Mini Bo-Kri

The Mini Bo-Kri has been designed as a camping- and throwing knife. Like its big cousin, the Tan-Kri, it has been conceived by John Bailey. The knife is distributed by Boker USA.

With a weight of 230g and a length of 27cm it nearly has ideal measurements; At is widest part, it measures 4,1cm, and it is 4½mm (3/16 inch) thick. The 420-J2 stainless steel employed is tougher than the ones normally used for throwing knives.

The knife throws very well from the handle, the thumb snuggles into a curve on the spine of the knife. Thus, the grip is very constant here. Because the blade gets rather flat towards the tip, it penetrates the wood easily and remains stuck.

With the sharp blade (even though not sharp enough to slice wood), you have two possibilities for a throw from the blade: You can hold the knife flat in your hand, edge pointing to the outside, thumb on one site, all other fingers half curled on the other. The shape of the knife does support this grip, the thumb will actually rest on the center of gravity! This slows down the rotation, so that you can actually throw from the handle and the blade from the same distance, for example 3m. Of course this means that half-turn distances can not be thrown easily with the knife in this way, with the handle grip being quite fixed.

Your second option, recommended by John if you do use the Mini Bo-Kri only as a thrower, is to file the edge blunt. Then you can use the hammer grip or the pinched grip here (see pictures).

After some test throws, it turned out that you have to throw quite precisely or the knife will not rotate cleanly but tumble through the air. A hit against a nail bent the tip, which subsequently caught in the hand with blade throws. It could be straightened out, but the material will not support this very often.

Due to the multipurpose orientation as a camping and throwing knife, the Mini Bo-Kri is not what I would call an ideal throwing knife, the shape and sharpness of the blade limiting your grips there. However, you might opt to sharpen the blade even more and use it as a sort of field knife, with the opportunity to throw it well from the handle.

The Mini Bo-Kri throwing knife is delivered in a rugged leather sheath. Because it has to be imported from the far east via the USA, it is not as cheap as intended by the designer.

Featured in the "Hunger Games" movie.

You can buy this knife at Toolshop.