This titanium katana with a chainsaw blade is exactly the kind of bonkers idea Quentin Tarantino would have





Put this chainsaw katana in the hands of Uma Thurman and the Kill Bill franchise would get cut down to just a 10-minute short film.

Seriously though, a katana with a chainsaw built into the edge of its blade sounds a little like overkill… although it’s purely for aesthetic purposes. Designed and built by Koss Workshop, the Titanium Chainsaw Katana is a purely decorative piece, designed to be hung on walls and admired for its craftsmanship and (slightly sadistic) beauty rather than used as a handheld WMD.

The video at the top of the article documents Koss’ entire process as he builds this justifiably bonkers sword from scratch (with timestamps generously factored in too). The katana’s blade comes from three sheets of metal sandwiched together – two 3mm titanium sheets on the outside, and a brass sheet in the middle. Koss then affixes a chainsaw chain on the cutting edge of the blade, drilling holes in the titanium and riveting the entire setup in place. I doubt the chainsaw actually cuts anything (you’d need to swing the sword at whiplash-inducing speeds to actually slice through stuff), although it does the one job it’s meant to pretty well – look intimidating.

The rest of the sword’s made from metal too, including the guard and grip. The grip comes with exposed screws that hold the tang of the blade within the handle, adding to its raw aesthetic. I’m guessing you could unscrew it for maintenance purposes too.

Once fabricated, Koss put up this batshit-crazy sword up for sale on his Etsy page, where it was promptly picked up by an eager customer – probably a Tarantino fan… and now a person of interest on FBI’s watchlist.

Designer: Koss Workshop

These Samurai Sword Letter Openers Are Ready to Take Down Tiny Zombies

If you’ve ever visited Japan, you might have come across some tiny samurai swords being sold as souvenirs. It turns out that some of these are actually designed to be letter openers. Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly reduced tourism throughout the country, so fewer people can get their hands on these tiny katanas. So Japanese scissor company Nikken has decided to start a crowdfunding campaign to sell them online.

These samurai sword letter openers are hand-sharpened by Seki craftsmen and feature a curved blade just like the real deal. However, these katanas are designed to be sharp enough only to open mail, and not to slice your skin.

These special edition swords come with a custom engraving on their blades, with any message you’d like – the only limit being eight kanji, hiragana, or katakana characters, or 15 Roman letters and numbers. They come in three different color schemes, and each one includes a handsome display stand.

The miniature katana letter openers are up for sale on Japanese crowdfunding site Makuake, with prices starting at just ¥4000 (~$37 USD), but it’s unclear if they can be shipped outside of Japan.

[via SoraNews24]

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Katana Forged from Meteorite: The Sword of Heaven

Back in 2010 we heard about how the late Sir Terry Pratchett made his own sword using a bit of iron from a meteorite. The blade of this katana on the other hand was made entirely from a meteorite. It’s called the Tentetsutou (天鉄刀), which translates to Sword of Heaven. Yep, this is going to read like a wiki page for a JRPG item.

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The renowned blacksmith Yoshindo Yoshiwara crafted the katana using fragments from Gibeon, an iron-alloy meteorite that landed near a town in Namibia after which it was named. Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT) made this video about Tentetsutou. Sadly it’s all in Japanese, but you can get glimpses of the katana at 2:34 and 7:18.

According to Namibia 1-on-1, in the late 1830s British explorer Sir James Alexander saw locals using Gibeon’s pieces to make tools and weapons. Alexander sent samples back to London, where it was verified that the rock came from space.

You can see the rest of Gibeon at the Post Street Mall in Namibia, while Tentetsutou is on permanent display at CIT’s exhibit at the Skytree tower in Tokyo, Japan. Cool story, sword! I bet it teaches you a badass special move if you use it 255 times.

Let’s end on this note by Twitter user Zan_Woo, who says he’s going to take the Sword of Heaven, climb the Skytree and defeat the final boss at the top of the tower. Legend of Zan Woo: Let Us Climb Together. Coming to Nintendo 5DS in 2030.

[via Chibi Institute of Technology & RocketNews24 via Nerdist]

Robot Arms Dueling with Katana: Apocalypse Soon

When we all die, it will certainly be a preventable doom of our own making. If I were placing bets I’d probably go with “catastrophic environmental disaster,” but “robot apocalypse” is certainly a possibility, and the odds just went up… a LOT. Why, you ask? Robots arms that have been taught to wield katana with unerring precision.

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Now we know that when the robots rise up against us we will be cut down with differentially tempered swords made in the Japanese style. The consolation prize is that we’ll probably die quickly from the very, very precise and clean cuts.

In the mean time, I’ll be working on a design for an EMP warhammer. Do you think Kickstarter or Indiegogo would be a better funding platform for such a weapon? Should early backers get a free upgrade to fine Nappa leather grips? Maybe if I hit stretch goals I can also make EMP maces, flails, estocs, and halberds.

Star Wars Lightsaber Katana Combines Two Amazing Weapons

Katanas are the ancient weapons of warriors on Earth. Lightsabers are the ancient weapon of Jedi across the galaxy. Combine those weapons and you have one super awesome new weapons that bridges both worlds.

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Man at Arms: Reforged asked the bladesmiths at Baltimore Knife and Sword to made this weapon a reality – minus the glowing energy blade of course. They just had to decide if they wanted to join the Dark Side and make a Sith version or choose the Light Side and go with a Jedi version. They saw it as a logical decision to go with the Sith.

The video shows how the team built the weapon. It’s an impressive build, with parts of the blade and strap mimicking the effects of a traditional Japanese swordsmith.

[via Sploid]

Katana Bookends Make Readers Sharp

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Driving a katana through books would be considered a sacrilege by most people (unless it’s the Fifty Shades or Twilight trilogies that we’re talking about), but this doesn’t make the following bookends any less impressive.

It’s impossible to become sharp without reading. This must be exactly what the designers of these ...
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Katana Bookends Help You Slice Through Reading Material in Seconds

While I still have years worth of old paper books lying around my house, I have to be honest and say that I don’t read much in the way of physical books anymore. Other than the occasional graphic novel or comic book, I prefer to read on my iPad these days. That said, I have a few very special books that are deserving of a proud place on top of the bookshelf, and I’ve finally found the best way to show them off.

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Yep. Katana Bookends, folks. Shut up and take my money already.  They’re coming this March from UK design shop Mustard for about $30(USD) and they’re perfect for displaying your favorite martial arts instructional books, or in my case, issues of The Walking Dead – specifically those with Michonne in them.

While I’d like to think they pulled off the visual trickery of the blade slicing through the books using massive neodymium magnets, it looks to me more like the old Steve Martin arrow-through-the-head gag, but with books instead of a head in the middle. Regardless of how they’re made, they’re still Katana Bookends, so what’s not to like?