Louis Prince BIO

Hello, I’m Louis. Who are you?

I started throwing “knives” about 35 years ago—more like anything I could find with a pointy end. I played games like “stretch,” throwing screwdrivers no-spin into the lawn. I didn’t even know no-spin had a name back then.

I threw broken scissors and homemade shuriken, which I called “ninja stars,” into my bedroom chest of drawers. I got in big trouble for that, and I still have the battle-scarred chest of drawers in my children’s bedroom.

When I was about ten, I got my first really good “throwers”—at least, that’s what they were to me at the time. One was a “Rambo” knife: a KA-BAR-style blade with a sawback, a big hollow handle, and a compass. I also got a United dagger with a textured rubber handle and a fuller, which I called a “blood groove.” At the time, it was the coolest knife I had ever seen.

I ran around throwing that knife into the ground, stacked firewood, trees—I was ten—my friend’s backyard fence, which also got me in big trouble, and anything else I thought it would stick into.

There weren’t any resources available for me to learn from then. There was no social media, and the internet wasn’t really a thing yet. I fumbled my way through learning on my own into my early teens.

As life changed during that period, I became interested in other things: school, sports, girls, and partying. Then came my own place, a job, and other responsibilities, so I only threw on rare occasions. That continued for about the next 20 years.

In 2015, after another slump in the oilfield and some major life changes, I decided I was going to work for myself. A friend introduced me to stabilizing wood and making knives.

Around 2015 or 2016, I first saw a trick-shot video from Adam Celadin. It flipped on the little switch that had been off since I was a kid. With renewed enthusiasm and extra free time, I made some proper throwing knives and started watching—and actually learning—how other people threw.

And thus began my journey down the road of the knife life.