I Built an Invisible Katana (it's indestructible)
Summary
TLDRIn this inventive video, the creator embarks on a unique project to construct an 'invisible' katana made from polycarbonate, a material known for its transparency and durability. Through a series of meticulous steps, including designing, cutting, grinding, and polishing the material, the creator successfully forges a sword that appears nearly transparent under certain conditions. Rigorous testing against a variety of targets demonstrates the katana's impressive strength and sharpness, despite an unexpected break during a brick test. The video concludes with the creator's excitement over the katana's capabilities and a teaser for a future project.
Takeaways
- 🗡️ The project's goal is to create an invisible, unbreakable, and sharp katana sword using unconventional materials.
- 💡 Initial considerations for the material involved glass, but polycarbonate was chosen for its superior impact resistance and lightweight properties.
- 🚀 A test involving hitting a polycarbonate panel with a sledgehammer demonstrated its impressive durability.
- 📏 The katana design began with outlining the shape on a large sheet of polycarbonate and cutting it to size.
- 🔨 The creation process included multiple steps such as grinding, sanding, and polishing to achieve the desired transparency and sharpness.
- 🔧 A bevel was added to the blade for sharpness, but it introduced distortions, leading to a redesign with a shorter bevel to minimize visibility.
- 🔩 The handle was initially a concern for breaking the sword, but it was later reinforced with additional polycarbonate for extra strength.
- 🥊 The katana was tested against various targets, demonstrating its cutting power on soft to hard materials without significant damage to the blade.
- 🏆 Despite the impressive results, the katana's edge was still expected to chip and require resharpening after extensive use.
- 💡 The experiment showcased the potential of polycarbonate as a material for creating unique and functional objects with the right techniques and treatments.
Q & A
What was the initial idea behind creating the invisible sword?
-The initial idea was to create a sword that was not only invisible but also destructible, sharp, and functionally similar to a normal sword, specifically a katana.
Why was glass dismissed as a suitable material for the invisible sword?
-Glass was dismissed because, despite its transparency and the ability to make it sharp with a diamond stone, it is prone to breaking too easily, making it unsuitable for constructing a durable katana.
What property of polycarbonate makes it an ideal material for the invisible sword?
-Polycarbonate is ideal because it is transparent, impact-resistant, and approximately 10 times more resistant than steel by weight, making it suitable for creating a durable and invisible sword.
How was the shape of the katana transferred onto the polycarbonate panel?
-The shape was transferred using tape to outline the consistent curve of the katana on the panel, which was then used as a reference for the actual cut.
What was the outcome of the test where the polycarbonate panel was hit with a sledgehammer?
-The polycarbonate panel remained completely fine after being hit with the sledgehammer, with only a barely noticeable scratch, demonstrating its resilience and suitability for the sword project.
How did the creator ensure the katana maintained its lightness despite being twice the size of a normal katana?
-The creator used polycarbonate, which is lighter than steel, ensuring that the larger size of the katana would not compromise its ability to be swung easily.
What was the process of sharpening the katana?
-The process involved creating a bevel on the blade by grinding it symmetrically on both sides using a belt grinder, followed by smoothing out the angle between the spine and the bevel to prevent reflections and further polishing to increase transparency.
What issue arose from the variable thickness of the transparent material?
-The variable thickness caused distortion of objects behind the katana when viewed through it, which reduced the desired invisible effect.
How was the handle of the katana initially intended to be made?
-The initial plan was to use an acrylic block and carve a handle from it, but the creator opted for a simpler and more transparent approach by gluing extra polycarbonate pieces and shaping them into a handle.
What happened when the katana was tested on various targets, and how did the creator address the issue of the sword breaking?
-The katana successfully cut through soft to hard targets, but it broke when extra material was glued to the handle for rigidity. The creator theorized that the rigidity made the sword more likely to break, so they decided to use the sword without the handle, which proved to be unbreakable even when hitting a brick.
Outlines
🗡️ Crafting an Invisible and Indestructible Katana
The video begins with the creator's fascination for an invisible sword, leading to the ambitious project of building one. The material selection process is discussed, with polycarbonate being chosen over glass due to its superior impact resistance and durability. The creator tests the polycarbonate's strength with a sledgehammer and proceeds to shape the katana using a panel of polycarbonate. The video highlights the challenges and the creative solutions employed, such as using tape to outline the sword's curve and employing a jigsaw and band saw for cutting. Despite the katana's oversized appearance, its light weight ensures maneuverability, and the creator expresses excitement about the final product's potential invisibility and strength.
🔪 Sharpening and Perfecting the Invisible Blade
In this segment, the creator focuses on sharpening the katana and enhancing its invisibility. The process of creating a bevel on the blade using a belt grinder is detailed, along with the development of a custom tool to maintain a consistent angle during grinding. The creator's inexperience with grinding does not deter the progress, and after a messy yet successful process, the katana begins to take shape. Further steps to refine the blade's transparency involve sanding with various grits and polishing with a headlight polisher. The creator also addresses the issue of light distortion caused by variable thickness in the blade and introduces a new design approach to maintain consistency in thickness for better invisibility, resulting in an improved, more transparent katana.
🥋 Testing the Katana's Cutting Power and Durability
The creator moves on to testing the katana's functionality by cutting various targets ranging from soft to hard, such as pineapple, watermelon, pumpkin, a wooden plank, a ballistic dummy, and finally, a brick. The katana performs remarkably well, slicing through the soft targets effortlessly and even managing to break through the brick, much to the creator's surprise. However, a significant issue arises when the katana snaps at the handle during testing, revealing the drawback of adding rigidity to the handle. The creator hypothesizes that the handle's extra material made it too rigid, negating the polycarbonate's natural ability to bend and absorb impacts. After reconfiguring the handle, the katana continues to pass tests with flying colors, demonstrating its sharpness and durability even after cutting through bone in the ballistic dummy.
🏹 The Ultimate Test: Cutting Through a Brick
The video concludes with the ultimate test of the katana's strength and durability: cutting through a brick. Despite initial doubts, the katana exceeds expectations by not only cutting through the brick but also by doing so without significant damage to the blade. The creator's astonishment is evident as the katana proves its worth, even after facing the most challenging test. The video ends on a high note, with the creator's satisfaction in the katana's performance and an invitation for viewers to subscribe for upcoming projects and support the creator on Patreon for behind-the-scenes content and early access to videos.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Invisible Sword
💡Polycarbonate
💡Katana
💡Sharpness
💡Durability
💡Material Testing
💡Belt Grinder
💡Sanding and Polishing
💡Distortion
💡Handle
💡Testing
Highlights
The concept of creating an invisible, destructible, and sharp sword was introduced, inspired by a picture of an invisible sword.
The first material considered for the sword was glass, due to its transparency and the ability to make it sharp with a diamond stone.
Polycarbonate was identified as a superior material due to its transparency, impact resistance, and usage in items like riot shields and armored vehicles.
A test was conducted to assess the durability of polycarbonate by hitting it with a sledgehammer, which left no visible damage.
A 2m by 0.5 and 12mm polycarbonate panel was chosen to be the body of the invisible and indestructible sword.
The process of shaping the katana involved using tape to outline the desired curve and then cutting the shape out with a jigsaw and a bandsaw.
The creator realized the katana was twice as large as a normal one, but due to the lightweight nature of polycarbonate, it wasn't expected to be a problem to swing.
The process of sharpening the sword involved creating a bevel on the blade and using a belt grinder to ensure a consistent angle on both sides.
To achieve invisibility, the creator sanded the sword with eight different grits, starting from coarse to polishing ones.
Headlight polish was applied to remove micro-scratches and further enhance the transparency of the katana.
A design issue was discovered with the variable thickness of the blade causing distortion; a solution was proposed to maintain consistent thickness as much as possible.
The handle was created by gluing extra polycarbonate pieces and then shaping and polishing it, resulting in a unique ice-like effect.
The katana was tested against various targets, including soft fruits and a ballistic dummy, demonstrating its cutting power and durability.
The katana was found to be capable of slicing through a wooden plank and even a brick, showcasing its impressive strength.
Despite the initial break during testing, the katana's blade remained sharp and undamaged, highlighting its resilience.
The final katana was not only invisible and sharp but also demonstrated a high level of durability and cutting power, making it a successful experiment.
Transcripts
have you ever seen an invisible
sword well I think I have a few days ago
I saw this picture right here that is an
invisible sword and now I want one just
like that a sword that's not all
invisible but also destructible and
sharp a sword that's basically like a
normal one but that you can't see I'm
going to build one not sure how yet I'm
going to have to figure it out and then
I'm going to test its sharpness and
durability against increasingly harder
targets the first step was choosing the
right material and the first one that
popped into my head well it was glass
glass is transparent when it's cleaner
than that and you can make it pretty
sharp by using a diamond Stone like it
did here but even though there are some
kinds of glass that can be more
resistant than usual and even
indestructible according to the
companies that sell them the problem
with glass is that glass is
glass and glass breaks at least way too
easily to make a katana out of it but
there is another material that not only
is transparent but it's 10 times more
impact resistant than steel by weight
I'm talking about polycarbonate it is
generally used for riot shields armored
vehicles safety glasses and other
indestructible items and because of all
that it sounds like the perfect material
for the job but I kind of still want to
see for myself how hard it actually is
to find that out I'm carrying out a
small sample from the panel I'm planning
to use for the katana and the idea is to
hit hit the polycarbonate as hard as I
can with this unnecessarily big
Sledgehammer 3 2
[Applause]
1 and well I'm not exactly sure what
just happened I only know that even
though B saw horses broke because of the
impact the polycarbonate panel is
completely fine this thing has one
scratch but you can't even feel it it's
not even bended or anything it's like
insane and since polycarb is clearly
resilient meaning it can bend like a lot
without breaking it's definitely my best
option so to make the katana I got a big
panel of polycarbonate 2 m by 0.5 and 12
mm or 0.47 in Stick which is also the
maximum thickness I could find for this
material and this is going to be the
invisible and indestructible body of the
sword now to cut the right shape out of
the panel I'm going to use tape what I
mean is that tape should make it easier
to draw the consistent curve of the
katana on the panel and then I can use
that as a reference for the actual cut
and after outlining the tip the edge and
completing the handle I can start to see
the final shape of the sword there is
just one thing to point out I
involuntarily made this thing big like
way too big it's basically twice as
large as a normal Katana and I'm not
sure if I should be excited because the
katana is massive and it's going to be
powerful or worried because the katana
is massive and I might not be able to
even lifted but after making a few
scientific tests I realized that because
polycarbonate is so much lighter than
steel it shouldn't be a problem to swing
the sword even if it's that big and so
I'm not worried anymore I'm just really
excited instead then I use the jigsaw to
C out a smaller perimeter around the
sword so that it's going to be easier to
work with it in the next step and after
doing that it became even more
noticeable how big this thing is going
to be now the next step is to crop the
actual shape of the sword out of the
panel and and to do that I'm going to
use a b saw then after cutting the shape
I can remove the protective film and I'm
going to be able to see if the sword
actually looks invisible the problem is
that Ben sace don't look too friendly
and most importantly I don't exactly
know how to use one so I got pretty
nervous
uh I already cut one part I forgot to
film I cut it really bad you see the
good thing is that I need to follow the
in interor line this part inside here so
my terrible cut wasn't actually a big
deal for now then I cut the extra
material out of the other side of the
katana and like that I was getting
closer now comes the hardest part I need
to follow these lines here and be
precise now this is definitely scarier
and I don't mind my fingers being close
to a deadly saw but making a mistake
here means removing material out of the
final Katana and potentially having to
start from zero luckily though I was
getting the hang of it and after
removing the extra material from the
handle I'm fixing the final details on
the Belt grinder as you can clearly see
here anyways like that the first step to
make the sword is complete I'm also
happy to see the weight of the katana is
not a problem at all it's not too light
not too heavy and the katana is not
bending on itself which means I'm
definitely on the right track and now a
few seconds of Silence while I remove
the plastic wrap
now the sword looks pretty invisible
already but inside the shop the effect
is actually weaker because of the lights
like in real life like like this it's
completely transparent for me
wait what if I do
this and that was already more like it
or less like it but outside it gets even
better bear in mind you can still see
the edges because there is no blade and
the spine is not polished so it might be
that the katana also looks darker
because the edges block the light but
when the edges are perfectly
perpendicular to the camera this thing
looks fake the effect is even stronger
when there is light behind it and I'm
very excited to see what this Katana is
going to look look like when it's
done I'm going to get this thing sharp
then I'm going to make the handle and
then I'm going to test it
against a lot of
stuff the first step to get the sword
sharp is to create a bevel on the blade
so after marking the center of the blade
using a caliper I'm retracing the line
with a pencil this line is going to be
my reference for the edge while grinding
also to make sure I'm going to grind the
blade symmetrically on both sides
basically like this I made this tool
this mechanism allows me to set a
certain angle so that when I grind the
sword with a belt grinder the angle
should stay consistent as well as the
bevel on both sides and this is all
Theory by the way I've never grinded
almost anything in my life and this
could honestly mess up the entire sword
but of course there is only one way to
find
out and well even though I felt like I
was doing everything wrong at the
beginning after basically 1 hour of
grinding the first side of the bevel was
completed and besides making an absolute
mess everywhere including on my face I
think it came out bad but much better
than expected and so after repeating the
process on the other side of the blade
the rush shape of the sword is done the
katana is not sharp yet but it has an
edge now and so the next step is going
to be making it invisible through do
that I'm going to smooth out the angle
between the spine and the bevel mainly
to prevent Reflections like the ones you
see here and while doing so I'm going to
also remove the scratches I got from the
belt grinder and hopefully turn turned
the katana even more transparent than
how it was before so I got a sander with
eight different bads from a course crit
to basically a polishing one and by
sending the katana with each one of the
pads in theory I'm going to be able to
make it transparent and well after a
little more than 2 hours I was basically
done with a first pad anyways I made
sure to remove every single scratch from
the belt grinder and even after just the
corser pad the katana already looks
pretty cool now I'm going to repeat the
process seven times and so I did each
time with a finer grd and each time
making sure to remove all the scratches
that were there before and after about 1
hour and something I was using the final
pad after that I'm sending everything
with a 2500 great sandpaper by hand and
with this I'm finally starting to see
the first good results now it's looking
good when it's wet it looks great
right now there are still a lot of micro
scratches on the surface of the blade
and that's why the katana doesn't really
look transparent yet so now I'm going to
try to remove them using this headlight
polisher and after applying it on the
sword with a sponged pad the katana was
polished and transparent there is just
one problem that I'm realizing literally
right now I forgot about
physics yeah want to know what happens
when a block of transparent material has
variable thickness like in my case
Distortion that's what happens and so
even though the katana looks good and
it's transparent when you look through
it it's going to always distort the
objects behind it basically like you see
here and even though I actually like
this Katana and I spent three days
working on it I already wrote the title
of this video and I don't want to
clickbait you so the sword has to be
more invisible than that now the problem
is that I would always need a bevel to
make the sword sharp and a bevel creates
Distortion but what if what if I try to
keep the thickness consistent as long as
I can and then make a really short
bevel by doing that in theory the entire
sword will be invisible and only a small
part of it would create distortions so
to confirm the theory I tried making a
small sample with this new concept and
it turned out honestly great let's make
another
sword so I drew a new sword cut it out
of the panel with the band saw flat in
the edges and like that had the new Rush
shape of the katana then I made a new
shorter bevel on the Belt grinder and
even though this took a while like a
long long while the new Edge came out so
much better than the old one so after
polishing it and polishing the spine of
the blade and turning my hand into a
tomato after one one day of work the
final blade is ready you can obviously
still see the bevel and the bevel still
distorts what's behind it but besides
that now the entire blade is completely
transparent for comparison this is how
version one of the katana looked and
this is how it looks now I really like
this and the more I look at this thing
the more I can't wait to test it the
katana is also pretty sharp now and I
know that because I randomly hit the
damm's head with the blade and this
happened so yeah it cuts at this point
to complete the katana I got to make the
handle and the guard Katana guards are
pieces of art they're often handmade and
they just look awesome but I'm a
minimalist so mine is just transparent I
actually tried to do something fancier
but I ended up right away with a chubby
Pac-Man and then it took me one day to
make this hole but at least it fits
nicely on the katana and at this point I
only got the handle left so my initial
plan was to use the acrylic block and
then carve a handle of it but besides
that taking a lot of time I fear it will
probably not come out as transparent as
I wanted because following the plan I
need to make a hole into the block and
then fit the handle into it and the
problem with hose is that they are
really hard to polish moreover I only
need to add just a few extra centimeters
on the thickness of the handle so why
can't I just glue extra polycarbonate to
it and then shape everything as a handle
well I tried on a smaller sample first
using super glue and it honestly worked
perfectly it's actually really strong I
hit it here and it didn't move so I cut
two pieces of polycarbonate with the
same dimensions of the handle and after
placing an entire super glue bottle on
each side of the handle I glued the two
pieces to it now I need to smooth the
edges and also reduce the thickness of
the Block in order to get the shape of
the final handle and I'm seeing this
just because there is no way for you to
tell but I got a big smile under the
mask there mainly because after grinding
for 30 minutes I was really happy about
how the handle was turning
out swear it's not dangerous besides
that the tape I put on the guard to
protect it didn't protect the guard at
all but it created a sort of pattern
that somehow reminds me of anime stuff
so I think I'm going to keep it this way
and since the handle already feels
pretty good in my hands I simply
finished it by polishing it as I
previously did with the body of the
sword and even though it was completely
random the glue created a unique effect
on the handle kind of looks like ice
anyways with this the katana is finally
completed and honestly I don't think it
looks cool I think it just looks like
I'm about to start my own anime Revenge
arc when I'm holding this thing I
absolutely love it of course you can
still C The Edge but everything else is
basically transparent especially when
there is ground or objects behind it and
now I want to test it though I want to
find out if this actually works like a
sword I want to see how well it can cut
and how powerful it is to find it out I
got a bunch of targets from soft to hard
pineapple watermelon and pumpkin a
wooden plank a ballistic dummy and then
a brick the plan is to try to cut all
this and see what happens to the sword
pineapple is first hardness one out of
10 a normal sword would easily cut this
but I'm not even sure if my Katana can
actually
cut let's find out well it didn't took
me much to realize three two
one that a really does
cut
hi and well I'm really happy about that
what I didn't know is that my happiness
wasn't going to last long though because
on the next attempt the second worst
thing that could possibly happen
happened no I wasn't expecting this at
all like at
all the sword snapped right after the
handle and then I stood literally 5
minutes like this trying to figure out
what why how was this possible
polycarbonate is basically unbreakable
then why did this happen the blade
itself is absolutely fine though it
doesn't even have a
scratch and then it clicked the reason
why polycarbonate is so resistant is
because it can bend a lot and absorb the
impacts and my theory is that by Glu in
extra material on the handle I just made
it way more rigid than the blade
effectively removing its ability to
bend so who says I need the handle if my
theory is right the sword without the
handle would be basically impossible to
break I'm going to use it this way and
if it works and if it's strong then I'm
going to remove the sharpness here but
if it works I mean it's perfect so
watermelon is next hardness 3 out of 10
I'm temporarily using a clo as a handle
to not cut myself and even though I'm a
little worried there's only one way to
find out what this sword can actually do
one and luckily it went through the
watermelon without
problems it doesn't cut clean probably
because of the thickness of the blade
and the fact that the blade bends a lot
but so far it cuts but I'm going to eat
this one next pumpkin hardness 5 out of
10 and this is not a normal pumpkin
besides the
shape but even my super sonic chain whip
struggled to slice one of this it's like
it's way harder than it looks and yet
the katana actually sliced this one and
also pretty
easily the cut is also fairly clean this
time and once again the blade is
completely fine now I'm getting to the
hard targets St the next one is a wooden
plank and it's pretty thick too so I
think there are three possible ways this
can go down the katana could snap and
break in half it could Bend pretty badly
and stay bended or but it's unlikely it
will break the wood to find out I set up
the wooden plank and I fix the bottom
and the top so that it doesn't move when
I hit it the problem is that I still
haven't figure out how strong this blade
actually is and at this point I really
have no idea what's going to happen all
right let's just do it
3 2
1 and well I wasn't expecting
that it doesn't even
have nothing I completely destroyed that
and dented that one and the edge of the
blade is absolutely perfect so I think I
definitely underestimated this thing let
me let me try again I'm going to try to
break that piece I thought it was maybe
just a fluke so I hit the plank again
and the same thing happened this is the
mark he
left the wood is broken and the blade is
not even dented at this point I only got
the two hardest targets left so I
quickly went back to the shop and it's m
in the edges of the handle and now I got
something like this and I wasn't
expecting it but this handle works just
as well as the old one and so I can move
on with the next test this is a
ballistic dummy it has a layer of
ballistic gelatin which should simulate
muscle tissue and it also simulate bones
I'm going to hear it twice once here on
the neck where there is a lot of gelatin
and then once on the
Skool I think it's going to break hit
one
neck
I'm checking the blade right away to see
if it's shipped or it cracked but it's
perfect all right also the dummy looks
fine though it didn't seem like the
blade went through at first oh yeah I
caught it oh no way and then I saw it I
don't know if you can see but I got it
right here and it turns out the katana
not only sliced the gelatin and went
deep oh my God but it actually shattered
the bones below it that that is a piece
of bone it's insane because after the
handle I thought it was going to be an
absolute fail and instead the edge of
the katana was as sharp as when I
started testing it this thing is insane
I love it anyways now I'm going to go
for the head three two
one now a red thing is coming out of the
head of the ballistic dummy and I wasn't
expecting it
so I'm switching to zombie mode for the
next shots to make YouTube happy and
here you can kind of see the damage the
sko got cracked from here to here and
there is a deep gut where the katana hit
and the katana itself even after hitting
the bone doesn't even have a scratch on
it this thing is crazy the last Target
though is a break hardness 10 out of 10
this is clearly a dumb test I shouldn't
do this but so far the katana destroyed
everything without getting damaged so
where is the limit I want to find that I
already know the edge is probably going
to get damaged but I can always fix that
by resharpen it but I want to see if
it's going to crack or
break and I hope
not could have chosen a smaller brick to
be fair well I got the thickest one I
could find instead anyways after a bit
of mental preparation I loaded my swing
and I hit the Brak as hard as it
could
honestly this a win little
chips and damage on the brick now I want
also try to hit a smaller brick and see
what happens to the katana and the break
and this
time the katana actually broke the break
and I was definitely happy about it but
the best part for me is not not even the
broken break is the fact that after all
that this is the only damage on the
blade then I went back to the workshop
and after fixing it and polishing it the
blade itself has a few scratches but the
edge is basically brand new Next I'm
going to build an insanely powerful
slingshot subscribe to see when it will
come out and also let me know in the
comments what you want to see me build
after that one if you like my videos you
can also get behind the scenes an early
access to the videos on patreon as well
as your name the end of the video like
you see here check it out
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