chromoly: everyday weapons

scissor holster

two of canadian design studio chromoly‘s previous projects ‘ninja tack’ and bourgeois brass knuckle’ emerged as somewhat problematic to the market. potential manufacturers were consulted by their lawyers to stay away from them, and scandinavian retailers had the products taken off their shelves by police. the objects were being treated like the weapons from which they borrowed their forms, clearly carrying some semantic baggage with them. this despite the fact that the products have no more potential for lethality than do many common household objects like hammers, kitchen knives or even broken bottles. the products became the target of censorship while the equivalent or even greater potential of many everyday objects to cause harm, goes unacknowledged.

the ‘ninja tacks’ and ‘bourgeois brass knuckle’ modified two weapon types to serve a different, non-violent functions. now ‘everyday weapons’ inverses this formula so that the capacity of everyday things to be used violently is drawn out of them. a wrench and a pair of scissors are housed in leather holsters, putting them in a context of readiness for use as weapons; and a sling transforms a glass tumbler into a projectile. the leather apparatuses weaponize the objects without altering them.

wrench holster

glass sling

‘everyday weapons’ in use

‘everyday weapons’ collection

designboom has received these images from our new ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. we have already acquired many submissions, so keep on the lookout for more of your projects to be published in the coming days!