Designer Creates a 3D Printed Pocket Knife... Or Does he?

[Brian_Krassenstein]

While 3D printed guns have made the headlines for some time now, other 3D printed weapons may also eventually arise. We recently saw a 3D printed foldable knife on Thingiverse -- this piece is intended to be 3D printed in plastic mostly to be a cool conversation piece and/or letter opener. Alex Young, the designer, wanted to "nerd out" about the capabilities of 3D design and printing with his friends and coworkers, and notes that a ballpoint pen is more weaponized than this design. Created first on graph paper, then rendered in SolidWorks, the knife can be downloaded so you can create your own at home. Check out more: http://3dprint.com/30164/3d-printed-knife/ ‎


Below is a photo of Young's 3D printed foldable knife:

[plugh]

This knife design isn't particularly dangerous. The mechanism is legal pretty much everywhere, as is the blade length.
Fiberglass, ceramic, glass, resin, or carbon fiber would make a dangerous non-metal blade.
The designer mentioned metal-based filament, but it's probably faster to cut and sharpen a piece of sheet metal for that.

[Geoff]

and yet.....

dasdcc.JPG

[curious aardvark]

metal containing filaments are actualy a lot softer and weaker than full plastic filament.

The metal particles DON'T bond with anything. They're just there as inclusion. While the printed objects look metallic they are actually a lot weaker structurally than full plastic that bonds with itself.
Going by me experience with bronzefill anyway.

I like the knife :-)

On a side note - I explained what a 3d printer was to my martial arts teacher last week. His first response: 'can you make weapons ? '
:-)

Also knives are tools - not weapons. ANYTHING can be used as a weapon. But a knife is not inherently a weapon.
The vast majority of knife usage is practical, not antagonistic.

I've carried at least one penknife or multitool with blade since I was 10. Not once in the 36 years since then has it ever occured to me to use one as a weapon.

So no a printed penknife is not a weapon. It's a tool. maybe not a terribly practical one, although using the carbon fibre filament for the blade might let you get adecent edge.

But it's only a weapon if you choose to use it as a weapon.
Likewise a rolling pin is a not a weapon, or a tire iron, or a broom or a pool cue.

You can't legislate for idiots and loonies (unfortunately) but common sense should let you have the ability to make your own tools.

[Feign]

So label it a folding letter opener then, Geoff. It's a more accurate description anyway and it's perfectly fine by their standards with only a renaming (which says something about their standards, methinks).