Handy Geng Turns a Loss to His Brother Into Victory With a Giant Sword on an Excavator

Handy Geng is a rural Hebei province, China-based maker with a talent for taking ordinary equipment and pushing it somewhere nobody expected. After suffering a humiliating defeat at the hands of his younger brother during a full commitment LARP battle, complete with cardboard barrel armor / oversized weapons, and after taking several very convincing hits from a spiked war hammer that sounded considerably more painful than it had any right to, Geng decided that conventional retaliation simply was not going to cut it.

However, the defeat stayed with him, making him more eager than ever to retaliate. So, where would he obtain the inspiration to take down his brother in his next move? Geng found himself drawing on his love of anime, as this particular episode of Bleach stood out, with the main character carrying around this massive oversized Zanpakuto sword, and Geng knew he had to build something similar, but on a more epic scale to match the umbrella title. However, he quickly saw how foolish it would be to try to hold such a beast; human arms were simply not intended to handle it. Fortunately for him, a friend had an old 10-ton excavator that hadn’t been used in a while laying around, and voila!, it was the perfect foundation he needed to bring the idea to life.

So Handy Geng went into his workshop and began working on fabricating the blade from steel. He molded it to a big 15-foot length and gave it a good tapering edge that appeared to be capable of bringing down a large tree. He spent hours and hours welding fragments together until the behemoth of a blade began to take shape.

Geng fabricated a custom wrist mount from heavy sheet metal to serve as the connection point between the sword and the excavator arm, keeping the blade locked firmly in position. He also wired a speaker into the mount to blast music during use, because apparently a giant excavator sword deserved a soundtrack. Field testing began immediately. A watermelon on a small table lasted about as long as you would expect, with the blade passing clean through the fruit and continuing straight through the table underneath. Water barrels split open on contact. A couple of old cars parked nearby had their roofs and doors sheared through like sheet paper, while his brother’s three wheeled scooter, which happened to be parked in the vicinity, did not escape unscathed either.

Geng drove the excavator straight to his brother’s place, feeling secure in his results and eager for a rematch. He approached with the enormous sword held aloft and music playing from the speaker system. His brother walked out, clutching the familiar spiked hammer, and stood gaping at Geng’s setup. He asked right away if this constituted cheating, but Geng simply smiled and prepared for the fight. Off they went into the open yard, the two brothers facing off against each other. Geng used the excavator arm like a pro, swinging the sword in large, powerful arcs. The blade moved faster than Geng expected, and his brother had to sidestep and block with the hammer to keep up. After a few exchanges, Geng’s brother raised his hands in surrender and asked for mercy. Geng had won in style, and when the dust had settled, the brothers were both grinning from ear to ear.
[Source]