I have made several pairs of these; they turned out surprisingly well and are an easy mold to work with, since it’s open and you can just pour the metal right in. The legality is questionable, unfortunately.
It takes a bit of work with a die grinder and a dremel tool to get the metal cleaned up, and I hate to admit that I got the zircon a bit off. [@kestrel, when you said “drill a guide hole and practice” that’s not what I did!] To make extra space on the palm-piece I altered the wax before I made the investment mold – I just melted a bit of sprue wax and packed it in then smoothed it down.
Polishing silver is very satisfying, though it leaves my hands an unattractive gray color for a while.
Now I need to make some damascus safety razor blades (supersized!) and I can really sport 80s bling.
I ought to be able to take down a werewolf with one punch from these.
These take a fair bit of silver (about 5 troy oz, or $250 worth) so I won’t be making many of them. On the other hand, I could whip them up in pewter pretty easily. The main headache is all the polishing. But it feels pretty good to walk around with some steel wool, buffing your knucks.
chigau (違う) says
that shirt … that shirt …
wow
chigau (違う) says
seriously, man
Sunday Afternoon says
yeah, knuckledusters are of questionable legality, but assault weapons are ok. Almost as outrageous as “that shirt”!
Ridana says
Son of Puffy Shirt. :)
Intransitive says
Forget knives and brass knuckles, even a kubotan can get you arrested in some jurisdictions, though there’s nothing illegal about carrying a metal bodied pen with a metal screw on cap. And yet I can legally buy pepper spray in the stores….
True story: One of the times I had to fly into Hong Kong, one of the security at the airport held me up and accused me of having a knife in my carry on bag, that he saw it on the xray scan. I replied that I did not have a knife, and he got touchy, demanding to search my bag. He pulled out the object and said it was a knife.
The clown had never seen a fountain pen in his life.
No, I would never use my metal fountain pens as a weapon, I paid a bundle for them.
Badland says
Oh my ♥
Rocking the fluffy pompon subversion
Andreas Avester says
Now that’s some amazingly cool bling. I love this.
voyager says
Wow. Not everyone can pull off that look.
cartomancer says
Engrave the razor with “frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora” and you’ll have not just 80s bling but 1280s bling!
kestrel says
Nice look you’ve got there… NICE.
It turned out great, so what if the stone is a little off, no one will know but you. You did practice, you just only practiced once so far and kept the piece.
Jazzlet says
Oh yes, but you are right, you need some razor blades to complete the look.
Marcus Ranum says
kestrel@#10:
It turned out great, so what if the stone is a little off, no one will know but you. You did practice, you just only practiced once so far and kept the piece.
You are kind. It’s not as though I didn’t have plenty of other things I could have practiced on. I was just a blockhead and hurried and ignored your good advice. Well, not “ignored” – worse, I knew you were talking good sense and I didn’t take your advice.
Marcus Ranum says
Jazzlet@#11:
you need some razor blades to complete the look
For those I need to make some high-contrast surreal-layered damascus like Steve Schwartzer did for his straight razor. Which means maybe I’ll be making razor blades in … 10 years.
Marcus Ranum says
cartomancer@#9:
you’ll have not just 80s bling but 1280s bling!
That is great!
One of my favorite pieces in the Decoration of Arms and Armor [Stone] is a Chinese mace that has the character for “long life” on its face in high relief. Boom Boom Boom. Maybe I could engrave something along the face of the knucks.
komarov says
I think it’s impressive work. But, from a purely tactical (TM) (R) (C) standpoint, wouldn’t it be more “sensible” to have stones inset along the leading edge of your defensive necklace? The pointier the better. Also, despite the closeup I see there’s plenty of space going to waste where more ruffles could have been. You could also add a ruffled protector to the inner handle to further improve wearer comfort and (possibly) the wearer’s style. I’m sorry, the ruffles are very distracting…
Marcus Ranum says
komarov@#15:
I’m sorry, the ruffles are very distracting…
Those are tactical stealth radar cross section-reducing ruffles.
Charly says
As far as jewelry goes, this is pretty. But it must be chilly when worn against bare skin like that.
As far as weaponry goes, this is indeed illegal in many countries despite being a much worse weapon than many completely legal things. Especially in US, where the completely legal things often include military grade rifles.