Aim Games K21 Caverns of Mars has now officially closed!

That's it for now. The online competition  Aim Games K21 Caverns of Mars is officially over.

It resulted in 992 entries from 296 participants, who represented sixteen countries, including the USA, Indonesia, Scotland, Lithuania, Italy, Ukraine, Canada, and, of course, Sweden.

I have noted that the most participants definitely came from Indonesia, including the overall winner.

For a long time, I was in the top ten but somehow I was knocked out of there with a day or so left in the competition.

The wait towards the end of this competition was a bit nervous. I submitted three entries. The first was just to get on the results lists as the concept includes raffles of nice prizes as long as you have submitted an approved video. The points were extremely mediocre.

Entry number two was better and sent me to 31st place, something I was very happy with at the time. However, the downward trend began fairly immediately as more and more good results were noted, and I eventually found myself in fortieth place or so. At that point, the Swedish flag was held aloft by the eminent Astrid Sundlöf who was found in 7th place. For me, it felt like an unattainable position.

My best result was 20266 points which was enough for 11th place.

There are several reasons for that feeling, the absence of an indoor venue being one. In my case, it is the weather that largely determines how much can be thrown. Luckily, there was a gap with mild winter weather. Then I pulled out my best result, 20266p*, which brought me all the way up to sixth place at the time of submission. Considering the names participating in the competition and who I had behind me on the list, that was a dizzying feeling. 

But then I slowly started to slide down. For quite some time, I was in eighth place. It wasn't that easy to beat my points after all. Then a couple of big names slipped by and pushed me down to 10th place. There was no chance to try to defend my position by improving my own points. The targets were frozen solid. There was one name in particular I "feared" and that was Paul "Big Mac" Maccarone and sure enough, with two days left, he pushed me out of the top ten.

The knives used are WL Custom Blade Spinning Butcher by Throwingzone

However, eleventh place is a position I am extremely happy with. After all, I have only practiced knife throwing for four seasons, even though I started in my teens. In addition, I lack the opportunity to practice as often as I want. I can't be indoors or close to my home, but have to travel for a while to get to my training ground.

I must take this opportunity to thank Rick "The Rocket" Lemberg for the chance to participate in this competition. It is completely free of charge, although there are prizes to be won. Very kind!

Now it's time to change my sights to no spin and the UKAT World Championships in the Czech Republic next summer. Although before that, there is actually another competition in this series called K22 Seven Seas. Something tells me I'll be participating in that one too.

/ J - a k a "The Swedish Chef", in these contexts

* I also have a clip with a score over 17,000 points which is not submitted as it is a lower result. But when it was relevant it would have been enough for a decent placement.

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New Knives - WL Custom Blade Spinning Butcher by Throwingzone

Some knives are more sought after than others. These definitely belong to that category. I have been searching for a long time for a set of knives signed by the great German knife thrower Werner Lengmüller without success. Now it must be pointed out that it is not particularly difficult to get hold of them, it is mostly about money but that is precisely what has been missing. If you don't want throwers handmade by him, that is, he has stopped making knives. Instead, he has outsourced the work.

This model is called the Spinner Butcher and is manufactured and sold by Throwingzone in France.

WL Custom Blade Spinning Butcher 

The brand is WL Custom Blade and the manufacturing would in other knife contexts be called "mid-tech". That is, they are made in small series mostly by hand. What is special about knives labeled WL Custom Blade is that they can be purchased from two different sources. In the US they are made by Prince Steel Knives and here in Europe by Throwingzone.fr. This means that they actually differ somewhat. The basic design is of course the same but the grind, weight, and materials are actually different.

The thickness is 6 mm and the handles are 3D-printed handles. The length is 32 cm and they weigh 450 g for this version of the Spinning Butcher

The material in this case is Swedish Hardox. It is steel found, among other things, in protective plates on dumper flatbeds and bulldozer blades. Tough as nails, in other words. But what is unique about these particular knives are the handles!

They are not the first in the world, similar attempts have been made before but not quite with this quality from what I heard. The handle sides are made with a 3D printer! It is a technique that I have never come across in this context, so I do not know exactly what type of plastic it is. It should be noted that this set found on these knives are prototypes. It will be interesting to see how they behave over time, read "hold". The first feeling is great. They have a slight texture to them that makes them resemble G10.

If you want them more traditional, they can of course also be had with classic leather handles or completely "naked".

The first feeling says that if I just have time to get used to the model, these will be my knives for rotational throwing in the upcoming Nationals 2023. The question is whether it was love at first sight or first flight?

/ J - one happy thrower

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