14 DAY TRIAL // If you ever feel like you're about to go medieval on someone's behind, the best idea would probably be to exercise restraint. If you really need to let out some steam, though, we suppose that you could compromise and challenge whoever annoyed you to a mock duel or some other competition.
Fencing just doesn't cut it sometimes though, and a fistfight is just too pedestrian, not to mention messy and completely lacking in grace and the “awesome” factor.
That's where 3D printing technology comes in. You can use it to create some relatively harmless weapons out of lightweight plastic, but make them look like actual swords, axes, hammers or what have you.
You can even produce replicas of in-game weapons. In fact, that is precisely what a company by the name of Gateros Plating has been doing for the past few weeks. They had to upgrade an Ultimaker 1.0 3D printer before they could produce the replicas in the desired quality, but now it's open season at their headquarters.
You got it. Gateros Plating has been using 3D printing technology to make accurate replicas of weapons from the game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
They've actually been stretching the conventions of 3D printing and combining plastic 3D printing processes with metal plating. The swords are mostly 3D printed from plastic, then they are covered with metal plates.
Here's how the process works: first the main sword is 3D printed out of plastic through FDM (fused deposition modeling). Then they are bathed in an electrolyte containing copper ions, which originate from dissolved copper salts.
During the plating process, the ions are replaced with copper anodes suspended in the same solution when an electrical current is applied, reducing the ions on the 3D printed objects. This creates the metal layer. The process is known as electroforming.
After that, the sword, or whatever else, is finished like any other metal object. It can be sealed, plated, polished, etc. You can even electroplate the sword several times if you want to give it a different metal layer on the top. For example, you can electroform a sword with copper, and then electroplating it with zinc to make a “steel” sword. The Gateros people themselves did this and intend to sell items like it as collectibles.
The Skyrim swords aren't all that strong (they're still plastic at core), but they should live through a few mock fights.
