of those steels?

Any other recommended steels? Looking for any and all feedback.

Thanks!
 
I've never made one or really even played with any much, so take this with a grain of salt. I don't think they need to be as hard as a knife blade, since toughness will be more important than holding a fine edge. I don't how well 440C or ATS-134 perform at lower hardnesses, only having used those types at 58-60Rc for regular knives. Lots of folks use 5160 for stuff that needs to resist severe impact, so I think that would be a good choice. I would look up some good throwing knives and see what steel/HT they use.

I suspect the most important thing will cutting them out as symmetrically as possible for the sake of balance.

Now I kind of want to make a couple just for fun :D
 
Right. I think toughness will be more important than edge holding ability. Plus, there are going to be a number of things to get right for balance. Plus, there are 5 double edges to grind.

I'm thinking this will be a fun little project, and prove to be a learning experience. (well given my limited experience, grinding an ice pick is a learning experience).
 
I remember being obsessed with them when I was young. The whole NINJA thing! Didn't go over too well when there were a thousand little holes in the garage walls from chuckin stars.....and blow gun darts!!!
 
You would be better off buying the ones Cold Steel sells.
 
yeah I agree CS should have decent stars, making those would be insane time wise.. but if you're up for it I'd like to see the process..

I used to carry a few of them when I was around 12 man those things were fun.. If you're gonna make them I'd say a hardness of around 48 should suffice regardless of steel...
 
I have a couple Cold Steel Sure Strike throwing stars in 1055 and like them a lot. At about 60* the edge holds quite well and I can stick 'em all the way to the base of the spike. You might want to consider a four-pointed design unless your friend really wants a replica of the star he gave you.
 
We made something like those about 40 years when the kung fu fightin craze was sweeping my burb. We sliced a 1.5 inch ring of of some mild steel tuning and welded 4 homemade 6 inch knife blades around it (at a right angle to the pipe end) spaced evenly (dad helped). 1 blade was unsharpened and the other three were not terribly sharp. We were a hazard to trees in the forest for the entire summer and the following christmas it was all forgotten later as we had bb guns for christmas. They tree knives stuck in anything better then the sheet metal stars but they were as heavy as lawn darts it seemed.
 
If you come up with a design that you like it might be a good choice for waterjetting. If you want to make a lot of them. I think the larger companies might use cold or hot stamping. 1075 is a steel that I see mentioned for throwing knives. From what I have read, an easy HT.
 
Yep, those Cold Steel ones are nice. Might be easier to make some shuriken (throwing spike variety) rather than the shaken (stars), since you don't have to worry about symmetricality. I'll be interested to see what you come up with.
 
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