Training knife for martial arts

!Print the blade out of flexible material!

You will hurt someone or yourself when printing this part fully out of rigid material. If you do not have a printer capable of printing flex filaments, order one at a print shop.

Be smart make it from bright non-realistic colors and don't wave it around on the street.

With that out of the way:

Description:

It is a training prop for various martial arts. It has the rough shape and dimension of a knife, but it is optimized for 3D printing. It can be printed with dual material in mind.

I made two versions of the blade, one straight and one with buckling points in it. This makes the blade buckle more easily when you successfully strike someone. This means even less force and less chance of injury. The straight one looks nicer and might double as a halloween or stage prop.

Versions:

1. First proto did not work well
2. Improved buckling location and gripping features
3. Cosmetic changes
4. Scaled the blade width down to get better ratio

I like V4 better, but V2 works fine too.

Printing:

The blade should always be made from a flexible material, but the handle can be rigid. If you do not own  an AMS or tool-changer, you can print the whole thing merged from flex material. For this download the .stl file.

Otherwise load the blade and handle into the slice as single object having multiple parts. Print the blade from flex and the handle from whatever you like. The model has internal features to keep non-sticking filament types together.

The first iteration did not have this, and it was less durable.

No supports needed, just print in the orientation of the file. This also avoids any layer adhesion problems.