Lucian ~ Lycan Warlord

Werewolf leader in the movie 'Underworld', Lucian at one point chases after his prey who are speeding away in a car. Running at enhanced speed he catches up to the car and leaps onto the roof.
Here he thrust his fist forward and a long sword like blade slides forward into place.



And Strike!


Knocked on his ass!



The retraction shot.



It's a wonderful example of a forearm sword. But can it be made real???

Let's start with the blade.

Really nice design to the blade, kind of makes me think of a Kingon Dak'Tahg. The curved cutouts after the point are good for adding four more 'points' to cut with.
The slot down the middle could either just be decoration or part of the mechanics, such as this beauty here:

This is a single action out-the-front, button lock, side lever manual reload, with safety switch.
I will be doing a full review of this knife design in the 'Automatic Knives' section.

But it's way to long. You could hide a blade that long up your sleeve, but it would be obvious and limit your movement. The real problem is making it stable. I figure you need at least two inches of the blade still inside the handle/harness to secure it to a mount. At best I can slide a 12" ruler up my sleeve and you still kinda see it poke out the elbow when I bend my arm.
If you had 12 inches and slid it forward with two inches inside to mount that gives you 10 inches, minus the four across the back of your hand. That gives us a blade of 6 inches.
If you want to be hardcore and make it so the opening is in the back of your glove and you can't bend your wrist, you would gain mabe two inches if you supported it right. This looks like it's about 12 inches or so past the end of his fist.

There are ways to do such a things with slders like in drawers, and maybe that's the way to go. If you were a big guy with long arms and had a well made armband with a track system. Make the mouting point for the sword on a part that also extends forward a bit. I just don't see it being strong. Start whacking away with it and I see parts breaking. you would have to make it really simple. I had a design idea where a forearm blade would be basically a gravity knife-like design. Free floating, but with a magnet to secure it in the closed position and a lock for the open position. Opening and closing could all be in the snap of your arm. I'll have to work on that one!

Another thing that is cool about Lucian's blade is when it closes it extends forward a bit and then retracts.
Just movie magic, but it makes it look smooth! As if it was a complex mechanical design inside unlocking it self and retracting the blade, not just snaping it back quickly.

Would be nice if Patas and Katars were studied as martial art styles.

Cool, I had totally forgotten about Lucians Blade LOL. Yeah, it's waay too long to be practical. But i've always thought an outside of the forearm blade was your best bet for the longest possible blade. Or you could go with a nested sleeve/slider, though those things have a tendency to bind/break when subjected to lateral shearing/bending stresses. Actually, I have issues with Altairs Assassins Creed blade for the same reason.

I do love the contours of his Lucians blade though...

This is a very elegant looking blade, but practical it is not. Like you said, it is much too long to be used properly and supported properly. I'm still thinking that the best design is still the Assassin's Creed hidden blade.

I own both under world and was sadly disapointed to not see a replica for sale byanyone and sadly I don't know the working on an otf knife to make one gimme a brake I'm one of them add kids

Yeah, I don't think anyones gonna give you a hard time about it RS, it's a tricky design even for people who already know how to make automatic knives... Sinza has demonstrated that it's easily doable, but the devil is in the details with this particular design...

I had a brain stom over my beer last night ...... what about a two stage otf for the coveted a/c arm dagger maybe I don't

lycan arm blade.....

Rick PM me about building one of these. I've been thinking of making one since I cut by Daywalker sword in half.

I think I'll start looking at all the cheap sword sellers and see if I can find a blade with a center slot.

I know how I would do this Xiphoid...for the extra long blade...and the ease of opening and closing...
I'm making mine gravity. Just so much easier.

Flat sheet steel made to be mounted on a armband
a center channel piece OR two walls and a back wall...all just a slight bit (1/16th) taller than the blade.
Blade with pin in back end pin is 1/8th high
Top of case made from 1/8th steel or aluminum. Slot in middle for pin, pin should be flush with slot not higher.
Slot allows full movement of blade back and forth but stops blade at the end.

Now all of that is easy...do it in a afternoon...

Heres the lock....
From the top or from the side...it's the same.
It's a see-saw lever. A spring under one end and a lock tab. One in fron and one in back both hooked to the same wrist cable. Pulling cable ring opens both lock tabs.
If mounted on top the tabs would fit into holes in the blade, if from the side they would fit into slots.

Easy... simple... You can even do it with one if you put a strong enough spring on the tab it will push down on the blade and keep it in the closed position.
This is how some gravity knives are built. You position it so the tab fits behind the blade in the open position and rest on top in the closed....but I would suggest doing it with two. Better to lock it closed.

Pull the ring...blade swings or drops into place locking open.
Pull the ring...blade drops back into locked closed position.

It's as simple as it's going to get.

If I wanted to be able to hide it under a coat...I could maybe go with a 13 inch blade. With the blade back enough to be hidden by cuff and move my wrist back the back of the blade sticks past my elbow a couple of inches, but with the right coat it would work.
With leaving about a inch and a half in the case for support...you get a blade about 8inches past your fist.

If I wasn't worried about flexing my wrist up...I'd bring the blade tip up to my knuckle and make it a 14inch blade. Open you would have about 12inches past your fist. Just depends on if it's made as a wristband or a gauntlet/bracer. The back of your hand will be about 3-4 inches..so it depends if you want to use this space or not.

well the a/c knife is easy ....... use a normal otf on the end of the middle extension use a double action rigged to open and retract w/ the action of the rest of the peice

Not to be a downer or anything, but it is not as easy as you think it is. And what you are suggesting would be even harder, because the two (OTF blades and the AC blade) operate in completely different ways...

rick s wrote:well the a/c knife is easy ....... use a normal otf on the end of the middle extension use a double action rigged to open and retract w/ the action of the rest of the peice

Oh....O.k......Can you draw up a schematic for that please. Better yet build one...easy right????

Because I own a bunch of OTF's and I really don't see a way to do it and make it work...AND not be a piece of crap.

But if you have a idea please build it.

Easy huh???? ..... you'll be wanting to eat those words soon enough....

I don't know shit about otf knives sorry I was thinking the middle segment an otf

You want fries with that??? :joker: sorry.. I'm kidding....I'm just a smart ass. :ghr:

I've looked, I've studied, I've built....Not saying I know it all...far from it...but I have built a few.

The extension piece of the Assassin's Creed dagger looks cool, but does not really work in real life....as far as we can design.

Many people come on here and think that it must be easy to do...it looks like a simple design. Why is it so hard???
The extension is crap. It just is. The best I have seen is the folding Tai Chi sword version. As a gravity blade it works fine.
As a spring extension/retraction it's just a pain in the ass. There is no room to put any mechanics and even then, nobody can figure out what mechanics would work. A OTF mech will not work with extensions. So as a closing mech we have push or pull. The best I can come up with to make it work back and forth is the concentina design...and I really don't like it.

Sliders I can't find. Extensions I can't find. If you look on the sight you'll see what we have done and tried.
There are many way to do a wrist blade. I don't think extensions are worth it. The extra length you get is not worth the strength you loose. I'm moving on...extensions suck...

If you guys can ever figure it out...more power to ya. I'm working on other designs...No extension sleeves!!

the locking system is what is screwing with me the whole spring system is really a bad idea but how to lock the gravity system in places and un-lock it

The Locking system of what? If you are talking about a Lucian type blade, it's actually almost perfectly designed for a button lock... If not, if you provide a little more specifics we might be able to be more helpful... :)

SINZA wrote:

Heres the lock....
From the top or from the side...it's the same.
It's a see-saw lever. A spring under one end and a lock tab. One in fron and one in back both hooked to the same wrist cable. Pulling cable ring opens both lock tabs.
If mounted on top the tabs would fit into holes in the blade, if from the side they would fit into slots.

Easy... simple... You can even do it with one if you put a strong enough spring on the tab it will push down on the blade and keep it in the closed position.
This is how some gravity knives are built. You position it so the tab fits behind the blade in the open position and rest on top in the closed....but I would suggest doing it with two. Better to lock it closed.

I'll see if I can get some pictures up.

heavens fall sword from seven swords movie

well damnit this seals the deal Sinza. I am putting that lucien cutout in my xiphoid
blade as a tribute to this awsome movie weapon. Damn those prop designers
and their teasing!! So cool but so friggin mechanically....ack just wrong. YARG!
Propelled by my frusteration I shall make much good very large progress tonight!
I have lost my ability to type in the good grammars kuz of my massive surge of da
thoughts!!! XIPHOIDS!!!!

KrazyKorean wrote:heavens fall sword from seven swords movie

The Tian Po, yes that is an excellent example of a button lock... A very cool sword... Built in reverse grip LOL...

As a spring extension/retraction it's just a pain in the ass. There is no room to put any mechanics and even then, nobody can figure out what mechanics would work. A OTF mech will not work with extensions.

Is that a challenge?

I accept! (I'm bored)

Oh, and in case I fail, let me remind you that I've been against extensions since the beginning.

I said on Wed Sep 17, 2008 11:11 pm

personally, I don't really like the AC xiphoid that much. I think pretty much any design that relies on sleeves isn't really stable enough to use, and that means a lot to me. Also, it's DAOTF. I know to most people that's a bonus, but to me it just means more pieces to break and more ways for your weapon to malfunction.

Hey, if I fail miserably, at least it'll help deflate my ego. :joker:

could this mechinism design be coverted to use a reverse blade katana with the sharp end facing towards your arm

istead of going through every post and asking the same question, ask it in your thread. that way threads don't go off topic.

Seems to me that everyone keeps talking about this Lucian armsword as if they all want to actualy make the blade as long as it appears in the movie. now I'm all for that but my designs usualy revolve around practicality and actual arm dimensions and not on what the movie makers decided to blow out of proportion. Now I agree this blade is a tough little nut to crack and that unless you have some sort of really tough slide that can hold up against anything you can give it, slides aren't the answer. And I know this has been somewhat covered but a large scale OTF design I think is our best bet except that if it could be rigged with a pullcstring or some sort of pressure switch on the wrist or palm that could trigger both the locking mechanisms and the opening ones. But unfortunatly you would need a much shorter blade to make this work or atleast the back of the OTF mount could be open and the back of the blade could slide all the way back to the the edge of your elbow. And the average forearm is about 11 to 12 inches long from the wrist to the back of your triceps so you would have to go with only five to six(maybe seven) inches of free blade edge passed your knuckles. But that's just my opinion.

I think we established early on that Luciens sword was unrealistically long, so I don't think anyone has any illusions about whether it's length is practical or not. So far as making it an OTF, making it single action would be easy... it's making it DA, like in the movie, that is a little toughie.

Now if you wanted to go with a clockwork action, like some of the great designs I've been seeing in the forums lately, there are a few other details that need working out, but it would actually not be that hard to make...

im no engineer, but how about a different spin to this? make it more...computerized? the chips and wires could be located on the inside of the forearm. the blade remains on the outside. the servo-motors could be just below the elbow. to retract, the servo-motors just pull it back into the case, but could completely detach and let it drop like i imagine a gravity blade would. the bracer would include a glove with a touchpad or button attached. everytime you press or touch it, it would move the blade to the other position. batteries would probably be opposite the motor. hows that sound? like i said, im no engineer, but i like to pretend

It's a thought we've had from time to time. If you look up the predator blades you'll see that done. Problem is we want something that could be functional as a weapon and still works double action. So this comes to servo motors small enough are fairly fragile or stupidly expensive making that approach not very feasible.

i was thinking about this more last night. the servo-motors being small enough they would probably be pretty fragile like you said and not actually stand up to the blade being used in combat. so some sort of locking mech would have to be just below the wrist i would imagine and the only thing the servos would be used for would to pull it back up and not to hold it in place. but you guys already thought of that huh? lol

Not only the locking thing it's the weight of the blade. For a small blade you might do ok, but not something like lucians arm sword.

Yes, I know quite a few of us have actually considered using an electrically actuated xiphoid. But there are just too many things that you have to add in order to make it work, and they all have to be specially designed to handle the stresses of repeated impacts.

In the end, mechanical parts are just simpler, and easier to design for strength than electric motors, and switches and so on...