Introduction
Some knives are simply more beautiful to look at than others. This knife called The Iron Mistress from French Zitoon Knives is a prime example of that. There are of course more throwing Bowies on the market but not many that are as stylish as this one. It simply has extremely appealing proportions. This applies both to the ratio between the length and height of the blade, the long and elegant clipped part and the size of the handle in relation to the blade and finger guards. Designwise I think this is a masterpiece.
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| Zitoon Knives The Iron Mistress |
It is stylish as heck as I said, the question that remains is how it throws? It's an area I intend to go a little deeper into here.
Appearance and Dimensions
In my presentation of this knife, i quoted the makers who claim it's a reasonably faithful version of the knife that a certain Jim Bowie is said to have once ordered from the knife smith James Black. That may or may not be true. But these seductive proportions are the result of a collaboration between the man behind Zitoon, Olivier Feret, and Pascal Boucreux who is a prominent French knife thrower mainly in rotational technique.
The result is The Iron Mistress, which incidentally got its name from the classic film from 1952 with Alan Ladd in the lead role as Jim Bowie.
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| A solid Bowie knife with good throwing properties |
With those conditions, it is not so surprising that this is a sturdy knife, although it must be said that it is not exaggerated in any way. It is 35 cm long with a thickness of 5 mm. That gives a total weight of 420g. That makes it my second-heaviest throwing knife so far.
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| The knife is the result of a collaboration between Zitoon Knives and Pascal Boucreux |
Right from the start, the handle has been fitted with sides of leather that are glued and riveted in place. A traditional way of making handles for throwing knives. Handle slabs made of other materials simply do not last and are often more difficult and expensive to replace. In addition, the leather gives a good feeling when the knife leaves the hand.
Material
Like many other French knife manufacturers, Zitoon Knives preferably uses Swedish steel. In this case, it comes from SSAB and is called Hardox 450. It is generally an extremely tough material as it is classified under the category of high-strength steel. It is thus the type of steel you find in excavator buckets and in dozer blades for bulldozers and the like. Not exclusive in terms of composition and cost, but very durable considering the intended applications.
Then a couple of pieces of leather can be found on the handle as mentioned. They are of good quality and attached with a pair of sturdy brass rivets. The only thing I did to them, other than wear them in a bit, is to round the edges of the leather with an edge iron when the knife arrived. I also added a protective layer of beeswax. It's always a good idea with leather grips.
To Throw
Anyone who knows anything about knife throwing realizes that this is a knife designed for rotational throwing. Simply put, it is too long and big for most forms of no-spin throwing. Possibly with the exception of those using techniques inspired by Ralph Thorn. There, the whole arm is used as a sling, which means that even very large knives can be thrown.
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| After a couple of thousand throws, the handle has darkened. But the knife is durable and exudes quality |
Right from the start I realized that it is a knife that is very suitable for precision throwing. It is noticeable that the people behind this model throw competitive. Namely, the Iron Mistress rotates very predictably, allowing the thrower to concentrate on aiming instead of spending time on the rotation and flight. A very pedagogic knife if you can put it that way.
- Rotational
It is of course under this heading that the strengths of the Iron Mistress are found. It is particularly noticeable from three meters distance, where you don't have to think very much at all. It may be emphasized that one should stand slightly behind the line due to the size of the knife. I stand at a distance of about 3.2 m. The throw must then be carried out fairly calmly in order to have time to develop and give the knife time to complete its turn. Then it hits the target with authority. The grip is fairly simple. I'm assuming the same grip that many classic Bowie knives were held in, i.e. a saber grip with a thumb on the back of the handle behind the finger guard. It gives the right height to the handle and then the thumb is moved down the side of the handle in a hammer grip before throwing.
From four meters, the long clipped part of the blade gives plenty of space to grip. Personally, I have the tip at the little finger, which gives the right height to the grip, and if you then close the hand, it also gives the right angle of the knife, at least for my throwing technique.
From five meters, we are back to gripping the handle, and then a relatively careful throw applies. The knife is quite long, so both backswing and follow-through are needed to get the right rotation. Here, too, calm is required. A stressed technique does not give the throw time to develop and the knife underrotates.
From six meters, I move the grip down a bit on the blade so that I feel the "rotation point" against the index finger. It is the place on the knife blade that the knife wants to turn around when you hold it. AndI want the throw to strive forward. Nota bene, the knife should not be thrown forward, the movement should still be round, but there must be a strive towards the target, so to speak.
From seven meters, no special adaptations apply. But again, it's important to take it easy and not take any steps or lean forward. Such tics tend to make the throw inconsistent and can lead to both reduced accuracy or missing the throw entirely. Of course, this does not only apply to these knives but in general.
It can be added that when The Iron Mistress is shifted to throw from the blade, i.e. four and six meters, the feeling is of course different than from the handle. This is where Bowie knives differ from daggers when it comes to throwing knives. The latter are significantly more symmetrical overall and the shape of the handles is more reminiscent of what the tip looks like. That is of course not the case here. Instead, it is important to shape the clipped part of the blade in such a way that it is easy to grip. It is something that Boucreux has managed to perfection.
- Half Spin
I don't know if it's just me, but generally, I prefer daggers or knives with narrower blades when throwing half-spin. You can certainly grip the tapered tip of the Iron Mistress, but the feeling remains and that is that such wide, heavy knives like to capsize in the air with that kind of technique. But it applies to "Military half spin" which is what I throw. And since it is too big in my opinion for effective "Instinctive half spin", the only thing left is "Natural half spin" where you grip the tip in the same way as for throws from four and six meters respectively. Given those conditions, it works great. Except that I personally do not master that technique at all. Only the gods know why. But there it is hardly the knife that sets the limits. It becomes particularly clear as I consider it to be excellent for throws from precisely four meters!
- No Spin
As usual under this heading, I'd like to add that this knife can certainly be thrown with No spin technique like anything else but it's admittedly not good for it. Possibly if you use some Thorn-inspired technique you can get somewhere but otherwise not. Zitoon has many other knives that are extremely focused on this area if that is what you are looking for.
Conclusion
The Iron Mistress from Zitoon Knives is both a beautiful and effective throwing tool. For those looking for a knife with, to say the least, a classic look and which also has calm and harmonious qualities in flight, this is an excellent candidate.
So far, there have been around 1700 throws with this knife for me and it is those experiences that form the basis of this review. In fact, I'm so pleased with it that I'm considering supplementing my single knife with two relatives to complete a set. It becomes easier to throw and without a set, it is also not possible to compete with the model in question.
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| I like the knife so much that I chose to make a sheath for the knife |
Incidentally, there is a reason why large Bowie knives in various variants are popular in competitions. The size and accompanying weight provide a predictable rotation that is easy to feel and calculate. The weight also contributes to the fact that the thrower does not have to use a lot of force, that part is taken care of by the rotation, which increases the accuracy. At the same time, the knife is not too heavy, which can not least be a problem when training. One throw is not exhausting, neither is ten or a hundred, but a couple of thousand is.
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| The Iron Mistress is a really good throwing knife for those looking for a Bowie model |
The question is even whether this model is good enough to compete with my other favorites that I currently use for competition. Even those from France, by the way. It remains to be seen! But I really like this one!
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| Zitoon Knives |
Specification:
Steel: Hardox 450
Length: 350 mm
Width: 45 mm
Thickness: 5 mm
Weight: 420 g
Point of Balance: 16/19cm from the back end/tip
