Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Compressed Air Knife

June 18th, 2008 | by Ginnie | (Visited 14,076 times)

While originally for underwater purposes, one can’t help but think of all the gruesome ways this could be used for evil. Important to note though, that sticks, papercuts, and Elmer’s Glue can also be used for evil, keep the knee-jerk-must-ban-now reactions to yourself

Gregory Rondinone patented this device, which blows compressed air through a small slit in the knife that can blast the internals of anything it pierces with highly pressurized air. Wicked sick is an understatement. Just the simple mental image of the damage this could do is amazing. It takes combat knives to a whole new level.

Here’s more from the patent itself:

The handle has an internal cavity containing a compressed gas source and the blade is affixed to the handle. The blade has an internal bore running along a longitudinal axis from the handle to a point proximate a tip. The blade further has an aperture extending from a first edge to the internal bore at an angle relative to the longitudinal axis of between 15.degree. and 75.degree..

The trigger has a depressed position and a not depressed position. When in the depressed position, the internal bore communicates with the compressed gas source and when in said not depressed position, the internal bore is blocked from the compressed gas source. When a creature is pierced with the knife, the trigger is depressed injecting compressed gas into the creature greatly enhancing the incapacitating effect of the knife.

“Their bellies would inflate and they said it would force the shark’s stomach out of their mouths”

Again, as you think about the uses of this, you realize how the body is just not meant to deal with large influxes of compressed air inserted into just about any cavity. A similar design to this knife previously used for diving called the “Farallon Shark Dart”, when used, did some pretty crazy things:

The US Navy Seals were in charge of helping the Astronauts to safety when they would splash-down in shark infested waters in the early days of the space program. They used a spear with a hollow tip at the end and a CO2 cartridge. They just like the Hawaiian rigs would wind the rubber cord up and spear them just like any other fish. The difference was that on impact the co2 canister would discharge and fill these sharks with air. I saw some footage on it, it was horrible. Their bellies would inflate and they said it would force the sharks stomach out of their mouths. It seemed to work for the US Navy.

I know a guy who has this short stick and the directions are to shove the stick in the sharks mouth and prop it open as he tries to bite you. I believe that it is very unlikely that you would have presence of mind enough to grab that stick and shove it in.

I can only imagine what this sort of thing would do to a person!

Tags: United, States, Navy, sharks, seals, air, knife, awesome