Sports That Use Hand Knives and Blades

Watching the recent Summer Olympics got us thinking about sports that use hand knives or blades. Does that sound too violent? It shouldn’t, there are Olympic sports involving guns, javelins, and bows and arrows.

Regardless of what it is, it seems someone, somewhere has turned it into sport or athletic competition. The same must be true for hand knives and blades?

The first sport that came to our collective minds was darts. Okay, it’s not much of a sport, but it is a popular pastime.

Of course, a dart really isn’t a hand knife or a blade. It’s more of a point. If we’re going to include sharp points, then we might as well include javelin throwing and archery.

If you’ve perused Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions’ website, then you know hand knives and blades are much more than “sharp points.”

Then we thought of ice skates. An ice skate is nothing more than a boot with a blade. These blades are only used for locomotion, and not directly involved with the competition, but they are still very crucial.

If you do accept ice skate blades, then we can include ice hockey, figure skating, bandy, speed skating and short track skating.

We know what you’re thinking. What the heck is bandy?

Bandy is basically the ice version of field hockey. Some call it “winter soccer.” Two teams of 11 players try to knock a ball into a goal using a curved stick. Bandy is the second most popular winter sport (in terms of participation).

Maybe you disagree. Maybe you think ice skating blades aren’t really blades. That they’re not in the spirit as the blades made by Hyde Industrial Blade Solutions.

Fine, let’s put blades aside and focus on hand knives. Are there any sports involving hand knives? Certainly throwing knives is not a sport. It’s just something you see at the circus.

Actually, that’s not true. Knife throwing is a sport and one of its main governing bodies is the IKTHOF.

Are you not familiar with that acronym? Well, IKTHOF stands for “International Knife Throwers Hall of Fame.” They are your guide into the wonderful world of “precision sport throwing.”

From their website you can learn all about knife throwing, makes plans to attend an event, and check out their professional knife throwing rankings. If there’s any type of ranking system, then it’s a legitimate sport.

Disciplines within knife throwing include conventional, no-spin, Eurothrow, and Mountain Man. The IKTHOF also supports tomahawk throwing.

Remember, if you become a member of the IKTHOF, which you can do on their website, then you become a “brother or sister of the knife.”

So, it turns out we were right. It may not be in the Olympics (yet), but there are sports that use hand knives.