1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to knives and in particular to throwing knives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Throwing knives are well known in the art as a single use weapon. Since many throwing knives (especially double ended throwing knives and throwing stars) require the user to hold a sharp blade by the hand as the user performs the throwing motion, improper throws can result in injury to the thrower. Additionally, because these knives have very sharp blades, a special casing or sheath has to be designed to enable the owner to carry the knife around. Unless holstered in some way, these cases typically make it difficult to quickly access the knife in the event of a sudden need to retrieve and throw the knife. Most throwing knives are thrown handle first, with the thrower holding and then releasing the exposed blade section of the knife. When holstered, retrieval from the holster can only be performed by the knife handle, and the thrower thus has to then change his holding position on the knife from the handle to the blade in order to be able to position the knife to be thrown at a target. In a close combat situation, this results in time wasted, which can be the difference in the outcome of such combat. Regardless how skilful a thrower may be, that skill is of little use if he cannot access the knife quickly, without cutting himself, and place the knife in the proper throwing position (blade before handle) to effectively hoist and throw the knife towards an assailant or other general target.
Additionally when using a throwing knife as a weapon, the throwing knife is considered a single use weapon since, once the knife is thrown, the knife is typically unreachable or unrecoverable and is thus no longer available to the user. This becomes problematic, particularly in a combat situation where there is an approaching assailant. Thus, where the user only has a single throwing knife at his disposal, throwing the knife leaves the user without a weapon and vulnerable. This issue is further complicated if the intended target was missed. While carrying multiple of these individual throwing knives is an option, carrying multiple individual knives can be cumbersome and adds difficulty when trying to safely holster and carry around the multiple knives, when the knives are not being used.