Blades

While a small blade and other simple tools do come in handy at times, why carry around a separate multitool when you're already using a keychain? That's the thinking behind the all-in-one KeySnap carabiner, which is currently on Kickstarter.

Kickstarter makers certainly seem to be obsessed with putting as much functionality in as small a space as possible. Case in point: the new Slash microblade, that promises to give you super sharp cutting power in a keychain capsule.

Siemens Gamesa has developed a fully recyclable blade that can be used to create new products when its wind-catching days are done, and it's just been installed on a turbine at a commercial wind farm in the North Sea.

In 1964, the Buck Knives company marketed its 110 Folding Hunter knife, which changed the knife-making industry forever by introducing a revolutionary folding blade that locked into place so strongly it performed like a fixed-blade sheath knife.

A team of engineers at MIT has discovered why steel razor blades go dull even when cutting hair that's 50 times softer than them. Using an electron microscopic, they found that under the right conditions a single hair can chip a blade edge.

GE is looking to a new generation of carbon-fiber composites to make the fan blades for its GE9X jet engine. That engine is being developed for the Boeing 777X passenger airplanes set to enter service in 2020 and the new blades promise to provide larger, lighter engines with greater fuel efficiency.

The Cardsharp 2 improves upon the original Cardsharp credit card knife.

To have a lightsaber at your disposal is the dream of geeks everywhere, a dream that has edged closer to becoming reality with the LaserSaber.