Health and safety concerns

[todayiamadaisy]

Update on John's prop knife-throwing machine:

The knife-throwing machine turns out to be the board that the knives get thrown into. You know the set-up: the volunteer stands in front of a board and the knife-thrower throws the knives in a silhouette around her. Only what happens with the knife-throwing machine is that the knife-thrower and the volunteer are side-on to the audience, so he throws his knives (stage knives, I assume) past the board where they land harmlessly and silently on a cushion in the wings. Meanwhile, someone backstage pushes a button and pre-installed knives pop out of the board.

It's working like a charm, except when John demonstrated it to Mum (with her standing foolishly bravely in front of the board) he installed the knives the wrong way so the blades popped out around her. As she pointed out, the audience won't believe the knives landed in the board handle-first. I find it odd that health and safety regulations have a lot to say about exploding sewing machines, but are silent about knife blades being shot out of boards.