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I'm thinking about improving V1 of the sword, which is obviously going to cut better because of the thinner profile, and making another video comparing that with a real katana. I was also swinging the final sword like a bat, because it lacked cutting abilities but it had a lot of power. Anyways Let me know if you’d like to see an improed version of V1, in which I fix all the mistakes I made, including a better slicing technique! Edit: I’ll do it Ps: the reason I kept the katana that thick, is because it would otherwise bend just with gravity. So the improved version of it is going to be shorter, kinda like a real sword.
What I love about this is that this is just some dude figuring it out as he goes along. He's not some professional but he had a cool idea and he wanted to create it so he did.
It's mostly the taper off the edge and somewhat the thickness of the whole "blade" Just as in regular cutting. It's behind the edge thickness. A thin but completely dull knife will still cut through most things while a thick but razor sharp knife will have a very hard time going through an object
As a bladesmith, this pisses me off. As a bro, this is freaking awesome. Mike, if you see this, i can probably answer most of your questions about knife/sword/weapon making.
The concept is pretty cool and Many of the most egregious flaws can be daily easily fixed with help from someone who knows what to do. It would definitely be interesting to see another attempt with a little more knowledge behind it.
It’s a pretty good impact weapon, it just won’t cut. It’s effective, it’s nearly invisible and it’s durable. I was impressed as hell that he started freehand grinding those first sword bevels halfway through. Those steep bevels on the second one saved it from being destroyed.
Mechanical engineer here. By making a 90 degree angle between the blade and the tang in the handle you created a stress concentration there. Abrupt changes in geometry like this create localized stresses far greater than the average stress, hence why your blade snapped there. Fun video!
Also, If I'm remembering correctly the flexibility of the material allows for better energy dissipation and lower impulse as the flexibility delays the force by storing energy in it's waves thus increasing the time it takes for all the force to act on the blade. So sandwiching it between two pieces increased the materials inflexibility at that point, and the flexibility along the axis of the beveled edge isn't good either due to it's thickness, so most of the force along that axis would have been transferred to the tang in a short amount of time, putting it under much greater stress.
@@kyjohns8271 If by the tang you mean just the base of the blade (without cutting it), then yes! That's basically what he did in the end by just wrapping the base of the blade with a towel. If you mean keep the 90 degree angle and just wrap the smaller part, then no, the abrupt change in geometry is what induces the higher stresses. If he still wanted to cut the base of the blade to make a handle, he could have reduced the stress concentration factor by rounding the corner where the tang meets the base of the blade with a "fillet." The larger the radius of the fillet, the lower the stress concentration factor. In other words the more rounded the corner, the lower the peak stress caused by the change in geometry. The stress would still be the highest at that point, but it would be much less extreme than the stresses caused by the 90 degree angle he made.
Hardness is not the same as tenacity, as a mechanical property. Policarbonate is not a hard material, so it is basically unable to actually retain the sharpness of the edge. That's why most of the test showed breaks by blunt weapon impacts, and not much of a cut. Still, it is a very cool weapon and admire your attitude of fucking around and finding out. Great video as always!
Just curious would he be able to coat that blade with something like Systemthree's T-88, or even cast one out of that and then use that? This when cured has a 7000 lb tensile strength, or do you think it would become too brittle?
A true bladesmith does not make mistakes. Just smaller knives. I’d like to see a test with v1 too. I know it didn’t match the title of the video, but your blade geometry was significantly more conducive to cutting through stuff.
The right angle you cut into the blade where the handle and blade meet is what caused the break, not the added thickness of the handle. The same thing happens with steel weapons - they call it a stress riser. A rounded transition from handle to blade would help avoid it.
@@MikeShake to get a nice round transition easily and quickly, drill holes in the places where the cuts are supposed to meet, and then cut the material.
Bro I love this video, your face when the sword breaks off from the handle and your just processing the emotions after all that hard work had my dying! So relatable lmao Hope you do continue to do well, much love from the USA!
The biggest reason your handle snapped off is the geometry of your sword. Having those sharp interior corners creates a stress concentrator. It's like if you have a 10 lane highway suddenly shrink into a 1 lane country road with no transition. All the cars (stress lines) have to bunch up at that point, cramming into that tiny area with no easing into it. It works when traffic is low (like swinging the swrod through the air), but the moment there's any serious traffic (like hitting the pineapple) there are too many cars trying to go into that 1 lane. For the cars, they just can't move anywhere, for your sword, it breaks. You will always run into this issue with making the grip smaller than the blade, but adding internal radii or some way to gradually reduce the size, will help to prevent this failure in the future. That will always be your point of failure on a sword made out of a single material. Katanas, even though they are made from one piece of steel, have different hardnesses at different parts of the blade and grip effectively making them multi-material sword. I bet you that if you were to take your V1 sword, even though it is a sharper blade, you will have the handle snap off even if you don't make the handle thicker. It's just a nature of your sword geometry and really only something you can learn from spending too much time reading books, or breaking things like your doing, which is how the books were written in the first place. I also don't want to invalidate your own discovery of adding material to the handle making it stiffer and contributing to the blade breaking. That is definitely a part of it and an awesome insight to have found. I just want to highlight that your 2D geometry has as much a roll in the strength of the blade as the 3D geometry does.
@@samp1501 I'm of the reasoning that while the polycarbonate is able to flex along the flat edge, by hitting the material from it's most rigid side will always transfer more energy into the blade with nowhere to go but its weakest point.
@@amosdotl6892 is a combination of everything, he needs to remove some material to turn the sharp inner corners of the blade handle transition into round corners, for the handle 2 scales of polycarbonate are okay but only gluing them to each other so they encase the handle and then hold it with a polycarbonate pin so if shit hits the fan the polycarbonate pin breaks.
Good comment! I was going to point out the sharp angles where the handle meets the blade as well. There's a reason real, properly made swords are rounded there.
15:02 swordmaker here. When you make a sharp transition like between the tang and blade you create a stress riser. You need to create a round transition.
@@robinlundh3962 That's not what he was talking about. What he is talking about, that in the area where the blade becomes the part of the handle, there is stress on the inside corners. If you ave steep angles in there the item can start cracking in those conrners and the blade snaps off. You need to keep these inside corners as round as technically feasible to avoid those stresspoints.
@@profezzordarke4362 Pollycarbonate does not have the same mecanic disabilities as metal. It would only bend easier when narrowed down and you could do sharper cornering than this and it would not crack. Unless you cemicaly change the capabillity of the material, in this case with superglue. Superglue made microcracks all along the handle and it broke exactly where the material was no longer trippled in thickness. Rest of the movie it worked fine. Even narrowed down on the sander. Superglue is the culprit in this case nothing els. If it were steel. I would agree with the swordmaker.
The "cracks" that you refer to are in the handle itself, and the point of breakage is right before the guard, meaning it wouldn't make physical sense to break there instead of along the handle shaft where these "cracks" are. Furthermore the "cracks" are along the length of the shaft, while the breakage is perfectly perpendicular to it, exactly how a stress riser point breakage acts. Also, I say "cracks" because those are not direct deterioration of the poly through chemical reaction as you say, but simply weird light angles on the dried glue between the 3 total sheets of pol, causing a lot of refraction and reflection and the cool effect. Glue can't erode poly. The full structure would be in all fairness actually stronger, especially since the glue as a bond agent adds even more total strength between the 3 pieces combined.
Dude! I tooootally appreciate your content, creativity and humor! Please keep them going! I AM a HUGE fantasy weapon glutton! When I get the time and materials, I want to make 2 of these invis short swords. 22”-25” seem ideal! Thank you!!!
Awesome stuff. Trick as well. You can flame polish the edges to make them almost transparent after cutting. Also use resin instead of super glue to bond acrylic or get acrylic weld. Look at some aquarium videos to see how that works. It melts the two acrylic parts together rather than a glue. 👍
so, coming from combat robots where polycarb is used a lot, i can tell you that cyanoacrylate makes polycarb brittle. it was the ca glue reacting with the polycarbonate that made it turn brittle. there is a chemical bonding agent made to glue polycarbonate, but isn't a glue, it effectively melts the 2 pieces together making it almost as strong as if it were 1 whole piece
I wanted to do a joint email with multiple youtubers but I couldn't find your email so here is your part of it. Thank you Mike Shake, for teaching me that there is no talent, only skill. That anything I put my mind to can and should be learned. You are very skilled. Also fun fact, my birthday is a day after yours, isn't that cool. You have made me want to cultivate my brain into doing fantastic things I thought were reserved to those with some kind of inner expertise and talent. I want to learn because of you, I want to do, I want to become everything I dreamed about, that I can be as fluid as billions of years of evolution in this singular life. You inspire me, and also have introduced me to a few skills I enjoy myself. A teacher of the want: to be taught and learn.
@MikeShake I love this project and I'd like to help you make it better. I think that there are several areas of consideration for the next version and testing methods. I have not read all 6700+ comments, so please forgive me if I repeat any. I hope some of this helps. 1- The thickness of the "katana" and it's cutting edge -A katana is not meant to "cleave" through things. The curved shape of katana is meant to provide the smallest amount of cutting surface on the target. This increases the PSI of the cut. When you see a katana "chopping" through something, don't imagine an axe going through wood. Imagine the blade being dragged through the target and slicing deeper as the blade is pulled across the target's surface. More like a saw would work, slowly getting deeper by cutting along the surface, not going straight through. -A katana is thin so that (among other reasons) it can pass through the target with the least resistance. What you have created functions less like a katana and more like an axe, machete or kukri. However, if you decrease the blade's thickness, it will of course be weaker. -The edge angle is very wide, which is going to be more resilient to damage, but is not going to cut very well. That is why your cuts were messy. Of course, the narrower the edge, the more easily it will be damaged. -The problem you had with the blade being more visible with the shallower cutting angle would be lessened if the blade were thinner (as it would have less distance to travel from tip to flat) 2-Target materials -If you're trying to make an invisible katana, you would want to test it against objects that katanas are normally tested against. I have seen a katana cut a bullet, but if I remember correctly, the blade was badly damaged afterwords. The katana was ideally used to attack soft tissue and slice deeply enough with one cut to open an artery or reach vital organs. The easiest way to do this with a blade is to stab, which is why spears and arrows were more favored in large scale conflict and most blades (that I'm aware of) were meant to deal the finishing wound with a stab. There is a very interesting history about katanas and why they were shaped and used as they were. I highly reccoment learning about them if you want to take your project to the next level. 3-Swing technique and target fixation -When you're cutting with your blade I'm noticing that your swing is not at a comfortable level for you. I would reccomend lowering it so that you don't feel that you have to keep raising your shoulders at the last moment. Since training a correct sword swing is not neccesary for your project, I think it would be a waste of your time to learn swordsmanship. Of course, for your own fun and enrichment, I would say go for it LOL. But just for this project you could just work on a horizontal baseball swing or a vertical axe chop. The actual way to swing a katana takes a lot of work, and i think that your material would not do very well for the job (but I could be wrong). Once your swing is good, then I would focus on making sure that your target cant fall away so much. A lot of the energy of your swing is being dissapated by the movement of your target. 4-Safety -Even when you're cutting into soft targets, you can still have material failure. Since your sword is an unknown quantity I would highly reccomend that you at least wear safety glasses at all times. Since you're not a trained swordsman, you might also want to wear some wrist wraps so that any reverberation of energy back through the sword into your hands doesn't injure your wrists.
small point to add that I believe you missed(or i missed you saying), that the curve of the katana allows for easier edge alignment for a more straight on cut as the weight will carry to the back of the swing.
The geometry between the blade and the tang is very important. Never make a hard angle to a point when reducing for the grip. It always needs a rounded transition because otherwise all the force focuses on that point and snaps it like that.
Alright so hear me out: There is another Japanese Martial Arts style that would make better use of the material, both in regards to its transparency and ability to bend. I believe it’s called Owari Kan-Ryu, but I just call it the Wobbly Spear technique. In essence, you grab a spear near the bottom and with your lower hand push it back and forth (sliding it through your higher hands grip) so as to cause the tip of the spear to wobble in a circular pattern. It helps to get past guard stances, and would likely benefit greatly from having an invisible spear used.
@@enigma9971 I don’t know if that would work as well. The blade would diffract light, which might not be a huge issue if the whole spear is invisible but would be if just the spear head was as you’d see the wood looking wonky through the spear head which would tip you off to its presence faster.
Acabo de descubrir este canal y es increíble como llevas tus ideas a la realidad, el único detalle es que soy de habla hispana, pero con la pista de audio en español el alcance de tus videos puede aumentar un montón y alcanzar muchas más vistas, y una gran oportunidad de crecimiento para ti, suerte y mucho exito en el canal
another big part of why the blade snapped at the hilt isn't just about the quality of the blade, but rather your edge alignment on the hit. The katana hit the pineapple with it's edge facing upwards, which effectively moved the middle of the blade up and away from it's inertia, turning your horizontal cutting force partially into a vertical snapping force. I reckon the blade would've survived with better edge alignment, and that can be aided with better handle design to make your natural grip closer to keeping the edge straight and practice in cutting smaller targets that won't be solid enough to break the sword.
16:14 partially correct. The flexibility shouldn’t affect its ability to cut much, as steel swords also flex quite a lot. The thickness of the blade is part of the reason it doesn’t cut clean, but the main reason is the steep bevel. A bevel like that can’t get particularly sharp, and it’s a rough transition from the edge of the blade to the spine, massively reducing its cutting effectiveness
The reason I was swinging it like a bat, is because I knew it wouldn't cut like a real katana, so I probably had a better chance of destroying the targets that way. I'll improve V1 of the sword (thinner) and properly use it too!
I work with this material a lot, to get a perfect clear edge you need to get them flame polished. The difference between that and hand sanding is crazy. Only thing is it takes a specialist tool, using a flame from a lighter isn’t the same thing. Maybe this will help you for the future :)
Thoroughly enjoyed watching this journey and such an eye opener. One can expect to see this invisible weaponry coming to a town/ city near you anytime soon.
Nice job! A couple advices: 1) when unsure about how a material will react to being worked on with a machine, try on a small disposable piece first. 2) when cutting the handle recess, drill holes first to avoid sharp corners, from which a crack could be generated.
A large part of your handle failure root cause lies in the sharp, 90 degree inside corner you made for the guard. This is a classic stress riser feature at it's worst. If you were to put a significant radius in that corner, and round the inside of the guard to match, it may hold up to all of the testing you did with it. But just rounding it off to spare your hands seems to work great, too. 😁
So this video is basically a series of fortunate events, every thing he tried out worked great, and even the random details on the handle and guard came out amazing by accident. Very cool.
Hey man, I saw a lot of comments saying that the cause of the snapped handle is because of the geometry which could be partially true, however the primary reason why this happened is because polycarbonate becomes brittle when it is exposed to superglue or loctite due to the active ingredient cyanoacrylate.
I think it’s a combination of the two. The added rigidity from the super glue, and the perfect line of 90° angles at the stress point. The handle couldn’t flex, and where it couldn’t flex was a straight line where a light scoring would snap that poly
Adversely he should try shortening the blade so that it doesn't flex as much... that much flex in any kind of swinging bladed weapon is not what you want unless you're making a whip sword
8:30 I know that smile! My grandfather had a carpentry and I grow up playing in there. After school it was building time! Crossbows, soapbox karts, and any kind of toys and wood mechanisms... Unfortunately he is not here anymore, and all I have are memories from a time that passed too fast. That smile is everything, hold on to it brother!
This may be waaayyyy too much work, but there has to be a way to bend the light at the beveled planes so that the light hitting them is transferred through the opposing plane at the correct angle. I'm assuming it would involve changing grain structure at the edge through some sort of heat/pressure treating at edge and end up sacrificing a lot of durability where you want it most, making super precise convex/concave bevels, or a combination of the two. You might even be able to use a mirrored flexible adhesive to create a prism out of the edge (if such an adhesive exists). Either way it would make a great showpiece, but likely wouldn't be functional.
I’m not normally one to critique, but since you mentioned you weren’t familiar with bandsaws, I thought I might chime in. I noticed that at about 4:33 you made a small cut which allowed the piece to release, as the longer cut was already finished. It’s generally (when possible) best practice to make your longest cut last so that you’re backing out along the blade as little as possible. This lowers your chance of binding the band, which can injure you and damage your equipment and material. You can also make relief cuts into the middle of long spans, like along your (katana) blade, so that you can more easily adjust or take breaks. Hopefully this is helpful, and sorry for the long comment, especially if it’s not. Really good work and really cool video-thank you for making it!
it kind of reminds me of the berserk blade because of the little sharpness it has on the sides the weight and mass of it allows it to sever and cleave the object in front of it
15:02 swordmaker here. When you make a sharp transition like between the tang and blade you create a stress riser. You need to create a round transition
Another reason of why the sword was fragile at the handle is because of the sudden change of shape from handle to blade : This is called stress concentration, and it occurs where there is a sudden change in geometry or dimensions of a material, which causes an increased concentration of stress in that specific area Additionnaly, one of the reasons of why it did a poor cut on a watermelon could be due to technique, and the thickness of the blade. Swords are purposefully flexible, maybe not as much as yours but this is in order for steel to be able to go back to its original shape, and not just bend when an amount of force is applied. Maybe you can try but cutting and not swinging it like a bat, for exemple when you cut vegetables with a knife, you don't just chop it, but you also do a slicing motion, though this is an idea as I have no experience in using a sword, and only know the very small basics of material resistance, and I hope it helps !
Just a tip for your next blades, in a sword the highest energetic point is on the tip. So if you hit next to that curved spot you're gonna give some SERIOUS damage.
I quite liked the distortion effect on the first version. Also, I think this would look fantastic with normal looking, visible katana handle (guard, wrap, etc) and just the transparent blade. Could even put some lights in the handle so it put on a funky and distracting show for your hypothetical enemies. Flicking between invisible, hyponotic and bright flashes on demand.
The distortion effect was WAY cooler than just transparent! Wow that looked amazing! The sword ended up being more like a floppy long axe or something with that crazy shallow bevel.
If it was the first design which is less transparent, then it probably would be sharper. But as of right now, this is an awesome looking katana, almost like a blade made of ice.
For somebody who has no experience in the field, you did a great job. But with that edge it's closest to an axe, not a sword. I'd be interested in the v1 version of the sword which really looked great. I'd also love rounded edges so you see distortions but no sharp edges.
This version is more of a sharp club than a sword, it didn't so much slice or cut as dent and smash, and shortening it actually did you some favors in terms of being able to maintain edge alignment. I'm really glad you dulled the handle before trying the harder objects! It's still a devastating weapon, capable of shattering bone and crushing muscle tissue and cartilage into useless pulp. Honestly just as terrifying as a clean cut in its own way. Bottom line, It's sick af. I definitely think you should finish v1 and make it ultrasharp- a translucent sword is still dope!
The sledgehammer test breaking the sawhorses was unintentionally so funny. You praised the polycarb for how little damage it took when the sawhorses took almost all of the impact (evidence - they broke). The base has to be stable and in-compressible otherwise you're just passing the force through to the object at the end of the chain. If you're going to use wood at least make them stumps. Also for the bandsaw, you should extend the base to support the weight of the thing you're cutting as the bouncing changes the angle the saw meets your piece.
You're not passing any force to the end of the chain. All of the objects in the chain feel the force, minus anything that was absorbed and converted into something else by all of the objects before it. So the polycarbonate felt more force than the sawhorses.
@@mrkiky The further down the chain you go in this case, the more force that is imparted. The sawhorses bent and broke under the all of the force that was transferred through the polycarb, except for the energy removed from bending and displacing (plus heat, minor scratching, sound, etc). Try this again but using stumps or rock as your base and you'll see the difference. There will be more bending, potentially shattering as seen in the handle due to flex angles, the sledge hammer will be pushed back with far more force, etc. This is basic high school physics. It's why you want your car to crumple in a crash, to absorb the force that would otherwise go through your body. The sawhorses were the crumple zone, and airbags.
This resemble nothing like a katana. I like the efforts you put into the video, and I thought you would make a katana out of transparent aluminum with first of the world record hardness
I think the handle issue might be the sharp corner. don't forget stress raisers! a smooth curve to reduce the width to the handle size is better than a sharp internal corner!
When sanding or grinding, go the whole length of the sword, it will give you better contrast and easier control while you do it. I’ve made several kitchen knives no katanas though. Good luck.
I used to binge your videos. I'm glad you did this video. Its classic RU-vid without obnoxious music and ads very easy to watch and entertaining. Keep up the great work, Mike.
Glad he realized for the next sword that it needs to be thin. This one is smashing stronger targets more than it's cutting them, like a sledgehammer axe. Unlike an axe though, it's not focusing the strength into one point for maximum pressure between the blade and the target, making it more like a sharpened 2x4; it's spreading out the weight along the surface area of the edge of the blade. Might also be worth implementing the actual curve a katana has for a better, natural slicing motion. There's a video (likely popping up in the reccomended panel on your screen now) that compares the AoT swords to real katanas, and how the curve gives it a fluid slicing motion with every swing.
Your layering of the handle was a good idea and quiet esthetically pleasing, and also wasn't the cause of the break. What caused the break was your cut from cutting out the shape of the handle. When you cut the 90° angle it created a stress point, which can even cause steel blades to fail. Rounding the corner slightly to eliminate the hard angle will make it much stronger. Granted, I'm far from an expert, this is just based on meticulously studying the series Forged in Fire and paying close attention to all the positive and negative observations that the judges make
Just gotta say I really love that you're being transparent about how you've not done certain things in this video before! Too many people are so afraid to start things or try things they don't know, and I think more people need to show that part of the process if possible! Sure, nervousness is normal but uust be careful and start slow haha
