Hacker News Reader

Comment by AretNCarlsen | Hacker News Reader

"Double-edged sword" has never worked for me, as a cliche. Do you often find yourself inadvertently smacking against the dull side of a single-edged sword, such that you stay away from double-edged swords for your own safety? rm is like a double-ended knife, i.e.: http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/4253/425...

(Fun fact: many knife throwers grip the blade end anyway, rendering the cliche to an even simpler "rm is like a knife".)

View on HN

This is completely unrelated to the original topic at hand, but I thought it might be interesting to shed some light on knife throwers' grips. For a given thrown weapon, whether a knife or an axe (or anything else that is meant to spin end-over-end), the number of revolutions is roughly fixed and is a function of the distance from the thrower to the target. Thus if you happen to be at a distance where you're getting a half revolution, you'll throw from the knife blade, or turn the axe around (so it's pointing towards you on throw). That enables it to hit the target the right way around. Of course, many people prefer to take a half-revolution step forwards/back so that they can throw from the tip regardless, just as a matter of form -- I did this for a while, although I feel I get better control when throwing from the handle.

I have always been amazed by knife-throwers' ability to calculate the amount of revolutions between their hand and their target when throwing. It just seems like one of those things that the human brain couldn't possibly calculate correctly on a consistent basis. Does it take a very long time to get comfortable with it when training?

It took me a couple months to get decent at it, though I'm still a quarter revolution or so off frequently. Axes came far more naturally to me, where I generally get very close to perfect on my first throw. If distances are marked I'm fine with either, though.

Are there specific techniques to learning it, or is it just experience? For example, do you have to be very familiar with the specific weapon you're using? Does "visualizing" help? Are there tricks or points of reference that you use to help out?

I just practiced a lot, really. Familiarity with a specific weapon helps in terms of knowing how it flies, how it's balanced specifically, etc but you pick that up after a few throws. Biggest piece of advice I can give is to not rush -- I have a tendency to get too "into it" and lose focus on my technique, so I had to slow myself down, take a few breaths, and think through the whole process.

If you want to get into it, I recommend two things: first, find someone who does thrown weapons and can talk you through the basics and point out mistakes in your form (SCA events are a great way to do this, and that's how I got into it), and the second is just to get a slice of a tree trunk and some weapons and start practicing regularly.

I found it to be a great way to relax and get my brain away from tech. It's one thing I miss in moving to NYC.

I had a friend who actually knew proper sword technique, and he was not impressed by my machete with saw teeth on the other edge. With a single-edged sword you can use your forearm to support it when blocking, but with a double edged sword, not only can you not do that, but trying to block with the sword itself allows your opponent to overpower you and press your own sword against you.

For what it's worth, you can use your arm to support it if you're armored as well. If you're in chainmail/plate, the force is distributed well enough that there's no reason you can't do this, even with a double-edged weapon. That said, there are many swordfighting styles where armor hinders you significantly, and you frequently see single-edged weapons in these. It's actually really interesting to study the history of swords, their techniques, and the armor commonly used along side them -- used to have a really good book about this, but can't find it now.

I did not think of that angle, and am now appropriately recalcitrant.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com