Knife maker Logan Pearce has created a hand crafted a Batarang based on the ones used in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight films.
Of all of Batman’s various weapons and gadgets, there probably aren’t any quite as iconic as the simple Batarang. As cool as they are improbable, they’re frequently the caped crusader’s go-to tool for striking from a distance. Their prominence, in turn, has led more than a few fans to take up the cause of fashioning them in the real world.
Take Logan Pearce, for instance. A professional knife-maker by trade, Pearce recently set himself to the task of forging a real world replica of the Batarang’s used by Christian Bale’s Batman in the Dark Knight movies. Using a 2-inch piece of 1080 steel he hand-crafted his replica using nothing but a blacksmith forge, a pair of hammers and a grinder. According to Pearce, the process took three days.
“The point of this one was to actually forge a Batarang out by hand,” he said. “From the movies, they used a plasma cutter and bench grinder. It didn’t really feel hand made. A lot of the curves of the design of this Batarang give me a different ways to show people how to forge metal.”
His Batarang, in turn, possesses all the same dangerous qualities as its film and comic counterparts.
“There is a reason most people make them out of card board and plastic,” said Pearce. “One is because it’s so hard to do accurately from metal and two because they are so dangerous. For this one the harmful parts are the two tips of the wings. They are tapered on both the curves flowing up to the tip and the spine of the wings. There are bevel on each curve, but they are false edges.” Pearce has also confirmed that the Batarangs can be thrown as an actual weapon.
With his Dark Knight Batarang completed, Pearce has plans to forge real world replicas of other Bat-weapon from different takes on the franchise. His current project is a handmade rendition of the Batarang from Rocksteady and Warner Bros. Arkham games. He also revealed future plans to make recreations of Robin’s wing-ding and Nightwings shurikens. Sadly, while his online store features a variety of custom made knives, he has no intention of selling his Batman-inspired works. His only desire with these projects was to make something “awesome.” We feel safe in branding it a mission accomplished.
