If a thrown knife misses it's target, it will stick in the wall behind it, and you can pick it back up. Thrown knives will not penetrate glass like bullets, but they will break it and fall to the floor for retrieval. Also, you can hold down the fire button to pull the knife back without throwing it. Thus, you can pull it back and then go looking for someone to throw it at. It takes about a second to pull it back, so this can be very useful for throwing quickly.
All pistols follow the accuracy rules outlined in the 'combat' section.
One thing that makes pistols so potent is the 'akimbo' ability. There are a total of five different pistols, and three can be used akimbo. This means that you can have 2 pairs of akimbos, or 1 pair of akimbos and two others, or four different pistols. If you already have four pistols and want to pick up another that you've found, you can drop a pistol by pressing the drop weapon button, P by default. Pressing the drop weapon button will cause you to drop whichever weapon you currently have out.