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KCSO
10-08-2016, 03:10 PM
I will start this and if anyone is interested I will post additions from time to time. Most of this is from a draft of a booklet I was writing when I was doing this on a regular basis. I will give just a little background so you will realize that I know where of I speak. In 1980 my partner and I started throwing knife and hawk in competition together and we practiced and tried to one up each other all the time. We started giving living history demonstrations and were later hired by Allied Bus Tours to put on shows. We did Knife and Hawk throwing and trick shooting with flintlock muzzleloaders till Uncle Aurther-itis slowed me down in about 2010. We also taught the stars to throw in Dances With Wolves. And managed to insult Kevin Costner and spend an afternoon with his parents teaching them to throw.

Next up Choosing the Hawk???

Alstep
10-08-2016, 05:35 PM
Sounds interesting, have no idea about the skills & techniques involved. Anybody here handle a bull whip??? Would be another interesting topic.

johniv
10-08-2016, 05:44 PM
Interesting stuff. I never could throw a hatchet or a hawk as a kid. I did as well as my peers with a knife.Fast forward 50 years or more and someone gave me a hawk, and I find I can throw it and occasionally stick something with it. I am anxious to learn anything I can .
John

Maven
10-08-2016, 06:46 PM
Always interested in 'hawk throwing, Jim!

MT Gianni
10-08-2016, 08:09 PM
Few things are as fun as heavy knife and hawk tossing. I would feel more confidant in a do or die situation with a sharpened shovel, but it is fun.

crowbuster
10-08-2016, 09:02 PM
I love to throw both as well. Im no expert but love it. I would like to hear what you have to share. A nd thanks.

jcwit
10-08-2016, 09:14 PM
Used to watch Harry McEvoy throw the hawk down at the Nationals in Friendship In. Back in the day when Don somebody had a store just as you turned the curve going into town.

Finster101
10-08-2016, 09:23 PM
I never could throw a knife and still can't. I would love to learn so I'm following anxiously.

JWT
10-09-2016, 12:46 PM
You have my attention.

merlin101
10-09-2016, 12:55 PM
I'm in too! Never got serious about throwing knives but..

slim1836
10-09-2016, 01:11 PM
I have competed in both hawk and knife throwing competitions over the years at voos I attended. It is a lot of fun but can be difficult at times. Many variations are done including a compass throw where the handle has to point north, south, east, and west. Sometimes it's a waltz across Texas where every throw has to be right of the previous one. High/ low targets, etc.

Knife throws have to have one revolution minimum to count and they have many variations also.

Slim

Fishman
10-09-2016, 02:37 PM
Interested, always have been.

PerpetualStudent
10-09-2016, 02:38 PM
Definitely interested in info, I've fooled with it once or twice and plan to do so again.

Also be interested in hearing what kind of trick shots you did.

jcwit
10-09-2016, 02:47 PM
Used to be a gun store here that carried trunk slabs of cotton wood to be used as the tomahawk/knife back target.

No idea where to get any anymore.

HABCAN
10-09-2016, 03:40 PM
I'll be watching and trying to learn..............

fiberoptik
10-10-2016, 04:00 AM
Just picked up a Cold Steel hawk. Would love to learn. Used to slice those white cabbage butterflies with a whip as a kid. PooF!


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corbinace
10-10-2016, 08:43 AM
:coffee:

crowbuster
10-10-2016, 08:44 AM
crazy crow has some cheap throwin hawks. Oh, and better get some extra handles to !

Blackwater
10-10-2016, 01:52 PM
It's been a long time, except for an impromptu event with some friends in a deer camp, but I once was passable at it when a kid growing up. I just used the old hatchet we had, and with some practice, and some advice (finally got some GOOD advice!) I began to be able to stick it at most any reasonable distance. Got fair to middlin' with the knife as well. The bullwhip took longer to learn via trial and error. Most of us back then were mostly self taught, and that's doing it the hard way, and probably limited the skill level we were able to achieve. I remember being disappointed that Dad didn't react more positively than he did when I showed him what I could do. Makes me laugh today. He had a lot bigger fish to fry than watching a young one show off. I still miss him, and like you, KCSO, arthritis and some neuropathy have kind'a put my knife and hawk tossing on the far back burner. Some years back, I took one of my std. hatchets I got from Ace Hdwr., I believe it was, and took a belt grinder to it and thinned the blade some, and recontoured the handle taking most of the hook out of the base of the handle, and that's my favorite hatchet now. It does well at most anything, and penetrates when chopping a bit deeper than it did originally. Took the polishing wheels and polished it bright, and stained the handle a mahogany color. It's not much, but I like it. Don't have an honest hawk, but have been eyeing them for quite a while. For utility, I think I want the type with a hammer head on back for driving spikes into ground, or whatever. VERY handy thing to have in the truck or the woods and on the water. I'm always choosing between a good machete and a hatchet, and go back and forth between them as my current "favorites." Bears and other nasties have been dispatched with them, but that's WAY too close for me! It's amazing what a good, sharp hatchet can do when wielded by someone who knows how to use it, and has some perseverance.

Alstep
10-10-2016, 10:01 PM
Looks like quite a bit of interest here. When do we start???

GhostHawk
10-10-2016, 10:15 PM
One cold steel trail hawk here but no spare handles so until I find some I doubt I will throw that one.

I did look up the crazycrow site and really like the looks of this one. Very good prices and best prices I have seen yet on handles. I think I will be ordering one once my SS money arrives. Handles were 4.50$ each and a teardrop cross section, was planning on 3 spares.
178546

http://www.crazycrow.com/hand-forged-tomahawks/revolutionary-poll-hawk-
hand-forged (http://www.crazycrow.com/hand-forged-tomahawks/revolutionary-poll-hawk-hand-forged)

gray wolf
10-11-2016, 11:31 AM
A place to start

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8ADMTfSFWs

Smoke4320
10-11-2016, 11:44 AM
Tried twice to throw a Hawk .. All I got was claw marks and the hawk flew away !!!

Now that the smart *** answer is out of the way .. Would be very interested in learning

obssd1958
10-11-2016, 05:03 PM
My cousin, Stanley, was in "Dances With Wolves". He played a Mountain Man, in the scene where Costner rides into the Fort where the Officer kills himself. He supplied all of his own garb, right down to the Buffalo robe. His beard was real too!!
I have tried both the 'hawk and knife at the one Rendezvous that I attended with my cousins. It is definitely a "practiced art"!

KCSO
10-11-2016, 07:27 PM
I probably have his picture Dean and I were the guys dragging the buffalo robe.

obssd1958
10-12-2016, 03:38 AM
He lived about 150 miles directly South of you, in York. He passed away in 2004, after being injured in a car accident, and spending several years paralyzed from the chest down. He was a member of the Pleasant Hill Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, and at one time, was the State 'hawk throwing Champion.
I never got to go to any of the rendezvous with him, but did attend the "Red, White and Blue" with his younger brother. We were all pretty close as kids.

Stanley was to blame for my introduction to smokepoles. He let me shoot his flinter - with no instruction or warning ahead of time. So of course, when I pulled the stock away from my shoulder at the flash, and was rewarded with a painful reminder to "don't do that" - he couldn't hardly quit laughing!!
Good times...

tommag
10-12-2016, 12:28 PM
Does anyone remember the Johnny Carson hawk throwing tv bit?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0L5QC9ZJkM8

shooterg
10-12-2016, 07:18 PM
That was funny !

fiberoptik
10-13-2016, 03:50 AM
That's circumcision the hard way!


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dave524
10-13-2016, 12:49 PM
These are too pretty for throwing

http://www.tylergunworks.com/tomahawks.shtml

johniv
10-19-2016, 08:25 PM
Bump. I'm excited.

Skunk1
10-19-2016, 09:42 PM
Now you got me looking. I'm even close enough to learn. Got a couple younger ones that would probably like it also.

abunaitoo
10-19-2016, 09:55 PM
In the past, I've played with throwing knives.
Never had the chance to throw hawks.
Is it worth buying a cheap one to throw????
Or would it just be a waste of money????

corbinace
10-20-2016, 02:46 AM
I have the same question as Abunaitoo. Not super rich, but do not want to waste money on something that will not be useful.

I have a 28" round of Pine with no knots in the face scrounged up. Now I need to make a chest high holder for it and get the hawk to work with.

GoodOlBoy
10-20-2016, 08:39 AM
I been throwing hawks and knives off and on for around 35 years (since I was six) and always enjoyed it for the most part. Ruined alot of knives that weren't meant to be thrown into wood when I was a kid, but you learn eventually. Still a good practical book on the subject would be a good read. So many of the books out there assume you want to join the ranks of the fabled mall ninja :-?

By the way I highly recommend crazy crow, although I warn ya. Even looking at one of their catalogs or their website can get expensive quick if you ain't careful :p

God Bless, and One Love.

GoodOlBoy

waksupi
10-20-2016, 11:47 AM
Back in my cowboy days, I lived in an old log cabin. No electricity, no radio, phone, tv. In the evenings I threw knives and tomahawks, and got pretty darned good at it. I reached the point I could throw even table forks and butter knives and stick them. My target was usually a thumb tack on a stump end. I went through a lot of tacks.
Arthritis has now caught up with me also, so no more flinging things at a chunk of wood.

johniv
11-01-2016, 07:41 PM
Bump.

Alstep
11-01-2016, 08:39 PM
I will start this and if anyone is interested I will post additions from time to time. Most of this is from a draft of a booklet I was writing when I was doing this on a regular basis. I will give just a little background so you will realize that I know where of I speak. In 1980 my partner and I started throwing knife and hawk in competition together and we practiced and tried to one up each other all the time. We started giving living history demonstrations and were later hired by Allied Bus Tours to put on shows. We did Knife and Hawk throwing and trick shooting with flintlock muzzleloaders till Uncle Aurther-itis slowed me down in about 2010. We also taught the stars to throw in Dances With Wolves. And managed to insult Kevin Costner and spend an afternoon with his parents teaching them to throw.

Next up Choosing the Hawk???


OK, when do the lessons start???

KCSO
11-02-2016, 03:04 PM
Made another post and no one read it so I haven't done another.

corbinace
11-02-2016, 03:21 PM
Made another post and no one read it so I haven't done another.
I have been watching and must have missed the post to which you refer. I and I believe others have an interest.

Finster101
11-02-2016, 03:27 PM
I have been watching and must have missed the post to which you refer. I and I believe others have an interest.

Me too. I have subscribed to this thread but missed the one to which you refer. I'm most definitely interested. Point me in the right direction please.

jonp
11-02-2016, 07:26 PM
One cold steel trail hawk here but no spare handles so until I find some I doubt I will throw that one.

I did look up the crazycrow site and really like the looks of this one. Very good prices and best prices I have seen yet on handles. I think I will be ordering one once my SS money arrives. Handles were 4.50$ each and a teardrop cross section, was planning on 3 spares.
178546

http://www.crazycrow.com/hand-forged-tomahawks/revolutionary-poll-hawk-
hand-forged (http://www.crazycrow.com/hand-forged-tomahawks/revolutionary-poll-hawk-hand-forged)

wow, i always thought they were quite a bit more than that.

Col4570
11-03-2016, 03:48 AM
Hawk Throwing,is a skill involving working out how many turns to get to the target and finish at the blade.In an actual battle situation the distance could not be measured and the foe might be lucky and be hit by the Shaft.He might then throw it back or hit you with it.I have often wondered if the Shaft at the handling point could be Fluted as with an arrow its flight might then be constantly blade forwards.

Jeff Michel
11-03-2016, 05:22 AM
I was always under the impression that throwing your weapon at someone would not be very well considered idea, especially if that someone has decided to put a hurt on you. Just saying.

corbinace
11-04-2016, 01:10 PM
follow-up post is at;

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?319614-Hawk-Throwing-Getting-Started