This might not seem like it, but this is the world's first expendable battle axe.
It all started on a peaceful summer morning.
We were going about a typical day here at Hacksmith Industries
and without warning, we received this gift.
Designed for soldiers and police. Hmm.
I need to go show James.
Hey, James.
Look what just showed up.
What is this?
Give it a swing.
Whoaa!
It's a switch axe? Yeah.
Where do come from?
I have no idea. It just kind of showed up.
You know what that means?
Should “Hacksmith” it.
The cool part about this axe is it expands and contracts.
It works via a standard form bar with a latch.
I really like how it packages all into such a small space.
So if we want to make our own axe, that's the same as this.
But cooler, bigger, better, whatever we want to do.
We have to understand how this works.
And the way we're going to do that is by reverse engineering.
You’re going to take measurements off of it,
take it apart, try to analyze the parts of it that we can
to make our own model of it that we can then edit to make our own switch axe.
Let's take it aparty.
Grab my iFixIt mystery box. They saw I was using a
iFixIt kit for drones.
We didn't even reach out to them.
They reached out to us. Hey, look at that.
We have a Manta bit set.
Set stickers, tool kit, pair note
patches clamp power charger vacuum pen set heat gun iOpener.
This is actually going to be nice.
There is a lot more in here than I was expecting.
We love their stuff, honestly.
Feel free to check out the link in the description to buy your own.
Nice.
Let's make it three times bigger and twice the blades.
OK, three times bigger.
Scale it up.
Doesn't actually work that way.
Two times the blades.
And we're done.
We have the first switch axe prototype put together.
We currently have plastic blades.
How much does it weigh, you think?
11-12 lbs?
Yeah, I'm going to guess 14 lbs. I think with the blades
by the number, it's supposed to be 16.
15 lbs.
Okay.
12. 12.
All right, I'm hiding behind my monitor here. Here we go.
Are you in a good spot Ben? I'm safe enough.
Here we go!
We got one blade.
All right. Everybody still got their limbs.
Oh, oh, oh.
I didn't think that was gonna work that time. Hang on.
I'm bitter. I want.
I want that to work violently.
You're just walking through the woods like. Oh, hey, you know.
Hey, look, a piece of wood, you know, you need here? An axe?
Is that cool Linus?
Okay, James got your first switch axe prototype.
It's three times bigger and has twice the blades.
Let's see how durable it is.
Well, since it's a Hacksmith project, we're not chopping wood.
We're chopping concrete.
I think it needs to be a bit tougher than that.
Let's start by making the whole thing out of AR 400 steel
and these linkages they bent everywhere.
Why don't we make it out of one piece instead of two?
Maybe better, better quality bolts?
That's a good start. The mechanism is cool.
Now we just have to make it a bit more robust.
It's no secret that I struggle with depression and mental health.
In fact, last year, through a mixture of burnout and depression,
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As a side note,
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I still have a lot of work to do, but consistently
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So we're machining the arms to swing the blade down.
We have two each, one for a different operation.
Yeah.
What just happened there Jacob?
An expensive drill bit. Yeah we don’t have a spare for that.
This is a complicated project Ben. It is!
Then it is double time and work for you now Tyler.
Pick up the slack, buddy.
Yikes.
You know the problem?
Oh, really? Yeah.
You hand your badge and on the way out today, Jacob,
Oh man.
Just had the toddler come in and tighten that up.
Just a quick Lightsaber update for you.
we actually launched a crowdfunding campaign
to support the development of real working Lightsaber
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Totally hidden.
So what do you suppose offering listening for backward in our case?
Smithy.
Is that a new Hacksmith wallet?
Meet us outside in 5 minutes. Out in the back field.
That's ominous.
Yeah, I'm kind of scared.
Jacob meet us outside in the field in 5 minutes.
New project.
Meet us outside in 5 minutes. See you there.
Okay, cool.
So I got a bunch of the team gathered here.
We got more people coming.
Test the switch axe and at the end have some team challenges.
What's your initial thought?
So how's it feel?
Feels nice. Heavy, tough.
I’m scared.
How strong is a hard hat?
Should we put a watermelon inside? Yes.
There we go.
Oh, man, that thing is mangled.
There's a scene from the movie cult favorite that we've always wanted to replicate.
That’s pretty good.
It's literally a cup.
Ever seen a Red Bull can opened from the inside?
Oh, good line. Charles.
What's the story on this TV Ben?
This is my childhood TV.
This is the McMaster tube,
that the blade material came in.
The blade is going to be it's own undoing.
Oh, wow.
Oh, I did not expect that cut so well.
Look at the mess.
Look at the mess
All right.
Are you serious?!!
Yeah, it is three.
How’s it feeling James?
A bit more than one inch. But..
Me, Tarzan.
You, Jane,
What do you think
the coconut’s going to do?
Coconuts are pretty hard to cut..
There we go.
These aren’t in season,
So I broke the prototype of concrete.
Let's see how the new design holds up Ben.
Fresh brick.
Oh, yeah.
Redemption.
I think we're good.
A wieldable axe, capable of destruction.
How wieldable is it?
Give you guys the axe. You're going to have to hold it out.
Straight out ahead of you.
Two hands as far as you can for as long as you can.
Three, two, one, go.
Oh, Starting off strong
almost to the minute.
Can you make it two a minute? Yep.
That’s two minutes.
You’re winning Jose.
Congratulations Jose.
Thank you.
For the final test,
Ben set up this awesome obstacle course.
We got to chop wood, start a fire, eat a watermelon.
Three, two, one, go. All right,
There we go.
One more, Ben. Let's go.
There you go.
Get out of here.
Now we’re talking.
This is way higher than I thought of it.
I gotta say, Ben, the the axe is working great.
Oh, you can feel the heat coming off of that.
My rope's starting to fray.
As you can see, it's burning right there.
Oh, yeah, It's toasting.
Oh, yeah, that's toasty.
It’s on fire! The rope is catching fire.
That watermelon is mine.
Oh, yes!
“YOU WIN”
What a comp.
Two blades
Good as new.
Oh Naomi Wu sent me the switch axe.
That's awesome.
Oh and she sells them at cybernightmarket.com.