14 DAY TRIAL // We probably don't have to tell you about the fuss caused around the world by 3D printed firearms. How the Australian government is debating the legality of such things, and how people got arrested for simply owning a 3D printed weapon.
What no one seemed to realize is that 3D printing technology really “jumped the gun” so to speak, when it gave birth to home-made weapons.
Contrary to how man evolved from pointy sticks and stones to metal blades and, finally, firearms, 3D printing went the other way.
Which is to say, only after years of 3D printed guns causing ripples across the world have 3D printed bladed weapons finally started to make themselves known.
The 3D printed folding knife
Found on the Thingiverse 3D model repository, the knife is actually a glorified letter opener, but it still highlights the irony of the situation.
The knife was developed by Alex Young, a recent mechanical engineering graduate. He designed the blade to be flexible and only as tough as it needs to be to open envelopes.
That means that anyone trying to use it as a weapon will probably fail ludicrously, although a tiny sting will still occur from a stab attempt.
True, particularly skilled people could probably kill someone with it, but those men and women can usually use anything as a weapon as well.
Besides, the knife isn't interesting for what it is but for what it represents: that 3D printing is a way for anyone to create so-called “white” weapons.
Just changing the filament to something sturdier than normal plastic, and maybe modifying the CAD model for the blade to be a bit thicker (leaving the edge as thin as possible) could render it truly dangerous.
Change the printer completely from a normal, plastic FDM to a metal SLS and you can make your own daggers, knives and swords.
This is either incredibly dangerous or incredibly irrelevant
On the one hand, pretty much everyone can 3D print a weapon now, and they don't even have to use metal.
On the other hand, knives can be bought for a pittance from any store, and they'll usually be more dangerous than anything 3D printed. Well, maybe save the metal printed ones, but you'll probably be no better off than if you'd bought a normal one from a store. And there aren't any consumer printers large enough to make a viable sword, so no worries there.
In the end, I suppose that the only feeling worth indulging in, after seeing 3D printed knives come to “life,” is the sheer irony stemming from the arguable irrelevance of it all.
