Throwers Bring Out Knives For Danger FestPIERCETON – Around 55 amateur and professional knife throwers from around the world showed up at Number 1 Stop Bait & Tackle Shop in Pierceton on Friday to compete in a three-day event.
Danger Fest, in its sixth year, is a knife- and tomahawk-throwing event put on by Whitley County resident Brandon Dillon. His dad, Mark Dillon, owns the bait shop in?Pierceton and allowed him to bring his group that keeps on growing to the 12 acres behind the tackle store.
“We outgrew the space,” Brandon Dillon said. He got into the craft of knife throwing seven years ago. He walked into a knife shop in Fort Wayne and got some throwing knives, got a knife-throwing book, watched some videos online and so began his group called The Full Tang Clan.
His dad’s 12 acres allowed for weekend camping for the group, along with some staying in local hotels.
Jessica Gold, who goes by her throwing name Goldi-Lox, traveled from Austin, Texas, with her friend Cliff Hill, aka AWOL.
She’s been throwing knives for eight years but started as a girl when her Native American neighbors were doing it in their back yard. She started out with mountain men competitions, and now she dresses up and travels to events across the country.
Brandon Dillon said every year they try to raise money for a fellow knife-thrower to come from far away. This year, $2,000 was raised through a GoFundMe page to get a guy here from France, he said.
The group in Pierceton were friends, even though most live far apart. They credit that to the internet. They speak to each other about the craft often, always learning from each other.
Marcus Method came from Toronto, Canada, to sport with his friends and said he’s already been to about five other tournaments across the country this year.
“I can always learn and improve,” Method said. “You’re constantly learning. It makes you appreciate time outside and finding time to throw. It’s kind of a forgotten pastime.”?
There are two types of competitions that happened at this event: conventional spin and no-spin.
The quick-draw competition, as described by Humphrey Tan, from Toronto, is “think wild west style, just the safer way to do it.”?
They use advanced technology that sits atop the wooden targets, and when the throwers get the green light, they throw and the sensor will tell which knife hit first and how long it took to get to the target.
“It’s very advanced that brings it down to the fraction of time to 1,000th of a second,” Brandon Dillon said. “It’s amazing to have it here.”
Jason Johnson, from Omaha, Neb., was also in attendance. Some History Channel buffs may know him from his appearance on “Forged in Fire: Knife or Death” series.
Johnson has been a professional knife thrower since 1992 and is known for being one of the best combative knife throwers in the world. Johnson has beaten the quickest gun shooter in the world by throwing his knife to the target at .802 of a second. He’s also a knife designer who has had his Sabertooth knife featured in Knives Illustrated.
He said he teaches special forces what to do and credits his skill to being very instinctive.
The rain didn’t stop the group. Awards were given out Sunday evening. Many planned to return home late Sunday or sometime today.
