As happens, this post was inspired by a conversation over the weekend. While I personally ascribe to the "Kung Fu Hustle" brand of knife throwing, others feel that Aragorn's "I'm sure this fighting knife is perfectly good to fling at people" brand of aerial attack. The shuriken was invented for a reason, folks. Tossing your blade at a ranged enemy might do the job, or you might end up simultaneously arming them while disarming yourself and odds are it won't kill them. Let's just say that it's probably a good idea to practice, which is one of the many reasons to enjoy the tales of Mister Brust's long suffering assassin. Proper technique and equipment are a must to effectively employ this combat technique.
Equipment
While any knife can technically be thrown, a central balance point will give your knife less wobble in the throw, decreasing wind resistance and making the flight path more predictable (therefor more accurate). The grip should be smooth, to prevent it from catching on the fingers during the throw (opposite of a fighting knife) which would imperil a clean release. Just like a dart, frisbee, or any other thrown item; knives need to be a certain weight to fly well, but beyond that can vary significantly, so it's important to practice with yours (as weight will impact your throw). When throwing a knife, the point does most of the work, so they can have one or two edges with no real difference (some Asian martial arts use darts, right?).
Technique
First thing first, (in a combat situation) you could hold the knife by the blade to throw it, but why would you? After you draw it from the sheath, you'd need to reverse your grip before the throw, wasting potentially important time. Plus even if they aren't razors, you can still cut yourself. An exception to this guideline would be for throwing a hilt heavy (unbalanced) knife.
There are a two basic methods of knife throwing which are successful: spin and no spin. These operate much like throwing a baseball, so arm angle can vary. You should always follow through on your throws. Obviously, if you're holding it by the blade, you want it to rotate (unless the idea is a nice concussion).
1) Spinning blades seem to be the most commonly practiced technique. This is the traditional western technique and it's what they do in the circus. Grips can vary, depending on preference. This method has good accuracy related to fixed or unmoving targets. With simple repetition, the practitioner can get a feel for the how hard to throw the knife, that with a certain number of revolutions, will strike a target point first. I guess that with enough practice you could estimate how hard and with what amount of spin you'd need to make a throw at any distance (depending on arm strength).
2) Throws that do not employ spin have the benefit of constantly flying point first. This technique is generally employed by Eastern martial arts schools. By using this technique, potentially any pointed weapon could be effectively used as a projectile (since you don't have to worry about controlling the number of rotations). The grip in this technique is different, using the index finger to stop the rotation of the blade during release. Fine control with that release is essential as any degree of error would cause rotation and essentially fuck up the whole flight path, either causing wobble or poor aim (a spinning blade is more likely to impact your target, since it has the whole length of the knife going on target, though it's less likely to hit with the point).
Since both techniques have no wrist action, there doesn't seem to be a difference in the amount of power available to the thrower. All techniques allow the thrower to take a few steps to increase the power behind the throw (which shouldn't impact the rotations). No spin seems to benefit from being able to use almost any blade to throw with at varying distances against a moving enemy. Controlling the spin of an unknown weapon (or eliminating the spin) is a matter of experience and is generally not recommended in a combat situation.
There we are, a quick overview of knife throwing. Hopefully that will give you all something to think about the next time you watch a movie (thinking "The Expendables"). For more info, check out the references below. If you have any thoughts or experience in the matter, please let me know. I'm always happy to learn and engage in lively debate.
http://www.knifethrowing.info/how_to_throw_knives.html
physics - http://www.knifethrowing.info/physics_of_knife_throwing.html
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2011/10/20/how-to-throw-a-knife-like-bill-the-butcher/
overview video, with no spin - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJnraaYnyFA&hd=1
no spin video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji1nBmcKuoo&hd=1
crazy Russians - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZaP0TRfEng&hd=1
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