Rope Dart Inspired Throwing Knife!

Hello! Here is an instructable for making this project. I am sure other people have come up with this, so there are probably better tutorials then this. This is basically a knife attached to a piece of rope, and then it is thrown in an underarm circle and is let go when it is about chest height. If you wanted to, you could skip this whole instructable and just get a throwing knife with a hole in the end of the handle and tie a piece of paracord to it.

DISCLAIMER: This is not a actual rope dart, it is an idea I had inspired by a rope dart. I wanted to make some type of throwing weapon that was a bit easier to get to stick to a tree.

Please enjoy, Vote for me in the Knives and Blades challenge, And have fun with this project! Also, I am not responsible for any injury that comes from this project.

P.S. I am sorry for the quality of the photos, The best camera I have right now is a phone. :)

Ok, time to gather you materials! I don't have a picture of all the materials, but here are a few.

You are going to need:

A forge,

Forging tools,

A table grinder, (Optional: With a wet stone and leather strop.)

1/4 in. High carbon steel bar, (I used a piece of rebar, but that was a mistake.:) )

Paracord of you favorite color, (I used nylon string, Also a mistake.)

Safety equipment and the the skill required for these tools.

Now, you don't have to have a forge, you could just use an old saw blade or something like that and just cut it out. If you are doing this instead, you just need to remember that the dart has to be pretty heavy. Not super heavy, but not light.

Okay, first thing that you need to do is forge out the eyelet on the end of the bar. My piece of rebar was about 8" to 10" long, but it doesn't have to be that long. Here I just bent it on the edge of the anvil and wrapped it around another piece of rebar. If you aren't forging just drill a hole.

Now it is time for The Piece Of Resistance, the blade. First I hammered out the end until it was equally flat and straight with the eyelet. And then, it broke. But that was okay because it needed to be shorter anyways. After I re-did it, I added a bit of a taper at the end of the blade to help shape it. Then I went to the grinder and finished shaping it. After that, I sharpened it with the grinder. It doesn't have to be super sharp, just as long as it has a sharp, pointy tip.

Okay, so here I had used some nylon string. DO NOT DO THIS. The string is not heavy enough to keep the blade straight while flying. I recommend paracord. The length depends on your size, AND I don't really know. It is more a matter of experimentation. Probably start at 10'. And you can do double tails or a single tail. The point of the rope is to act like a tail to keep the knife straight while it is flying through the air, so it does not spin. Therefore, you have a better chance of getting it to stick to your target. I did a double tail, so here is how to tie it. First, pull the string through the eyelet and put the middle of the length of paracord (not string) And tie a square knot or any other good knot that you KNOW will hold. And for the double tail, Probably use about 12' so that each tail is about 6' long. If you find a good length, please comment and tell everyone. So, about 10' for the single tail (at least start there,) and 12' for the double tail. (try there first to.) After you tie it on, fuse the knot together carefully so it doesn't come undone. I did this by taking a piece of scrap nylon string and lit on fire and kind of painted the melted plastic on the knot.

Now you are done! If you want you can paint it, to make it look even cooler! Now to through it, like I said in the first step, take it by the end of the string, (you can tie a little knot a few inches down from the end foe a spot to pinch in between your pointer finger and you thumb.) and spin it in an under-hand circle, and when you get to speed, let go at about chest height. Experiment, and once again, please comment on what you find works best! Thank you, And please vote for me in the Knives and Blades Challenge!