Meet the 'reason'.

• Author: Doherty, Brian
• Position: Artifact - Brief article

Asked why the 3-D-printed metal gun he designed has the word REASON emblazoned on its slide, engineer Eric Mutchler says, "Who can argue with reason?"

Mutchler's gun--which was not, alas, named after this magazine--also has the preamble of the Declaration of Independence picked out on the front of the grip, as well as a unique trigger designed to look like its creator's initial, M.

The weapon was made mostly from stainless steel on an EOSINT M 280 3-D printer with a technique called direct metal laser sintering, which uses a laser to heat metal powder. The whole piece, including the inscriptions, can be reproduced using downloadable CAD specs.

Mutchler's day job is with the 3-D printing firm Solid Concepts, which was recently acquired by the publically held Stratasys. Mutchler worked on the Reason (and its predecessor, the 1911, which...