"so, i just want to emphasize that what i'm doing here is BAD"

July 6, 2020 3:22 PM

Spend a pleasant ninety minutes watching beardy, distractible Irish sword-maker Michael Cthulhu build a massive slab of sword called The Wrektangle.
posted by cortex (29 comments total)

I see the comments already have the Berserk references taken care of
posted by J.K. Seazer at 3:33 PM on July 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Nice snowboard.
posted by benzenedream at 3:46 PM on July 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

I love this guy. Forget Chip and Joanna, somebody please give this man a home remodel show.
(Also, on behalf of my family who has now lost me to the rabbit hole that is this YouTube channel, thanks a lot Cortex.)
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 4:02 PM on July 6, 2020

The accent sucked me in immediately, but he really won me over when he strapped the box fan to his back for cooling purposes.
posted by mrnutty at 4:15 PM on July 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

A thirty second highlight reel was making the rounds at work a week or two ago and there's a moment where he has someone throw a Molotov cocktail at his shield while he was wielding it and we all wondered if that was a single well executed take or if his yard's been set on fire more than a few times.
posted by bl1nk at 4:41 PM on July 6, 2020

"If you're on fire kids, deal with that first before you go get the camera." I think I will enjoy watching these, thanks for the post!
posted by Rufous-headed Towhee heehee at 4:42 PM on July 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

It's a very different approach to sword making than Alec Steele, but also virtuous.
posted by wotsac at 5:28 PM on July 6, 2020

♫♫ There's no labour like child labour ♫♫
posted by mephisjo at 5:29 PM on July 6, 2020 [5 favorites]

sord
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 5:30 PM on July 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

Awesome stuff.

"What's it for?"
"Science."
"I tried to convince Nova that science wasn't just blowing things up."
"No, there's other boring bits, too, but all the good bits are blowing stuff up."

Also, how does he have a beard with all the flame it's exposed to?
posted by cowcowgrasstree at 6:11 PM on July 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

I have really no interest in the world from which these type of things are spawn, but the first few comments here made me click on the video. An hour and a half later, now I am jealous of all the metal working madness this guy does. I'm leery of power tools in general but heat, fire, and high voltages make me squirm. Unlike other maker types with their videos, this guy just makes things and he's a joy to watch. Thanks for an hour and a half well spent!
posted by njohnson23 at 6:17 PM on July 6, 2020

Maker Youtube is best Youtube
posted by Popular Ethics at 6:29 PM on July 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

The bit near the end when he's making a concrete door to smash through and almost traps himself forever on a Crisco tarp is comedy gold.
posted by Scattercat at 6:36 PM on July 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

“Christopher, are you trying to wreck me looking badass by blowing bubbles into the shot?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.”
posted by Mister Moofoo at 6:43 PM on July 6, 2020 [7 favorites]

The hole in his shirt ... LOL
I’m crying
posted by gt2 at 7:36 PM on July 6, 2020

How is this man still alive and with all his parts attached?

I loved it, thanks.
posted by Mizu at 7:38 PM on July 6, 2020

What is the thing on his chin?
posted by gt2 at 7:44 PM on July 6, 2020

I loved the bit where he used his giant battering ram shield sword to demolish flaming cupboards while wearing proper eye protection. On his forehead.

Also, if I had I tank in my party, I know what they'd be getting for Christmas.
posted by MrVisible at 7:57 PM on July 6, 2020

What is the thing on his chin?

That thing around my neck
posted by zamboni at 7:58 PM on July 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

ok then, well I want to buy CORONA masks from him moving forward please
posted by mephisjo at 8:18 PM on July 6, 2020

I know this swordmaker! He lives up island. Before the pandemic he and his family and friends would come in where I work for game nights in the function room, mondays.
posted by vrakatar at 8:24 PM on July 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

That was ninety minutes??

Really fabulous, and he wisely chose to keep Aphrodite off camera, but he could have faked a limp for just a minute or two, don't you think? Just for the sake of keeping up the allusion for me?

Took me an embarrassingly long time to see where the "Cthulhu" came from, but I'm slow that way when it comes to the more recent mythologies.

And I hate to say this, yet it wouldn't be me if I didn't, but he really needs to think about chelation therapy because he's just about used up his available melanin. Maybe becoming a regular blood donor would do it.

He'd have to be the best swordmaker who ever lived, though, to do anything else that could begin to compete with making that kid.
posted by jamjam at 9:09 PM on July 6, 2020

I'm leery of power tools in general but heat, fire, and high voltages make me squirm.

There's two classes of maker or Great X-off video for me: the ones where I watch them and think "oh, huh, maybe I could do that" and the ones where I watch and think "I'm never fucking doing that". All the flying sparks and incredibly hot metal in this puts it cleanly in the latter category, but it's nice watching people who have made their peace with that risk assessment get on with it even when I know I'll never emulate them.

I had the same reaction to that glass blowing show on Netflix: wonderful to watch, have zero desire to risk burning my flesh off or frying my lungs on a blow tube.
posted by cortex at 9:18 PM on July 6, 2020

My Dad was a man like this. Similar build, and he also had a big grey beard. He was a sculptor. He built a working bronze foundry next to our house in rural Texas when I was a kid. He always had multiple projects going at any one time. Like the guy in the video, he was very often working with some jury-rigged setup that was a little dangerous but worked. He also would very often make the tools that he didn't have. Again like the guy in the video, he had an intuitive confidence for the way that big pieces of metal will behave when you heat them up and hit them with a hammer or twist them in a vice. He also had a gentleness about him and let me and my brother participate in the parts that weren't particularly dangerous.

My Dad died five years ago this month and I woke up this morning feeling a grief that is dormant most of the year. This video was just the thing I needed. i could almost smell the dust and the hot metal and feel the grinder debris against my skin. It let me connect to a way of life that's largely gone for me.

I haven't finished the video yet; it made me feel too much.

Thank you cortex for posting. It made my evening quite a bit better.
posted by no mind at 10:43 PM on July 6, 2020 [24 favorites]

I find watching this and immediately watching a few of these to be a very nice pairing....
posted by GenjiandProust at 8:06 AM on July 7, 2020

Must have been really annoying for this guy's family when that Lovecraft guy started publishing.
posted by biogeo at 12:33 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]

I've gotten two days of laughter out of remembering the bubbles scene Mister Moofoo quotes at odd moments.

The whole video is excellent, but even if was mostly a drag it would be worth watching as a setup for that scene.
posted by jamjam at 2:14 PM on July 7, 2020

Not to stereotype, because I like this a lot, but what would really crown this is if at some point along the line he also said "...what I consider...my fucking cheese".
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:45 PM on July 7, 2020

I wear those kinda gloves for exactly the same reason. And an angle grinder is my new favorite tool, and the sparks aren't that bad as long as you consider where they're gonna land. If you watch that one documentary about Aliens, James Cameron disses the English crew because they can't pull wire fast enough because they aren't wearing gloves. Gloves are fucking important.
posted by valkane at 7:18 PM on July 8, 2020 [1 favorite]