D’k Tahg

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This is a remix of mkauffman41's extremely cool D'k Tahg Split into Parts. I've re-shaped the "wings" so they look extra cool when folded and forked the blade. The version I printed was in metal infused filament, which seems hard to remove from support, at least with my settings. When I ganked the support from the handles, it took the pegs that the "wings" rotate around off. I added those pegs to the blade itself, which removes the requirement for support around them, since the blade is printed in halves. Soooo... print all of the pieces, and a duplicate of the blade and switch, if you orient things intuitively, you should only need support for the handles. Glue the flat sides of the blades together, then put the wings on the pegs before you bolt or glue the handle together around that assembly. I recommend the fast set version of JB Weld, and that you dab a bit around where the blade will be squeezed by the handle. Take care not to have it anywhere that will impede the swing of the wings. Once that's all together and working, put a center post or bolt through first one switch, then the intersection of the slot on the wings, then the second switch. You can lubricate the handle between the switches... but leaving it a bit tight and sticky actually gives it a better snikt. Once everything is together, I recommend putting some kind of a "stop" into the slot the blades fold up into, so that they stop at a nice symmetrical point where they don't overlap with the negative space in the center of the blade. I did this by putting a dollop of hot glue in there, waiting until it wasn't sticky anymore, and then closing the blades to the point I liked before it fully hardened. This also let me keep a bit of tension on things so the wings don't rattle. I didn't have a ton of luck with the end piece... might be because of trouble removing enough support, I ended up just shaving off some of the inside, hitting it with a heat gun, then glomming it around the handle before removing it again and gluing it in place. Cosmetic things I did for my version: I printed the all of the blade and wing pieces together. I started with a rustable iron filled filament, then switched to a stainless steel filled half way through. This made the "sharp" edges of the blade rustable, while the rest wasn't. I then sanded the pieces and applied some hydrogen peroxide and salt to quicken things up, and got a cool tarnished look. I printed the handle with brass infused filament, then sanded and polished it, then clear coated it, then painted it black, then sanded it down again to make it look antique. If I did it again I might skip the clearcoat and just polish and then tarnish it, then wipe on and off some black paint. I found that a bit of melted bee's wax did a good job of making the non rusted areas of the blade look less "printed". I marked one of the tips with metallic purple paint mixed into a tar gel medium, to give it a cartoony Klingon blood look.

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