During World War I, skilled craftsmen stuck in trenches would fashion useful items from spent bullets and other war materials. Watch Canadian maker Steven from the Steven's Fix YouTube channel restore a century-old bullet lighter back to working condition. Read the rest

In this fascinating video, the energy of a bullet is on full display as it's shot directly at the sharp edge of an axe. The first shot from seven yards misses, but the second one sends a visible shock wave through the axe head. Read the rest

Journalist Ammar Alwaely was filming with a colleague when a bullet tore through his shoulder-mounted GoPro, deflecting it from tearing through him. Contains plenty of NSFW swearing, which seems entirely appropriate. Read the rest

A 41-year-old woman was bike riding across a field in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany when she felt a sharp pain in her breast. Turns out, she had ridden through a boar hunt and a stray bullet bounced off the underwire of her bra. Read the rest

Manipulating safe locks can be fun and profitable! It also takes practice. I recently bought a used safe combination dial lock and mounted it to a  piece of reclaimed wood. Mounting a dial lock involves threading the dial spline bolt through the combination wheels, and then hammering a soft, brass "spline key" into the spline's notch so that the dial will turn the wheels.

My lock came without a spline key, so I searched around the house for some brass to use. I found a spent bullet cartridge casing, and attacked it with a rotary tool cutoff wheel to get a sliver of brass.

After sanding off the rough edges, I folded it over to the proper thickness to fit snugly in the threaded spline.

One solid blow with a deadblow hammer, and the soft brass wedged in place. The dial now turns beautifully.

I'll be bringing this and some other cutaway locks to Boing Boing's Weekend of Wonder, where I'll be teaching lock picking workshops, so if you're attending, please come check it out. Read the rest