Welcome to the armory. On this blog, we will be over viewing
fictional weapons and armor, determining how they work, what they would
realistically do, and most interestingly, if they could be made and
wielded in real life, now or in the future. Many of these might suprise
you, I have a number of them planned already
In the spirit of the season, I have selected my first weapon to examine.
Ash's Chainsaw Prosthetic:
(Evil Dead, 1981.)
Disclaimer: Don't try and build any of the weapons discussed here, you will either get hurt, die, or get sent to prison. This is purely for entertainment and hobby purposes.
Disregarding the method by which he attains this weapon, as it is immaterial to the function, this seems like a good idea at first glance. The weapon itself is a Homelite XL-12 chainsaw, a model that is, as near as I could find, discontinued at present time. This was a powerful, large model of tool, used for processing heavy lumber and cutting down trees of small to medium width. The first thing we must determine is: How effective would a chainsaw be as a weapon, in terms of sheer cutting power? To answer this, we can turn to real world accidents where people were injured by these things.
Having looked through some..... DISTURBING photos from medical sources, I have concluded that a chainsaw would make a very dangerous cutting weapon to both the user and the intended target. Note that all of the injuries I saw were NOT from people using them as weapons, but from accidents, where they either harmed the wielder or another person. This means there would be significant risk posed to Ash while he used this thing, but in THEORY, if he could get past the learning curve without killing or maiming himself, yes, it would absolutely be a dangerous weapon against "deadites" and other, more living targets.
Onto the nitty gritty of this item though, we run into 2 issues. The first being that we don't know EXACTLY how this weapon is attached. Ash uses it as a prosthetic, in place of his missing hand, which was severed with the same saw. Now, the Homelite is detachable, as seen in the TV series, comic books, and in Army Of Darkness. This means it's not fused to his bones, nor attached via some permanent method, presumably because he lacked the means, time, and desire to do so. The stump of his hand lacks any sort of seating device or other mechanical means of securing it, meaning that it fits on by pure friction, just being a tight enough fit.
There is a SEVERE problem with this part, as the Homelite XL-12 weighs roughly 12 pounds, 12 ounces. This is VERY heavy. Assuming you could even LIFT this thing one handed, an attempt at a friction-fit would cause it to slide right off from the weight. Ash DOES sometimes hold the fore-grip with his remaining hand, which makes those swings very plausible, but the one handed poses and slashes are not something a person could do without an additional mechanism in place to hold the saw firmly to the stump.
The second issue is the effect this item, as shown, would have on the user's body. Now, Ash constructs the "hole" that he puts the remains of his arm into from what looks like scrap metal and possibly some plumbing parts, it's a little hard to tell. But the first issue you'd run into, assuming you used this thing enough, would be the rubbing of metal, presumably iron or steel, against the skin of your wrist and forearm. This would wear off the skin, cause bleeding, sores, and other painful maladies. Ash does wear his shirt over his arm, but this would still create pressure sores ("Bed-sores"), and leave his skin red and raw. If the inside were heavily padded, this would relieve the issue, but it appears to be just plain metal on the arm from the pictures, gifs, and clips I've found. This would be very painful at best.
After that, consider the wear and tear using such a massive weapon would cause on the body. The heaviest historical swords used in actual combat topped out at around 4.5 pounds. A 12 pound + piece of metal, being swung one-handed, with the fitment as described above would be a severe detriment to your health long term. You would strain muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments. This is the biggest downfall of this weapon. You also need to STOP a swing, lest the momentum carry the spinning teeth of the saw back into your own body which would require even MORE force than the initial swing, as the object is now in motion. The wear this would have on the human body would be horrendous, it would give you so many join, tendon, ligament, and bone issues that the wielder would likely feel as though they were an old man after period of a year or less. This would also make it exhausting to swing or even to simply have attached to you, as the constant weight is just that much more you need to carry.
All of that said, what is the viability of this weapon? Well, the weapon is..... actually not too bad. Now, there's SEVERAL things that could be done to improve it, put a guard over the back edge, for one, make it lighter and preferably give the user control over the direction the teeth are spinning. This would help prevent "kickback" which can send the chainsaw back into the user if they hit something hard. Additionally, you'd need to reinforce the chain so it didn't break off, or change it regularly, and.... assuming you can get it apart, clean out is a MUST if the blade cuts into a living target.
On a scale of practicality, I give this a 4 out of 10. It COULD be done as shown, but it wouldn't very good for your health.
Now let's discuss realism. Ignoring the dusty nature of some deadites, would this weapon cleave flesh and bone as shown in the films? Yes, it would, and chainsaws DO in real life when accidents happy with them. As far as cutting power, assuming you could get a good swing going, you could hew limbs off, cut a target in half, or remove the head off the shoulders. It would be messy, gory, hideous, and perverse, but it would work as you see in the film. Some of the things I saw when I image searched for this post will haunt my nightmares, but it confirms the realistic damage these tools can do.
Finally, the big question: Could we build it, or rather, build it better?
Yes! With modern alloys, ceramics, battery packs instead of fuel tanks, and various sundry additions or modifications, it is not only POSSIBLE to build something like a chainsaw-arm, I've SEEN working versions of them on the internet. They are made by fans of the films, and are really awesome pieces of engineering and attention to detail. These things not only COULD exist, they DO exist, and some of them are WORKING CHAINSAWS to boot! Now, I wouldn't recommend making such a thing, much less trying to use it, you'll hurt yourself, somebody else, or end up in prison, but it can exist, and it does.
Groovy.
In the spirit of the season, I have selected my first weapon to examine.
Ash's Chainsaw Prosthetic:
(Evil Dead, 1981.)
Disclaimer: Don't try and build any of the weapons discussed here, you will either get hurt, die, or get sent to prison. This is purely for entertainment and hobby purposes.
Disregarding the method by which he attains this weapon, as it is immaterial to the function, this seems like a good idea at first glance. The weapon itself is a Homelite XL-12 chainsaw, a model that is, as near as I could find, discontinued at present time. This was a powerful, large model of tool, used for processing heavy lumber and cutting down trees of small to medium width. The first thing we must determine is: How effective would a chainsaw be as a weapon, in terms of sheer cutting power? To answer this, we can turn to real world accidents where people were injured by these things.
Having looked through some..... DISTURBING photos from medical sources, I have concluded that a chainsaw would make a very dangerous cutting weapon to both the user and the intended target. Note that all of the injuries I saw were NOT from people using them as weapons, but from accidents, where they either harmed the wielder or another person. This means there would be significant risk posed to Ash while he used this thing, but in THEORY, if he could get past the learning curve without killing or maiming himself, yes, it would absolutely be a dangerous weapon against "deadites" and other, more living targets.
Onto the nitty gritty of this item though, we run into 2 issues. The first being that we don't know EXACTLY how this weapon is attached. Ash uses it as a prosthetic, in place of his missing hand, which was severed with the same saw. Now, the Homelite is detachable, as seen in the TV series, comic books, and in Army Of Darkness. This means it's not fused to his bones, nor attached via some permanent method, presumably because he lacked the means, time, and desire to do so. The stump of his hand lacks any sort of seating device or other mechanical means of securing it, meaning that it fits on by pure friction, just being a tight enough fit.
There is a SEVERE problem with this part, as the Homelite XL-12 weighs roughly 12 pounds, 12 ounces. This is VERY heavy. Assuming you could even LIFT this thing one handed, an attempt at a friction-fit would cause it to slide right off from the weight. Ash DOES sometimes hold the fore-grip with his remaining hand, which makes those swings very plausible, but the one handed poses and slashes are not something a person could do without an additional mechanism in place to hold the saw firmly to the stump.
The second issue is the effect this item, as shown, would have on the user's body. Now, Ash constructs the "hole" that he puts the remains of his arm into from what looks like scrap metal and possibly some plumbing parts, it's a little hard to tell. But the first issue you'd run into, assuming you used this thing enough, would be the rubbing of metal, presumably iron or steel, against the skin of your wrist and forearm. This would wear off the skin, cause bleeding, sores, and other painful maladies. Ash does wear his shirt over his arm, but this would still create pressure sores ("Bed-sores"), and leave his skin red and raw. If the inside were heavily padded, this would relieve the issue, but it appears to be just plain metal on the arm from the pictures, gifs, and clips I've found. This would be very painful at best.
After that, consider the wear and tear using such a massive weapon would cause on the body. The heaviest historical swords used in actual combat topped out at around 4.5 pounds. A 12 pound + piece of metal, being swung one-handed, with the fitment as described above would be a severe detriment to your health long term. You would strain muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments. This is the biggest downfall of this weapon. You also need to STOP a swing, lest the momentum carry the spinning teeth of the saw back into your own body which would require even MORE force than the initial swing, as the object is now in motion. The wear this would have on the human body would be horrendous, it would give you so many join, tendon, ligament, and bone issues that the wielder would likely feel as though they were an old man after period of a year or less. This would also make it exhausting to swing or even to simply have attached to you, as the constant weight is just that much more you need to carry.
All of that said, what is the viability of this weapon? Well, the weapon is..... actually not too bad. Now, there's SEVERAL things that could be done to improve it, put a guard over the back edge, for one, make it lighter and preferably give the user control over the direction the teeth are spinning. This would help prevent "kickback" which can send the chainsaw back into the user if they hit something hard. Additionally, you'd need to reinforce the chain so it didn't break off, or change it regularly, and.... assuming you can get it apart, clean out is a MUST if the blade cuts into a living target.
On a scale of practicality, I give this a 4 out of 10. It COULD be done as shown, but it wouldn't very good for your health.
Now let's discuss realism. Ignoring the dusty nature of some deadites, would this weapon cleave flesh and bone as shown in the films? Yes, it would, and chainsaws DO in real life when accidents happy with them. As far as cutting power, assuming you could get a good swing going, you could hew limbs off, cut a target in half, or remove the head off the shoulders. It would be messy, gory, hideous, and perverse, but it would work as you see in the film. Some of the things I saw when I image searched for this post will haunt my nightmares, but it confirms the realistic damage these tools can do.
Finally, the big question: Could we build it, or rather, build it better?
Yes! With modern alloys, ceramics, battery packs instead of fuel tanks, and various sundry additions or modifications, it is not only POSSIBLE to build something like a chainsaw-arm, I've SEEN working versions of them on the internet. They are made by fans of the films, and are really awesome pieces of engineering and attention to detail. These things not only COULD exist, they DO exist, and some of them are WORKING CHAINSAWS to boot! Now, I wouldn't recommend making such a thing, much less trying to use it, you'll hurt yourself, somebody else, or end up in prison, but it can exist, and it does.
Groovy.
Very cool idea for a blog. A chainsaw arm COULD work with today's technologies of batteries and such. Using an actual old gas-powered chainsaw, yeah, not so practical.
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