High Frequency Knife?

Charlie Mike

Charlie Mike

Sober since 1-7-14 (still a Paranoid Nutjob)
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Nov 1, 2000
Messages
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Would it be possible to enhance the cutting ability of a blade by using a high frequency vibration generator of some sort? Kind of like those Sonicare toothbrushes. I'm picturing a fixed blade that has a battery and frequency generator in the handle with some sort of trigger mechanism. You barely lay the edge against something, trigger it, and with no extra force exerted on it ... it cleaves right through.
 
What's KOTOR?
 
"Knights of The Old Republic", a Star Wars video game.

"Vibroblades" are one of the weapons that are available.
 
Ahhh... Last video game I played was Silent Hill 3. I'm so behind on gaming, just bought my first PS2 a year ago.
 
Sure it's called an electric carving knife ;) An ultrasonic vibrating blade would work similarly in principle but trying to get the motor to oscilate a large mass (like a steel blade) that quickly is difficult and impractical. The vibrations will also get absorbed by whatever is being cut further reducing effectiveness.

So no, they won't work as well as fiction would have us believe, but there are real world examples of the technology. Do a search for "ultrasonic cutter" in google and you'll find a host of things, mainly focused on precision cutting. It takes hundreds of watts driving a blade the size of an X-Acto knife to make it work.
 
*sound of bubble bursting*

...sh*t
 
Well if it's any consolation you could with alot of money and some engineering know how make something like a vibroblade. I seriously doubt even with billions of dollars and the worlds greatest minds together we will see anything resembling a proper lightsaber in the next 100 years :(
 
I'd love to have a Warren Thomas katana with HF technology, f'en sweet!
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Robert A. Heinlein talked about a "vibroknife" in Methuselah's Children, first published in 1941. He didn't work out anything in detail. It was just a throw away line like, "Don't threaten me with your vibroknife."
 
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Actually there is a surgical tool called an ultrasonic blade that is made of titanium and vibrates to both cut and cauterize. It doens't look like a conventional knife or scalpel though.
The company I work for makes them by the tens of thousands as they are a one-time use instrument. Saw of demo once of the thing assembled and energized. It whipped through a raw chicken breast like, well, a hot knife through butter.
 
Maybe the key is to use it to cut soft material and not something that will be able to easily absorb the energy like wood or large masses of plastic. Seems taylor made to be used in the kitchen or say opening those hard plastic bubbles everything seems to be packaged in nowadays...
 
grthomas said:
Maybe the key is to use it to cut soft material and not something that will be able to easily absorb the energy like wood or large masses of plastic. Seems taylor made to be used in the kitchen or say opening those hard plastic bubbles everything seems to be packaged in nowadays...
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Actually it's the opposite, like a cast saw that cuts plaster but not skin. The skin can vibrate with the blade and not cut, while the brittle plaster cuts. I incorporated a Fein Multimaster in a machine for a customer, it was fun to play with. It cut a chunk of wood quickly, but wouldn't damage an upholstered chair. One of the guys put his hand on the sharp, vibrating blade, didn't get cut, pretty surprising.
 
Samuel Delaney wrote stories with a "knife" that opened out a vibrating wire to do its cutting, used like a stiletto by gangsters. As Kazeryu said, science fiction has been onto this one for a long time. The advantage of this over a simple knife is like the advantage of an auto knife over a fixed blade -- there isn't any. On the contrary ...

But a lightsaber, yes, I could go for one of those.
 
yeah, thats what mising, knife with batteries ....
come on man, lets not get to modern now....
i would never carry/use that kind of whatever you would like to call it
 
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