Awesome Recycling

This blacksmithing video from Knives Project starts with the satisfying process of ripping apart a molten-hot ball bearing to steal its outer ring. Then, he proceeds to forge and hammer the piece into a flat bar and grind it into a very large blade. The finished piece is somewhere between the size of a bowie knife and a machete.

In 2020, more than 120 billion pieces of cardboard were used to pack and ship items in the U.S. – and that number keeps growing. Cardboard is also one of the world’s most successfully recycled materials. New Mind digs into the history, science, and success of the ubiquitous corrugated paper.

Jake Carlini wanted a motorcycle but didn’t have the budget to buy a real one. Instead, he decided he’d build his own using various bits of junk and trash he found in his garage. He made its frame out of steel signposts and scrap wood and powered it with a cheap electric scooter motor from China.

We’re absolutely wild about things that keep everything in its right place. Jason from Epic Upcycling shows off an amazing build – a custom rack for all of his woodworking tools. It’s an impressive piece of cabinetry, and he made it entirely from scrap wood he harvested from shelving units he used to have in his workshop.

Our ability to reclaim and reuse metal means it’s possible to make knives and tools out of all kinds of stuff. Knives Project shows us how they burnt the explosive coating off a bunch of sparklers, then twisted and forged the remaining metal rods to create a uniquely patterned blade.

We love how metal can be used over and over again. After one object has served out its life, it can often be melted down and turned into something new. In this clip by metalsmith Random Hands, he shows us how he took a rusty link from an old piece of ship’s chain and hand-forged it into a beautiful new samurai sword.

One of the coolest things about metal is that it can be heated over and over again to make new things. My Mechanics, shows us how they transformed an ordinary steel nut into a tool that can turn nuts. The miniature wrench they made can grab onto nuts up to 8.5 mm across.

Random Hands shows how they turned a stack of stainless steel rulers into a unique Damascus pattern, which he sandwiched around high-carbon steel to make a beautiful Japanese-style meat cleaver. He fitted it with a hexagonal wood handle and a hand-stitched leather sheath. We’d love this knife in our kitchen, but sadly, this one isn’t for sale.

When is a fire extinguisher not a fire extinguisher? When it’s designed to stoke a flame instead of putting it out. Ollari’s took an empty old fire extinguisher, polished off its paint, and sliced it down the middle – turning its bottom half into a grill and its top half into its lid. The chainlink hinges are a clever design touch.

We’ve seen how rebar is made; now watch how these metal reinforcing rods get a second chance at life after they’ve been bent. Created by JP Botelho, this machine can take even severely mangled lengths of rebar and literally set them straight. It’s an oddly satisfying process to watch.

The energy sword from Halo is the game franchise’s ultimate melee weapon. We’ve seen a number of real-life replicas of the sword over the years, now here’s another take on the weapon. Random Hands started out with a rusty old leaf spring from a truck, which he cut, forged, hammered, and split down the middle to form the two halves of the blade.

It’s not too hard for most mortals to lift dumbbells. On the other hand, you must prove yourself worthy to lift Mjölnir. Random Hands shows us how they cut up plates from rusty old dumbbells and welded the metal together to make a hefty but liftable version of Thor’s mighty hammer. The finished Mjölnir can be wielded by a new owner for $5000.

From the “fun things to do with a giant saw blade” file comes this video by Knives Project. The expert metalsmith starts by cutting a rough outline of a full-tang cleaver from an old industrial circular saw blade. After cleaning off the rust, he drills holes for a wooden handle, heats and hammers its edge, then hones the blade to a razor-sharp edge.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from makers is that you can create all kinds of things from items bathed in resin and cut into shape. In this video, Peter Brown takes a bunch of shredded CDs and turns the shards into a large iridescent bracelet.

Artist and maker Hassan Abu-Izmero was given the nacelle from a decommissioned jet engine as a gift. After thinking about what to do with the unusual piece of junk, he decided to clean out its interior, add shelves and lights, and turn it into a liquor cabinet for storing his whiskey. It’s a cool build, though we’d need a 777 engine to hold all our booze.

Thor’s mighty hammer can only be lifted by those who are worthy. Random Hands qualified for the feat by building their own Mjolnir, cutting apart an old bench anvil, attaching laser-cut decorations, lathing a metal handle, then covering it with wood and metal rings. Watching the grinder remove the old surface is so satisfying.

Kitchen knives are the right size for chopping veggies and butchering meats. But that didn’t stop Faraway Forge from making this impractical chef’s knife just to prove that it could be done. Its blade started as a rusty piece of scrap metal, and the finished piece looks more appropriate for combat than for cooking.

Maker Random Hands created an impressive real-world version of the Valhalla Axe from Assassin’s Creed using a rusty old anvil. To create the weapon, he heated the metal in a furnace, shaped its head with a power hammer, cut it with an angle grinder, then ground it into its final shape. The finished piece has cast metal and wooden handle.

Burls Art creates guitars from unusual materials. This time, he made an lap steel guitar from aluminum $1 coins that were once good for a discount at RadioShack. He started by making a sand mold, melted the coins to cast its body, then anodized it in red. We were hoping he would have embedded some unmelted coins though.

Given the environmental impact of making electronics, Apple wants to make more of its tech using recycled and recyclable components. Fully Charged Show host Robert Llewellyn toured an Apple facility to see its Daisy recycling robot. It can identify 23 different iPhone models and tear them apart to extract their materials.

Random Hands took a piece of rusty metal from the shaft of an industrial drill bit and transformed it into a shiny new ballpoint pen. After sanding the surface rust off of the metal rod, he drilled out its center, added a cutout for a bolt-action mechanism, and gave its case a beautiful hammered texture with a rotary tool.

Aluminum cans are highly recyclable, with their metal finding its way into everything from cars to appliances to more cans. But after watching this short video, we realize they can also be recycled into costumes. These two were spotted wearing outfits fabricated from recycled cans. Not only do they look cool, they sound fantastic too.

Random Hands pulled off one of the most dramatic transformations of an object that we’ve seen. They started off with a rusty old industrial drill bit, heated it up in a forge, and reworked it into a pointy Japanese kunai. It took a whole lot of work to get it into the right shape, then they polished and finished it with a 24K gold plating.