Chinese throwing knife

[Peter Dekker]

One of the weapons that often comes up in movies and dojo lore alike but is rarely encountered in real life is a Chinese throwing knife, or feidao (flying knife) in Chinese.

This is an example I found in China:

Length: 160 mm
Blade width: 22 mm
Blade thickness: 2 - 3 mm



Although simple, it appears rather well-made with clearly visible sanmei (three plate) construction coming out at the edges. The balance lies exactly in the very center at 80 mm from either side which can hardly be a coincidence.

We can only guess at it's intended use: An acrobat that made a living with knife throwing performances? Or more exciting, a trick up the sleeve of a thug or assasin?

-Peter

[Philip Tom]

Peter, I have a suggestion. How about having your Pakistani arrowhead makers crank out a few exact replicas of this so you can try them out?

[Peter Dekker]

Hi,

Sounds like a great idea, but Holland doesn't allow throwing knives to be imported.

The only reason why owning this one does not make me a criminal is because this example is antique.

I can hardly imagine the ban is because crime rates with throwing knives were getting out of hand. These things aren't exactly easy to use!

-Peter

[Philip Tom]

Holland is beginning to resemble the ideal "nanny state" in the government's zeal to protect the people from themselves. It's no more or less ridiculous than the ban on nunchakus and "kung fu stars" now in place in many US municipalities. Like other Asian weapons that look so impressive in the movies, these things are fairly difficult to use with any degree of effectiveness. Nunchakus, in particular, are a great source of self-inflicted injuries when used by untrained, naturally clumsy, or genetically inept people.

[Peter Dekker]

Yep, those ninja stars and nunchakus are illegal here too. Speaking for myself, I'd have more chance killing someone with a rock than one of those stars. On nunchakus, after the rising popularity of these things due to Bruce Lee movies, our brilliant government stepped to the Dutch Karate-do association. They argued that nunchaku were not nessecary for martial arts training so they were banned. Karate meaning "empty hand", one wouldn't have expected them to say anything different!

Another interesting part in our law is that "arrowheads with sharp edges that serve to cause extra damage" are illegal. Now it is the case that the edges on late Qing military arrowheads were intentionally left blunt as to make a more jagged wound! Also, I can argue that the sharp arrowheads I will have made are not made "to cause extra damage". They are simply made to represent historical pieces.

There has even been a brief time that suddenly most edged weapons, like swords, were illegal. They had a campaign: "have the guts, throw down your arms" where you could hand over all your illegal weapons to the police without prosecution. Due to a loophole in the law it was still legal to have them in shops and sell them, buyers just couldn't buy them or own them. I decided to go "outlaw" and not hand over my precious knives and swords, but luckily a few years later the law was lifted due to assimilation to the European law system and without doing anything I was a law-abiding citizen again. Countless collectors had gotten rid of their stuff and now realised it had been in vain. There had even been people scared into handing in their large cooking knives, it was absolutely crazy.

A funny incident that made the news during this time was a guy that handed in a serviceable shoulder launched anti-tank weapon, knowing they couldn't prosecute him for it.

-Peter