I know what you’re thinking – another post about lightsabers? Well, this will be the last one, for a while at least. Consider it a bookend to this post.
In this week’s TotW you get to see what my lightsaber looks like. I can’t remember exactly when I built it but it was around the same time as the trainer saber. Just as before, I thought through exactly what features I’d want and where I’d want them placed. After all, a lightsaber is a personal thing – not in the sense that it is secret but that it is intended for one person’s use.
I won’t go through all the details as they have been explained in the other saber posts. I will mention that this one does have a functional button that turns the custom blue-green LED on. It is powered by a super-compact battery pack out of some random broken electronics that is stored in the base of the hilt.
Unlike the trainer saber, I never finished this one completely. You’ll notice a hole around the power button and a blank bump in the left side of the hilt. The power button hole was to have a custom black rubber piece to seal it and then be covered by another piece of chromed tube. This would have sealed up the hole nicely, given the saber a waterproof look and added a cool black line in some type of pattern around the power button. I was thinking of something like the pin striping on a custom painted hot rod or motorcycle – something with a dynamic shape. The bump was to have a pop-up twist knob for blade length adjustment drilled into it. My thinking was that adjusting the length of the blade easily based on the fighting environment would be a handy feature. How cool would it be to have a claymore-length lightsaber to berserker with in a big open field?
The same limitations from the trainer saber popped up here. I didn’t have access to a lot of tools so I had to use a lot of existing parts. I managed to get the overall shape almost exactly like I wanted it, but not with the level of detail. If I had been able to use a metal lathe to make these parts I could have increased the thickness of the parts allowing for a more exaggerated profile that would have been much more interesting. For example, the emitter shroud is the same diameter plumbing tube as the body of the hilt. I think it would look much nicer if the emitter could be a larger diameter.
I’ve been sketching saber designs on and off for years and, besides Obi-Wan’s Ep. IV saber, this is my favorite one. I’m happy with the way it turned out. Maybe one day I’ll remake it when better resources are available to me.
Jason Patz 
Now, I hate to plant seeds that grow and grow until your brain explodes… but how cool would it be to take the electronics out of one of the new lightsabers, and then make your own, updated customized JASON PATZ, EPISODE 7 lightsaber??
I have thought about that very thing. I might have access to a metal lathe now and the old high-end sabers are on “sale” for $75 at Books-A-Million right now. It would be easy to go down that quicker and more seductive path. Luckily, I burned through most of my fun money on the other sabers so I won’t be doing anything like this for a while. Besides, I need to get that end table I mentioned several posts ago finished as well as my backyard shed. The weather is getting perfect for doing this work so I want to get moving on it.
oooh! Backyard shed! Will have to send pictures of mine (built this summer) Your own plans? How big? etc. I think we need a post!