CHAINSAW KATANA

Redditor Chr15to yearns to build a chainsaw katana, and who can blame him?

I can draw a chainsaw katana. I just can't seem to build one yet

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Anonymous

If you want a wildly impractical cutting implement that isn’t nearly as likely to kick back and split that stupid look on your face in two, why not fetishize monofilament cutlery? You know; charging a one-atom-thick line of substrate so that it essentially becomes the sharpest thing possible. At least the monofilament concept could theoretically work. A chainsaw sword could be defeated by a length of steel conduit, assuming the chain doesn’t whip off the bar and slash your corneas off.
- Anonymous
  
  Yeah we all saw johnny mnemonic, doesn’t make it any more feasible than the chainsaw katana.
Anonymous

Reminds me of Nell’s sword at the end of “The Diamond Age”
icerg

I wanna tatoo of a T-Rex with two of these in place of arms….
jjnashville

WooHoo. It’s “Dalek Killer” Abslom Daak’s “chainsword”. http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/d/daak.htm
Anonymous

Pshaww. Chainswords are so 41st century.
Anonymous

You really need to redesign the chain from scratch. After flesh (or armour) isn’t wood. You could reduce kickback by designing the blade to work against a fixed, serrated edge, something like an electric carving knife. To keep the back edge tight from flopping loosely because of the curuve in the blade, you’d have to arrange it so that either the blade traveled in a channel, or was held agains the back by a c-channel. Then the’re the problem of having enough horspower in a small enough package.
stevew

If you’re doing chainsaws use the best – Stihl. The HT 56 C-E STIHL Pole Pruner is 11.1 lbs. and has quite a reach. A former logger and arborist, I’ve been using Stihl saws since 1973. In fact my 1973 (38 years old) 041 AV saw still runs well and it’s been through dozens of chains and a couple of bars. Minor maintenance and replacing dried rubber parts in the carb and oiler, never needed any engine work. Keep the cutters sharp and the rakers low, they go through flesh instantly. The finger couldn’t be sutured but I kept it. :)
John Farrier

Like most things in life, this design could be improved with a bayonet attachment.
Atrum

YES.
Anonymous

You should commision this guy: http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/radar/michael-makes-giant-fcking-swords
jfrancis

Quiver Shivs!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uZMPVFAFJD8/Sfnnjj9ZjfI/AAAAAAAADj0/4KZEBVGL4kg/s1600-h/4.jpg
- LeSinge
  
  I feel like I should know this, but what’s this from?
  
  —————-
  jfrancis:
  
  Quiver Shivs!
  
  http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_uZMPVFAFJD8/Sfnnjj9ZjfI/AAAAAAAADj0/4KZEBVGL4kg/s1600-h/4.jpg
blackhound

I want the nanotech version of this from Diamond Age.
Anonymous

I saw this and knew I’d seen a trailer for a Japanese movie with a chainsaw Katana Turns out it’s Hell Driver http://www.mediumatlarge.net/2011/03/chainsaw-katana.html

Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKHKDfsSxT4
jaygryph

Guess what I built last month.

http://d.facdn.net/art/emoburd/1302423163.emoburd_reaver.jpg

It works just fine on blackberry bushes!
pauldrye

BUT WHERE IS THE SHARK?
Anonymous

Reminiscent, of course, of Dr. McHasting’s version: http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/5p37
Rich Keller

If he builds one, let’s hope he makes it so it can be launched from a giant rifle slingshot.

http://boingboing.net/2011/03/29/machete-shooting-rif.html
Sam

You could actually get pretty close by using chainsaw bars meant for carving. The key would be to start with a saw that can take a 1/4″ pitch spur gear, letting you run the smaller 1/4 pitch chain. Then you can get carving bars in a number of lengths, with as small as a “dime” tip, which has a tip radius of, well, a dime. A long enough narrow dime-tip bar, chromed, would look quite a lot like a katana blade. Might even be possible to make your own dime-tip bar that has a slightly more sword-like profile and would work with the 1/4 pitch chain.

Really the power source will be the issue – electric with a body-worn battery pack is probably the best bet? Cable goes up your arm? Quick release on the cable so if you drop the sword the power cuts immediately.

You might start the mods with a Makita 5012B http://www.makita.com/en-us/Modules/Tools/ToolDetails.aspx?ID=336 A popular carving chainsaw. You could probably strip it down considerably, and wind up with a chainsaw sword in the 10lb range, with a 24″ blade?

Of course that would be a horrible idea – the kickback potential would be pretty incredible, and without many of the standard safety implements that chainsaws have, like the kickback bar, wide two-handed grips, etc., it would be quite the menace to actually use. You’d be more likely to hurt yourself than triumph over evil.

Of course, it would look awesome. Maybe a non-working sculptural version made from worn-out carving chain would be a better idea?
- BastardNamban
  
  I can’t believe it- I thought I was the only person thinking of building this.
  
  Of course, I do realize how incredibly stupid that makes me, and the concept of kickback pretty much nulls this, but as a machinist with engineering background and Japanese background, it was inevitable.
  
  I was daydreaming one day of the most badass possible weapon, in the same manner of a 6 yr. old. I came up with flamethrowing-chainsaw-katana. It’s all the internet memes fusing, you see. I imagined a specialized bazooka shooting flamethrowing chainsaw projectiles too. I need that kid from Axe Cop to illustrate this shit.
  
  Anyway, since I actually COULD build, with machine tools, something that might run, I kept thinking about it, simply as a proof of concept (:read- show my buddies for lols:)
  
  Your design would work- along with the parent. I had no idea sculpting bars the width of a dime existed! Who makes these??
  
  It could never have a true sharp point, it needs a pulley at angled guide tips. Unless you took the Warhammer 40K approach, and made a blade frame, with actual point, and ran the chain inside a hollow, 2 part welded blade. It comes out a bit before the tip- leaving you able to pierce like a sword (never actually used a katana that way, they were meant for slashing)- but the actual cutting part would only be on one side of the sword, where the blade normally would be, and only there, the rest being hidden safely inside the blade body.
  
  This would be less dangerous, but still, very dangerous. It could be done. Electric with strong lithium battery cells, maybe to a backpack, would work well- kill the electricity, and instant off is more possible.
  Gas powered would be more impressive, though. A pancake motor would work for this.
  
  I am not encouraging anyone to actually make this- it would be dangerous for anything other than brush clearing. It’s just kind of comforting to know I’m not the only one completely f**king insane in thinking this up too?
  - emmdeeaych
    
    I’m thinking it would even be dangerous while clearing brush. AND AWESOME.
    
    also: http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=12500
- emmdeeaych
  
  Hydraulics. Impractical, but totally doable. Also, compressed air.
Boba Fett Diop

That’s nice, but what I’m really looking for is an angle-grinder naginata.
Trent Hawkins

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_liwex05Eaq1qbfuwwo1_500.jpg
- jfrancis
  
  ftw
dargaud

I live 3000ft higher than where I work and the bus service lets you take a bike with you at no extra charge on the way back (yay for public transportation). So I mountain bike to work regularly: plenty of different trails to go down. But some of the trails are completely abandonned, with plenty of trees fallen over, so I’m in the market for a good saw that can safely fold into a backpack.

Long story short, today I was in a mountain gear store and they had a huge black machete with a saw on the reverse side of the blade. The saleman saw the grin on my face as I imagined myself as Dany Trejp biking into work (where I already have quite a reputation) with a huge machete on my pack. Just thinking about a high-speed fall with that sharp and serrated thing less than 30 feet way from me kept me from purchasing it… Too bad.
- Anonymous
  
  Doesn’t fold but check out the Sugoi Silky hand saw. There’s also a smaller (180mm) Pocket Boy if the trail obstacles aren’t too large. I have a Silky for clearing my trails and it’s an amazing hand saw and has held up well for a couple years of steady use. Has a scabbard if you carry a pack, but it’s still fairly long (360mm).
- kenmce
  
  >dargaud #11
  
  >a huge black machete with a saw on the reverse side of the >blade… Just thinking about a high-speed fall with that sharp and >serrated thing less than 30 feet way from me kept me from >purchasing it… Too bad.
  
  My dear dargaud,
  
  this problem has arisen and been solved many times before. It’s called a sheath. Buy it. Go forth. Saw righteously!
Brainspore

This is the perfect weapon for Ninjas who only assassinate deaf people.
jayarava

It would never work as drawn. Take a look at a chainsaw – a straight blade with a rounded end. You have a curved blade with a pointy end. So your chain comes off the first time you switch it on and kills or maims you. Game over.

Then think about how you use a chainsaw. You lean it up against something and let the chain do the work (like any saw, yes?). If you swing it about and bring it violently into contact with anything then the chain comes off – see above.

As drawn it looks like a single grip. So you touch this chainsaw sword to something, and it grips the thing with those backwards facing teeth travelling at 100 miles an hour, and fucking rips the sword out of your hand. If you’re lucky the sword is thrown away from you; and your wrist and/or fingers will not be broken! You want a two handed grip (which a katana should have anyway!) and you want a sculptured handle to make the thing easier to hang on to. A longer handle will also give you better balance without which you might as well use an axe.

Back to the drawing board. When you’ve got a practical design: don’t call us, call an ambulance. Anyone seen that cartoon about the likely outcomes of owning an actual light sabre – was it xkcd? This will be like that. A Darwin Award in waiting.
- chr15to
  
  Dreams…destroyed.
- Anonymous
  
  It would never work as drawn. Take a look at a chainsaw – a straight blade with a rounded end.
  
  Actually, you can get bars with several different style tips; including pointy ones.
  
  The round-noses are the most durable and easy to use. A double-sprocketed one such as this would require would be experts-only for wood cutting, but I don’t think wood cutting is what this is for.
- retrojoe
  
  Don’t be a “buzz” kill.
rebdav

Now modify the oiler to squirt oily napalm so it is also spewing zombie purifying flames.
Makes this standard issue for the Ripley Aliens forklift suit.
Anonymous

anyone else notice that in that pic of the asian chick w/ chainsaw katana that keeps getting posted, the blade is a decorative piece outside the chain mechanism, NOT a pointed endpiece the chain moves over?
monkeywidget

“Eat chainsword!”

http://www.google.com/search?q=chainsword&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X

Boingers may not realize this, but the Chainsword is a fairly popular idea that has been around for at least 30 years! Most frequently appearing in the tabletop game “Warhammer 40,000″ by Games Workshop.
Sam

Other fun chainsaw tools: The Log Wizard: http://logwizard.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4:log-wizard&catid=5:articles&Itemid=6

This thing is great fun to use, but people are always surprised that it even exists. Basically a 3.5″ planer blade that you bolt to the end of your chainsaw bar. Then you change out the chain for a blade-less drive chain, and use it to directly drive the planer blade. You can really chew the heck out of some wood with it! Super fun to use, too.
zapan

I could make him a LARP chainsaw-katana in latex !
I just finished a mechanicus axe and I did a chainsword earlier :
http://zapan99.deviantart.com/
dargaud

kenmce, I didn’t see the sheath that came with it, but thanks for the support, I’m totally getting it (as soon as both my broken bikes come back from the store). My wife will kill me.