Professional Knife Thrower
Bobby Branton
Bobby and his wife Brenda at the 1996 Blade show in Atlanta, GA
When Bobby was starting out early in his career, Bobby met knife throwing legends Paul LaCross and Kenneth Pierce (Che Che Whitecloud). LaCross was billed as "The Worlds Foremost Knife, Axe and Tomahawk Thrower". It was Paul who taught and motivated Bobby to be a Professional Knife Thrower and to put together a throwing exhibition which he performs throughout the south east. LaCross retired in 1990 due to health reasons and passed away in 1992.
In 1996 with the help of Stephen McEvoy, Kenneth Pierce and his wife Nancy and a few close friends, Bobby was instrumental in reorganizing the American Knife Throwers Alliance and held what has been arguably the first knife and tomahawk throwing only contest in over 20 years. He has assisted numerous individuals in starting knife throwing contest around the world. Kenneth Pierce still comes down to visit Bobby and his wife Brenda once a year to assist in preparations for the AMERICAN KNIFE THROWERS ALLIANCE National Championships and is one of the clubs biggest supporters.
Bobby has been promoting the art of knife throwing by giving seminars on the subject of knife throwing at the worlds largest knife show known as, "The Blade Show" in Atlanta GA, since 1996. In 1996, Bobby was awarded the South Carolina State Folk Heritage Award for his work in Bladesmithing, and for his work in preserving the history and traditions of South Carolina. While promoting knife throwing to the general public, Bobby has taught thousands of Boy Scouts, a number of Army Rangers, as well as few celebrities the fine art of knife throwing.
Over the years Bobby’s knives have been featured in most of the Knives annuals, and he and his work have been featured in other publications such as Knife World, Blade Magazine, Tactical Knives, Knives Illustrated and South Carolina Wildlife.
Bobby has handcrafted knives for such greats as Paul LaCross, Che Che Whitecloud, Who is billed as "The Fastest Knife Thrower in the World", Knife Throwing great Larry Cisewski and Former Governor of South Carolina Carroll Campbell and The former Governor of Texas George W. Bush, who has gone on to be President of the United States . Bobby's knives are sold and exhibited all over the world with avid consumers in England, Germany, France, Isreal, Australia, Japan and Canada. One of Bobby's throwing knives now resides in the world famous Randall knife museum in Orlando Florida.
As a
Professional Knife Thrower,
Bobby has been a consultant
to a number of production companies who sought out his
expertise in knife throwing for shows such as The Guinness
book of world records, Fear factor, That’s Incredible,
Maxim magazine and Men's Health magazine. Bobby has
authored four articles on the subject for Blade Magazine®
and one article for The 5th annual Levines
guide to knives.
In addition to making and throwing knives , Bobby has
become an "afficionado" of the western arts of whip
cracking and traditional archery.
As a result of the deaths of Paul LaCross and Harry K.
McEvoy, a great loss is felt in the brotherhood of
knife throwing and traditional archery. Therefore,
Bobby vows to preserve and promote the dying arts of
the old West.
In his career as a professional knife thrower,
Bobby has become involved in promoting his craft and
keeping tradition alive.
This past year, Bobby was hired by a production company to
be a technical advisor and to train actress, Salma Hayek for a role in a
new movie "Bandidas" to be released in January, 2006 . Bobby
was flown to L.A. to train Miss Hayek for the role of a bank robber who happens
to be an expert with knives. After the
training in L.A. Bobby was flown to the movie set in Mexico City to further
train Ms. Hayek and to act as a technical advisor during filming. A couple of
weeks later after leaving Mexico City, Bobby was then flown to
Durango, Mexico where he performed the actual throwing on location for
the more difficult throwing scenes. Bobby also designed and crafted some
very special throwing knives for Miss Hayek and actor Sam Shepard
to use in the film. Keep checking back for more updates on the
release of the movie.
If you would like to hire Bobby as a Knife Coach, consultant or to perform before your group, you can contact him at bobby@brantonknives.com