I have recently practised throwing knives with my son and in the process of purchasing knives for beginners, I learned the following:

• There are loads of models of throwing knives which are decorative but impractical
  • A beginner’s knife should have:
    • full tang: Full metal from end to end is more robust
    • massive metal: avoid other material, eg plastics, rope, which will easily be worn out or break, even it looks cool at the beginning
    • sharp tip, blunt edge: Only the tip which is supposed to stick in the wood should be sharp on the edged which risks injurying your hand
    • steep tip, thick blade: the blade should be thick and only sharp at the 1-3 milimeters of the end of the tip. Thin blades tend to break because an imperfect throw creates a lot of leverage and torque on the tip which may easily brake off from a thin blade, also expect that your knife will fall to the ground very often which may stress test the blade
    • smooth grip: especially for no-spin throws, it is better if your leading finger can slide along the grip without interruption by other materials or structures
    • weight and length should depend on the size of the thrower and should feel comfortable even after 30min to 60min of practise
      • weight: 150g – 250g, more weight means more impact without having to throw harder which allow better control of your throw
      • length: ~25 cm to 35cm for body sizes from 150cm to 200 cm
    • colour: ideally a bright colour, so you can find it more easily on a brown & black forest floor, if you miss the target
    • number: buy a set of at least 3 knives so you can repeat your throws with minimal interruption to train your muscle memory without having to run back and forth to pick up your knife again
    • price: 10 to 30Euro, expect that you will quickly mess up your knives during your learning phase because your knives will smash against the target, drop on the ground or stick at an angle in the wood creating lots of leverage and torque on the tip.
    • Examples (increasing weight and size):
      • Cold Steel Mini Flight Sport, 181g, 254mm ,~10Euro
      • Cold Steel Sure Flight Sport, 232g, 305mm,~10Euro
      • Cold Steel Pro Flight Sport, 318g, 356mm, ~19Euro
  • A beginner’s knife should not have:
    • no decoration: strings, inlays, hilts, bent blades, or thin blades impair the function of a throwing knife and may make it less robust
    • no cut-outs:
      • cut-outs may look like sophisticated design, but if you throw a knife you want weight so your throws have more impact, cut-outs defeat the purpose of a massive steel throwing knife
      • however, cut-outs or other decoration (eg, print) may be useful to find the centre of gravity more easily