curved blade katana saber

[Speckkoenig]

i am currently making a curved blade katana saber. all the katana sabers ive seen are straight blade and just a katana styled hilt. so i decided to make a curved blade and curved hilt. With the curved blade the usual film used for diffusing the light doesnt work as it creases as it hits the curve. so if anyone has used the 40" LED blade diffuser for 1" thick walled blades before what material is it made out of and do you think it is possible to bend if i heat it up? if anyone else in the community has done something like this if so id love to see what has been done or advice for doing this.

[Speckkoenig]

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this is the base of the saber after bending the blade and hilt

[jbkuma]

Diffusion or not, your blade is simply not going to light evenly. You may want to investigate string blades if you are intent on a curved blade.

[PhoenixHawk]

Yes what jbkuma said..once you light it up you won't like the look..string LED's is your only alternative.

[NaasadTal]

There's a guy on Facebook that makes flat curved blades using acrylic...You might do better to go that way. Honestly not sure how strong the acrylic blade is, but it'll make a nice show blade & if done right, you could easily swap out the acrylic blade for a standard polycarbonate blade.

Here's one of the guys blades...
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p244/R1-Alchemist/FB_IMG_1473662861587-1.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/R1-Alchemist/media/FB_IMG_1473662861587-1.jpg.html)

...hope this helps

[FenixFire]

There's a guy on Facebook that makes flat curved blades using acrylic...You might do better to go that way. Honestly not sure how strong the acrylic blade is, but it'll make a nice show blade & if done right, you could easily swap out the acrylic blade for a standard polycarbonate blade.

Here's one of the guys blades...
http://i130.photobucket.com/albums/p244/R1-Alchemist/FB_IMG_1473662861587-1.jpg (http://s130.photobucket.com/user/R1-Alchemist/media/FB_IMG_1473662861587-1.jpg.html)

...hope this helps

That's because it is a solid sheet of acrylic. He also sells PC, but the photos are all Acrylic. Acrylic has an amazing Edge Lighting and light piping quality, PC has similar properties but only about 75% as efficient. To achieve this effect with a projection style lighting (LED Star) you will need to use a solid rod of PC or Acrylic, both will be heavy and Acrylic is and more brittle than PC. With a hollow tube, you will get a "Hot Spot" where the projected beam intersects the bend and a strong low spot for the "Shadowed" portion of the bend. Light can only be bent through a solid medium. Though both PC and Acrylic are used to make low-end non-communication fiber optic strands...think Christmas trees and novelty lights.

[jbkuma]

If you did go the rod route, you would need to rough up the exterior similar to the katana style blade above in order for the light to be seen. If left polished, much like the fiber strands, the light will almost all simply transmit to the tip.

[rlobrecht]

A quick google search shows that 1" polycarbonate rod stock is available at a number of online retailers. 36" lengths for under $50. I'm not sure what the blades here weigh, but that rod would be close to 20 oz.

[FenixFire]

Also to heat it properly you're going to want to construct an electric oven capable of evenly heating the rod. As well as a jig that has the desired bend radius to bend the blade against. At that scale and solid a heat gun is not going to produce an even/smooth curve, and any imperfection will be noticeable as a hot spot in the lighting. Best finish would be to locate someone to media blast the surface to serve as the diffuser.

[Speckkoenig]

the hot spot problem has come to mind while doing this. i am building another saber at the same time and im going to use the light from that one to do some tests to see if i can make the hot spot problem small enough to not be all the noticeable. and the solid rod idea is indeed one that would work, to bend the tube i had i put it in my oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, im sure i can do some math along that to get similar results with a solid rod. also thanks for showing me the guy who makes curved blade with acrylic, i like to push the limits of everything and this is just another thing i will do everything possible to see if it is possible in any sort of way. along helping me i have someone in the lighting industry who has a diffusing material that diffuses light more forward than out, in doing so we hope it throws the light more down the blade to the tip. we are going to try putting that inside the tube hoping to make the hot spot less noticeable. thank you for all responses so far i greatly appreciate it.

[Cire Yeldarb]

Look forward to seeing what you do, whether it works or not! :D

[ARKM]

Look forward to seeing what you do, whether it works or not! :D

Ditto.

[Speckkoenig]

so i finished my first ever saber (yay) but with that came a light to test this curved blade WITHOUT a diffuser within the blade. from these tests it seems the blade's curve isnt too drastic to make the hot spot problem very noticeable. seeing how the blade without any kind of cellophane or anything inside of it already looks decent, getting the gel diffuser that i want to should make the hot spot problem negligible. i am making a blue saber next so once i get the light for that one all set up i will do more tests with that and hopefully by then i will have the special diuffuser that i want.



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[Cire Yeldarb]

Not bad, looks just as horrible as a normal blade with no diffuser lol! Look forward to seeing what's next!

[Speckkoenig]

ladies and gentlemen it is done, the curved blade katana saber. i used an amber light to see how a less intense color does. it does rather well and im very happy with the results. it took alot of time. but it is done, so i present the Mark-E Katana Saber!

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[jbkuma]

The hatching on that blade is beautiful, that must have taken you forever. What did you use to do it?

[Cire Yeldarb]

Pretty! Anything inside diffusing it this time?

[Speckkoenig]

to do this i used a inch thick walled polycarbonate tube, with a cellophane film for the diffuser. now the only problem i came across with this is that the cellophane tends to kink near the middle. at the time i didnt have the gel diffuser i wanted to use so i will eventually make a saber with those to see if i can make one and not have the diffuser kink. to fix the kink issue i saw on a guy on youtube use a soldering iron and he dragged it across the polycarbonate and gave the whole blade a more "unstable" look. so after an hour or so of dragging the soldering iron across the blade it hid the kinks but kept the full look. the hilt is just some pvc and i dremeled all the pieces. had to make a custom pommel for it because normally the end caps for pvc are way to tight and very hard to get off once on, so i made one out of 1 and 1/4 inch pvc pipe. i use it for all my shroud pieces and it slides on and off very easily, just had to hold the pommel on with screws. and i mentioned this before but i will add it just so everything is on post. i baked the polycarbonate in my own oven at 350 degrees for ten minutes and then it was very easy to bend. the pvc i bent at the same temp but for only 7 minutes, anymore and it started to brown. and here is a close up of the blade with no light so you can see the texture of it more clearly for the "unstable" look. oh and the video i found for that was by a guy called "PITT FORCE FIVE" on youtube.


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