THE KNIFE
The construction in the foreground.
Year
2021 - 2022
THE COMMUNITY
I wanted the complete modelprintables available free of charge.
Anyway, a few words about printables
There are many platforms where 3D printing files are shared or sold . Many have come and gone over the years or simply become unusable.
Many users do not respect the copyrights and resell the models on other platforms. The topic of making money with 3D printing is already with meextensively tested and that's why I don't see it that closely anymore.
Of course, many have lost interest in the actual community as a result.
After one of my most complex 3D printing projects had to disappear from the internet at the urging of a very big international toy manufacturer, I had checked off the topic for the first time. Of course, I have to admit that I overshot the target a bit with the said project.
Printables by Josef Prusa now wants to do everything differently, like it used to be somehow. There are only free models, the international community is back in the foreground and 3D printing itself. The site is well programmed and has all the features we have always wanted.
FOREWORD
First and foremost, I want to note as a committed pacifist that this is not about a specific purpose per se, but rather the focus should be on the construction itself.
THE PROJECT
It can be a very long process until a construction reaches production readiness. Specifically, I wanted to achieve everyday usability with the materials used, even if only the FDM printing process was to be used. It should be easily reproducible for other users.
The construction was created entirely in Autodesk Fusion360 and printed on Prusa MK3S 3D printers. Sometimes at temperatures of up to 275 degrees.
Although the blade itself has moved far into the background during the course of the project, here is a brief excerpt from Wikipedia:
"A knife smith or blade smith is a craftsman who specializes in the production of knives and small bladed tools. The profession of knife smith was widespread in the Middle Ages but is now one of the dying trades.
Today, the art of knife smithing is often continued as a hobby or for reasons of preserving tradition.
In Germany, the traditional job title of knife smith was replaced by the title of cutlery mechanic at the end of the 1980s. The profession now includes the production of knives and other cutting tools either as individual pieces using traditional methods or industrially in series, as well as the sharpening and maintenance of industrial cutting machines.
Very few cutting tool mechanics can actually practice the skills they learned and demonstrated in the master exam during their professional lives: designing and producing complete knives."
As mentioned at the beginning, my focus was not on the blade. The handle and the holster are in focus.
When inserting the knife into the holster, the handle is locked at the end by the holster and held in position. Of course, this construction is not new and not my idea, but it was interesting to integrate this function into my own design. Especially when everything had to be learned autodidactically."
The holster is fully compatible with the Pouch Attachment Ladder System, which was developed for the Modular Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment (MOLLE) carrying system.
Unfortunately, I had to find out that a complete knife, including the holster system from the 3D printer, is really a cross-trade project. Which material properties are important and how do you print with these materials? The repeated adaptation of the construction after the prototypes were assembled and what does the correct post-processing of the parts look like? Here I had to make compromises.
You can already tell that a knife was not just quickly printed here. In conclusion, for me, as always, the focus is not on the end product, but what I have learned from this project.
