About Shattered Concepts

About Shattered Concepts

My name is Nick and I started Shattered Concepts LLC establishing it Shattered Concepts on August 11th of 2022, based out of Indian Trail, North Carolina.

 

The Start

Shattered Concepts initially started from when I just decided to get into the hobby around April or 2022 when I was 18 years old. I started flipping like many, with a video game inspired trainer, until eventually I wanted to get more into the hobby and actually further my skill. At this time I was already fluent with Fusion 360 as I started to teach myself back in sophomore year of high school. As expected I decided to try and make my own functional balisong with little to no knowledge on how they are made. This started out with poor quality 3D printed versions until I decided to give it my all on an original design, which is where the very first version of Shattered was made. Made of 3D printed plastic, a bad concept logo and held together with Philips head screws, it was made. I decided to get feedback and it got tons of amazing feedback and comments very quickly on Instagram. It was for this reason that I kept expanding on it as a plastic version.

First Prototype

At this point the feedback changed and more and more people wanted to see me have these actually made of metal, so I started to research the standard materials and processes. Once I did this I started to research a good and reasonable manufacturer to prototype my design, after days of searching I managed to find one. Do to the time zone difference and language barrier the process took months to get ready but, skip ahead past all the waiting. I received my first Shattered v1 prototype in metal. Specifically 440c stainless steel, and 6061 aluminum, still held together on Philips head screws. After test flipping and more photos on instagram it was made clear that the design was too bulky, so Shattered v1 went back to the drawing board, where I remodeled it to slim out the design as much as I could, creating the Shattered v2. Renders for this design blew up a lot on both Reddit and Instagram at this point. This was my sign that I can make this a reality. I started communicating to the same manufacturer to try and have this prototype made, again after months of discussing and waiting I had my Shattered v2 in hand, where its unique anodizing color made it blow up even more to the community ultimately spreading the idea of Shattered around. Then there were some problems.

Machining

I very quickly learned that in bulk I couldn’t afford a batch and the bulk quantity from this manufacturer just wasn’t discounted enough to sell Shattered at a reasonable price. This is when I decided to switch gears and try and teach myself CNC machining (CAM). This is where a lot of time was dedicated, I started to look up videos and as many reliable recourses as possible to learn CAM in the modeling space and even the technical side of machining like feeds and speeds, what bits to use for what application, etc. all the while I was researching cheap equipment I hoped would do the trick. After extensive research and time, I managed to do both, I ordered all of my equipment and once I received it and set it all up, I managed to use the tool path files I made to run operations and fine tune them more after having the machine and testing the tool paths. Over time I managed to have Shattered handles half finished. It was at this time when I needed to flip over the handles to finish the other side that I realized the machine I was using and its limitations. After realizing it wasn’t possible at the time with the funds that I had I got incredibly discouraged after all the work I put into all of the machining and research for it to ultimately be a waste, at that current time. This discouragement caused me to take a hiatus from making and even a hiatus from the community to an extent, taking down alll of my posts and kind of just disappearing.

Hiatus

During this time that I just vanished, I still didn’t lose interesting in designing but couldn’t find any methods to come up with money to help fund this project. By this point in time, I had two finished designs, and made another design that goes with the time that I made it, Hiatus, this design has not been released or shown as of now (4/3/2025).

Spark

After about 8 months if inactivity from the community, an opportunity came up that I happened to see. That was the Create with NaBalis contest. Of course I tried to enter, and to put it simply, I didn’t even made it to the first round, do to many factors like my designs being outdated and overall not good to start with. This opportunity brought me back into trying to be a maker though, at this point I got in contact with other makers, one specifically I would like to show a ton of gratitude to, which is Garrett (iamnotarealboy on Instagram) without him I’d either not be here today or would have started years later than I had. He gave me tons of tips and advice as well as old contacts to help me get started. Not losing this opportunity that was given to me, I have since then ran forward with it. Designing 3 more designs, having my first production design be Rift which was a titanium channel balisong, then Ruined a channel 7075 aluminum balisong, and soon Shattered which will be my third produced design, after being redesigned 3 times since the Create with NaBalis contest.

The Future

The future as everyone knows is always uncertain, but I don’t intend on giving up on this, this has been an opportunity to do something I’d only have dreamt of doing when I was younger, at this point with the chance I’ve been given I don’t intend to let that chance down. My goals are to for now outsource my designs to a shop in China, while I tune and assemble all the units in house. To expanding out once I have enough profit to get a facility and buy a proper machine, I want to get back into machining my own units like I originally planned to. This time with a machine capable of the task. Of course I have plans set in place to prevent a break in drops from happening.  I also have other goals I’d like to make happen, during down time with machining my pieces in house, spending time to make one off hand made pieces these will of course be long production times since the priority will be my main products. I’m sure I’ll want to branch out more as time goes on, but as of right now, this is my goal for the future.

 

I can’t thank you all enough for your support, it has motivated me to keep me moving forward, so genuinely, thank you to each and every one of you. - Nick (Shattered Concepts)