After owning a set of throwing knives for, like, a year and a half, I finally got the chance to use them in a league.
After a very open, loosey-goosey sort of invitation, I gathered up my road dawg OtterGuy to travel due east to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, joining a lil’ gang of miscreants to huck a different shaped steel at Chopper’s. There was an added bonus of the marathon being a sort of celebration for my-very-best-friend-forever Mel’s birthday, so my going was a shoe in.
And, dear reader, I was surprised by the outcome. Well, okay okay – maybe not surprised I had fun, but surprised by the speed, relative ease, and nature of a knife throwing tourney as prescribed by the IATF.
Easy to pick up, even easier to throw
This might come as a shock, but I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Sure, I’d read the knife throwing rules. I had a reasonable expectation. But I hadn’t done the ding dang thing until Saturday morning when we showed up. Fortunately, lots of people in the group of eleven also hadn’t thrown in a league, so we were all able to muddle through together.
That being said – the muddling didn’t happen for very long. Much like an overworked bartender on a Saturday night, there was only a very quick sort of muddle before we figured out how everything was supposed to work – and work it did. Matches were quick (and fun), and we managed to do a full 5 weeks plus a tourney and be done by like, 3 or 4 pm (after starting around 10). It never felt like it dragged, and overall it was a very fun sort of day.
Throwing without expectations
Now, I will admit to you: I did better than I was expecting. I will also admit that I finished second-to-last in the league and seventh in the tourney itself. So I’m far from a savant when it comes to hucking knives – but I also didn’t care one lick how I did. It felt a lot like when I first started throwing axes, where I was just happy to be doing something fun and didn’t much care about the result.
I ended up starting with the IATF-brand knives, but quickly found that the set Otter brought suited me better, so we swapped. After that, it was easy enough to get points and laugh at how poorly I did when going for clutch (though I did get a few, and even a premier clutch).
Anyway, I’m mostly writing this post to share some pictures and say I did the thing. If you haven’t gone to a knife league yet, I’d highly recommend it (even if you’re dead set on only throwing axes). It’s a palate cleanser, goofy, and your axe-throwing skills translate pretty well, if my experience is any indication. For what it’s worth, having now done it at least once, I can say it’s a fun time, and I’m very excited to try it again.
Who knows, maybe I’ll start a knife badger blog and start up a second–HAHAAAAAA no there’s not chance of that. Holy shit I’m losing enough sleep and money with one website. Could you imagine? Sheesh.
Discover more from The Axe Badger
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
