How Joe “Brokenfeather” Darrah Paints Throwing Knife Targets

Ken Gary — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:39:40 +0000

I’ve recently met Joe Darrah of “Brokenfeather” knives over the magic of the internets. He was kind enough to share with me his process of painting throwing knife targets. He also sent me some great photos and he said I could share them with you.

Close-up of finished target.

Hi Ken

I just finished painting up a bunch of target rounds and I thought you might want to see the process I use.

First I painted them with 3 coats of white primer to cover the raw wood which sucks the paint up.

Then I cut out a template to use for the rings.

I painted the 1 point ring blue, left the 2 point ring white and painted the bulls eye red — ala Captain America. (Sort of feels like there should be a star in the center.)

I’ll use lag bolt’s to attach them to my boards.

My buddy dropped off 5 rounds that were a bit under 16″ (the one’s with no white border) but they were thicker so I am going to use them for a separate Hawk Range on my other board so I don’t bust up the 4″ to 5″ rounds that I’ll use strictly for knives.

Of course if I was throwing Bowie Axe’s they would break them pretty quickly as well!

Have a great day!

Joe

This is the template that Joe Darrah uses to paint his targets.

Here is how he lays out his template on a painted log round and draws the circles.

The circles are drawn on the logs and ready for paint.

Doing them mass-production-style saves time!

Targets are drying in the sun.

All the targets are ready to be mounted now.

Some of the targets were too small to get a complete 16 inch ring.

Normally a target will be larger than 16 inches like this one.

I think a 2.5″ white star in the middle would be excellent! How about you?

Throwing Knife Target Built By Ken Gary, Inspired by Harry K. McEvoy and Blackie Collins

Ken Gary — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 19:59:56 +0000

Throwing Knife Target built by Ken Gary

I finished building this throwing knife target on January 31, 2009, the day before the Super Bowl. It was inspired by pictures I saw in throwing knife books by Harry K. McEvoy and also by Blackie Collins (see photos below).

I got the logs for the targets from Gary Davis at Franktown Firewood so if you’re in that area look him up and he’ll cut logs for you in any diameter and thickness you need.

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When I went to bed on Friday night I told myself, “No matter what, before I go to bed tomorrow I’m going to throw a knife at my new target!” So on Saturday I worked all day building it in my garage and with the help of my two sons I hauled it from the driveway to the backyard, rigged it with the first two logs and even though it was getting dark, I THREW SOME KNIVES! It felt great after 20 years away from throwing knives!

You might notice in the video I’ve got the target sitting on a sloped yard. My back yard is not flat except at the very bottom by the fence. I am afraid to put it there because I’m sure knives will bounce off the target and go flying into my neighbors yard. So I leveled the target at the least sloped part of the yard that still gave me a stretch of grass to walk back-and-forth on that was long enough to be able to get in 3 spins when I want to.

Throwing Knife Target by Blackie Collins (page 8 of Knife Throwing Sport...Survival..Defense)

I had some 4″x6″ landscape timbers left over from a landscape project so that’s why the knife target in Blackie Collins book caught my eye. I was inspired by his target but I tried to give it a little more aesthetic beauty with some extra cuts and some joinery that involved some dadoes I chiseled out by hand. Watch the video in the upper right corner of this page to see the details a little better.

I had a lot of fun making this target.

Knife Throwing Target by Harry K. McEvoy (page 40 of Knife Throwing A Practical Guide)

If I didn’t have the lumber already hanging around and if I didn’t want to build a target that I could move if I have to, then I think I would have built one like Harry McEvoy’s hanging target. He used three pieces of 2″ pipe and two 90 degree elbows that he set in concrete in the middle of his back yard. You can’t get much simpler and easier than this. He can hang logs if he wants to or he can hang some slabs of boards like you see in this picture.

His back yard in Michigan reminds me of my grandfather’s back yard in Michigan.

Rear view of Harry's hanging knife throwing target (page 41 of Knife Throwing A Practical Guide)

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Tru-Bal Throwing Knife Society » Throwing Knife Targets

How Joe “Brokenfeather” Darrah Paints Throwing Knife Targets

Throwing Knife Target Built By Ken Gary, Inspired by Harry K. McEvoy and Blackie Collins