Forget 3-D-Printed Guns, Here's A 3-D-Printed Longbow

3-D printing is causing all sorts of consternation, as the 3-D-printed "Liberator" gun raises concerns about the procedure's potential (3-D printing doesn't kill people, people kill people, eh?). But the technology can be used to manufacturer other weapons too, or at least parts of them. Case in point: This partly 3-D-printed longbow, which uses the strong, flexible body of an old pair of skis for its limbs.

Whereas the 3-D-printed gun was made on an expensive printer that uses a very strong plastic compound (although it could still explode, harming the user), the plastic parts for the longbow in this video were fashioned using the same sort of relatively cheap plastic extrusion printer that the average consumer can buy. Of course these are only parts of a weapon, and one could construct a longbow out of almost any number of items without needing a printer. But it is still a potentially deadly weapon, as Henry the Fifth could testify, and it reminds us that the debate about weapons and 3-D printing has only just begun.

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  • Durgesh Kumar

    why only weapons??? or part(s) of them???

    why not gears? shafts? housings? connectors?