I don’t think the typical knife is stable in flight that way. In my layman’s physics, the knife edge will keep pointing forwards if the knife handle would dece

I don’t think the typical knife is stable in flight that way. In my layman’s physics, the knife edge will keep pointing forwards if the knife handle would decelerate faster than the knife blade, when thrown that way in isolation. So, you either need more mass in the knife blade or more air resistance in the knife handle to get that.