Stun Knife

[Inventor]

I finally decided to release my stun knife photo to the public area of the forum as I don't think it's all that much of a secret anymore. Anyway, the thing is about five or six years old now and has an earlier technology of only 50 kV spark. Plus it's large.

Oh, i should mention that it's basically just a stun gun with knife blades attached. The "Klingon" double-bladed design in itself is quite nasty because one blade anchors and acts as a pivot point for leverage on the other blade, making cutting operations very effective. However the real "shocker" is the spark at the tip of the blade which disables the opponent. In the right hands this thing can be rather effective.

I'm thinking about making these for people, and I'd like to get some advice on legality of producing such weapons. At the local gun and knife show, everyone seemed to love it and they wanted to buy it right on the spot. So I figure there's a market for them.

Les

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[v-un-v]

[Inventor]

Tom you crack me up, lol. Yeah it's for self defense. The idea is that all you have to do is touch the criminal and they will pull away from you, you don't have to get a good stab in. Also just waving any spark around will stop most thieves. I remember some repo man on TV saying that he used to carry a gun but it didn't scare anyone, so he started carrying a stun gun and that had an intimidating effect on people.

I figure I'll make a few as collectibles for friends until they get outlawed. Also be aware that using a stun gun for the spark source means that the device is relatively safe in the sense that the electricity does not damage tissue or nerves. It is possible, however, to design different electronics that deliver a truly devastating punch. That is probably quite illegal too.

So in part I am making this sort of thing publicly known to warn people. There is an entire category of electrified weapons on the horizon that are cheap and easy to build and can be used for good or evil. So if this thing freaks you out, get ready for what's coming...

Les

[v-un-v]

Electricity may not damage tissue (well it will if the current is high enough), but the knives certainly will.

I do understand now that a body would be repelled on contact with the spark, making stabbing difficult, but I would imagine that getting that to stand in a court of ethical law would be quite a different case- especially if you had the device held up against someone, who had their back to the wall?

As for self defence against a 'criminal', isn't a criminal just another human being anyway? Just because this device was intended for self defence, it would be just as easy to use it as a device of intimidation as well- like you pointed out with the repo man case (you could always use a dead rat- like they did in the film "Repo Man"? ). It think it would be the latter which would make this a device that you would have to hold some kind of creditable arms licence for?

[Inventor]

Yes, well, this is the classic debate of whether certain types of weapons should be outlawed, and I'm no debater, so I'll leave that to the experts.

Also the use model is not just to cause them to pull away, I should have explained further. If you keep the spark trigger pressed as you commence stabbing, each stab re-disables the recipient. So once you get one good stun in, the person becomes essentially helpless for as long as you wish. That's more the intended use.

Les

[blue hell]

[Inventor]

[nobody]

I feel you, Les. The system has not been nice to me, either, and I hope you find happiness and peace.

[Inventor]

[BobTheDog]

I like the guitar pickup much, much more!

[v-un-v]

Actually Les, I could really do with one of these knives this evening, because a small gang of thugs just spray-canned my front door. The police are arriving in about half an hour.

Two years ago I had all the windows in my car smashed in. I'm certain it's the same gang. A local man has given me one of their addresses (he's a neighbour- the would-be graffiti artist that is).

If it were my wall, I wouldn't be so upset, but a front door? That's like punching someone in the face right?

[Inventor]

Andy: OK well I'm open to suggestions / advice / investments or whatever you can think of to help make the guitar project work. I've been trying to make that happen but it's like banging my head against a brick wall. The knife can sell but the guitar pickup not so well.

Tom: Yes, it is useful not so much to actually defend yourself with but rather to zap it and feel the power it has, kind of like firing a gun. Then you can calm down and feel exhausted after your emotional outburst. It's a stress relief process that works for me.

Les

[elektro80]

I tend to agree with Jan that promoting weapons system here is possibly even off topic in our schmooze section. Discussing weapons in general is schmooze, but actually promoting one.

As for the stun knife, AFAIK high voltage electrical charges were tested for a bayonet release system in the US in the late 40s/early 50s. In real life close combat with a bayonet is ..surprise.. also risky for the guy with the blade. Collected data suggested that a major problem is that the blade gets stuck in the opponent and our friend, the US soldier, would then risk getting into lethal trouble while trying to get the blade out. Some would solve this by firing a round into the victim, but this could of course result in more trouble. Electrical shock systems as well as shotgun charges ( no bullets - just an explosive charge that would "clean" the blade ) in the fingerguard section of the bayonet were tested. I think the verdict was that blade design and certain manual procedures ( as violently twisting the blade sideways before retraction ) were preferred. However, the details of how to perform good bayonet killings can be learned from various military manuals you can pick up on ebay or in specialist secondhand bookstores. The late british ones of WW1 are especially chilling. Pretty obscene stuff if you ask me.

[seraph]

Stein,
you seem to be very knowledgeable on this field
I wonder why

[Inventor]

I have good news for everybody who is concerned about this issue. i have recently opened up a conversation with someone who is interested in breathing new life back into the eChuck project. i cannot work on so many projects, so i will drop the stun knife project in favor of making cool music. if you would like to follow the development of this new effort, please keep an eye out for postings to the eChucK forum, thanks.

Les

[elektro80]

[Inventor]

Suddenly I realize something else as well. I need to be able to focus my attention on creative endeavors. It doesn't seem to matter whether that is music software, music hardware, making music, broadcasting, or even weapons development. I gotta keep this brain fed or it starts to go hungry and that's not good.

So if you want to ensure that I stick with my preferred choice of interests, those related to music, I invite you to read my posts and respond to them. Just showing interest or making comments from time to time is helpful, and you can add your wisdom to developing projects and make the world a little bit better place as well. Thanks,

Les

[BobTheDog]

[Inventor]

Andy, I know nothing else. It's ingrained childhood behavior. I can look back now, as an adult and recall that I was on ignored child. The only way I could get any love or appreciation out of my parents was to build some plastic model or other object and then show it to them. There would be a brief euphoria followed by an instruction to go back and create more. It was like toking a hit of the love drug. So I learned, deep down inside, to work hard on projects as the means of gaining rewards.

Of course now I look back and realize two things: 1. my parents couldn't be bothered to get involved with me, or didn't know that they should, and 2. as an adult one should somehow reprogram oneself, unlearning all the bad stuff taught by wrong childhood experiences and taking responsibility for your own actions. I have done item 2. in many ways, but this one I cannot fix. IT's roots are too deep into my psyche.

I realize it's a weakness to seek praise from others for your creative efforts, and yes I do have plenty of moments when I appreciate what I've done for it's own merits, by myself. In fact, I find it to be particularly exciting to know something - even a small thing of little significance - when it seems that I am the only one on the planet to realize this thing. Maybe that's egotistical, but doing something and doing it first is evidence that you are truly making a difference in the world with your life's efforts and that's my main goal, to make the world a better place.

Problem is, getting to the financial aspect of it, I often sit for months at a time unable to move forward on a project because I lack what working people would consider to be a trivial amount of money, like $100 or $200 to buy parts. And it's particularly frustrating because I did all of the things necessary to get an education and have a career and be able to afford such things, but I was attacked by this invisible enemy who relentlessly crushed all of my hopes and dreams, destroying even my very sanity and torturing me for years. In other words, someone took away my ability to earn that income. This gets back to the knife.

The knife symbolizes my ultimate reaction to this destructive force, which really was not some individual, but some large groups - plural - of individuals so expansive that they represent society itself. How could I get back at society for destroying all that I had built in my life? Shoot up a school? Capture my persecutors, the few I can identify, and torture them to death? Or just make someone else's life miserable? No, No, No, none of the above as I am not evil. What I could do, however, was return to that ingrained behavior of my childhood and create something. This time I would create something that would get back at society for good. I would create a nasty new kind of weapon and unleash it upon society as my vengeance. And I have done so.

Intelligence and creativity are powerful things which can be used for good or evil, and I prefer to use my abilities for good. But if nobody ever notices my guitar invention or my eChucK project or my Karplus Strong modular board - if nobody ever values those creations enough to actually buy them, then I will never have that $100 a month budget that I need to keep fueling the fires of creativity. It's not easy to live on disability, especially when you've earned the right to have a decent income from your own sweat blood and tears.

So the above rambling sort of weaves a tapestry, my tapestry of my psychology, and explains why I have a mixed up interdependence of love, creativity, anger, and yes even money as part of the whole thing. So now you see I don't want to sell stun knives because I'm a sinister evildoer, I want to satisfy the pain caused by bad parenting and the victimization of society. I'd rather work on music stuff but nobody seems to want it, quite frankly.

I'll go one step further and then close. Take a look at the New Gear thread, one of our most popular threads. People love to show off the stuff they've bought. Did you ever notice it's almost all commercial stuff? How much music gear do you own that was purchased from a fellow DIY builder or DIY designer? You're giving all your hobby money to "the man", not to your beloved friends.

End of rant, thanks for reading and I welcome your comments.

Les

[seraph]

[nobody]

[Inventor]

Damien,

I recall that I was going to send the guitar on tour and that you were going to be the first recipient. However now that I am moving to Wyoming, there is at least one person who is interested in buying a guitar outfitted with the new pickup system, so I need this guitar as a demo for them. So please accept my apologies for the change in plans.

Well said about the world being a better place if more people got their jollies off of people recognizing their creativity!

Les

[nobody]

[Airlock]

[Inventor]