Hi there, my name is Steve. I have been studying, practicing and collecting anything to do with blade arms, particularly automatics for over thirty years. For the last five years I have been working mainly in Europe as a tour operator/guide spending as much time as possible viewing many collections (the photo attached to my profile is a seventeenth century piece from the Imperial collection in Vienna Autria. It is a polearm with shield, removeable spikes from the knuckles, drop down/gravity sword that falls into the hand and finally to dazzle the enemy, a cat gut string going from the finger to a shutter in front of a small lantern ! ). While studying artistic real examples from around the world I am also working on my knives for submission to the Australian Knifemakers guild.

I am really happy to find this forum and initially surprised that there are so many people interested in this subject, but considering my photo is an example of someone trying to come up with an automatic arm mounted fighting tool around 350 years ago, I guess we have a natural fascination with such things !

My sister Sophie has been working in the Movie industry for a long time as a sculptor / arms maker on movies such as Farscape, Matrix, Moulon Rouge, Star Wars, Ghost Rider....
We have decided to team up and come up with some modern re-designs of old ideas.

I am hoping to find some good quality mechanisms on this forum, especially compressed gas propelled designs. I have ammassed a large library on the subject of antique blades and Automatics (particularly Japanese and European) and would be delighted to be of any assistance if I can be to anyone.

it is fantastic to find like minded people in a fairly niche market and many thanks to the people who started and moderate this site.

All the best from Steve and Sophie in Oz

Hello and welcome to the both of you!

Would love to see pictures of other blade-arms you might have.

Maybe these types of weapons bring out something back in our mind of using natural claws to defend and attack.

We've tried to keep things organized, but things are still scattered a bit. Let us know if you can't find some information and we'll let you know if it's here somewhere or not.

Glad to have you here, let us know if you have any questions.

Pleased to meet you !
welcome !

Hey Steve and Sophie! Welcome aboard! We are very happy to have you!

Welcome welcome! I personally think having someone in the movie industry will be a great addition to the site. Beings your sister Sophie makes such things, she can probably tell us right off the bat what will work and what won't. Although the best way to find out is trial and error

btw I want to name my daughter Sophia, so I can call her Sophie for short

uh-oh! right, now that thats out of my system, welcome to the forums! quite the contraption in your pic, should be interesting to see what the diverse range of lunacy here can cobble together with you on board!

and when i say lunacy, i mean it in the nicest possible way

G'day mates. Welcome aboard. How do you get around the Aussie knife laws?

only illegal if you get caught

We are not actually carrying the blades around. (here in the U.S.A.)
We're not getting drunk in bars and bragging, giving the police reason to pinch us.
We don't stick out in a crowd, (more than usual) and we don't ever stab people.

(the exception is accidently poking ourselves during the construction phase)

"only illegal if you get caught" ...like pretty much everything in life.

Remember, construction and/or possession of illegal weapons even in your own home can still land you in jail.

As I've said before, we all make a choice on what laws we break.
Some people speed on the freeway, some people smoke weed, some people carry weapons.
Some people drive drunk, some people smoke crack, some people kill people.

Whatever you do...be ready for the punishment if you do get caught. It does happen.
And don't cry to anyone as it was your choice to break that law....your fault.

There are certain laws I break every day, certain laws I will never break. It's up to you.

You know the rhyme....

Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

aussie knife laws are pretty strict, if i remember correctly, small swiss army knives, key ring knives, and muti-tools are ok, although its good to have a reason for the last one. carrying a fixed knife down the street will get you arrested. in some states double-edged blades are illegal, victoria is one of them i believe, and recently new laws have come about in victoria that put lisencing on a lot of blades. you have to be a member of a club to own swords, and i believe most fixed knives. i myself carry a small spring-assisted knife with me, but firstly, i give the cops no reason to stop me, or any reason to search me. they have to have a good reason. secondly, i'm a volunteer firefighter, i carry my kit in my car, and that gives reasonable excuse for carry. as Sinza says, dont do anything unless you are willing to pay the price.

also, if you do choose to carry a knife, and get into a situation where you need to defend yourself (in australia at least), you should only go for your blade as an absolute last resort. you cut someone, and have no reasonable excuse to carry the blade, and the cops get called, you are boned. also remember, even if you have that reasonable excuse, you could still be done for assult with a deadly weapon, and even if you're lucky enough to avoid that, your attacker can still sue you for damages, and they are winning more and more these days.

Welcome to both of you (sorry I'm late ) Looking forward to seeing your work. Farscape kicks ass

ArtisticOz wrote:
many thanks to the people who started and moderate this site.

Sinza did. And now it's taken on a life of it's own.
Nice work dude