Black Lightsabers

[The Witch king of Angmar]

Is this possible to make because I looked it up before and some said it's the abcense of color that prevents it from being made and others said a really dark purple would work. I personally think it would be awesome to have made for the Sith instead of the red.

[TimeRender]

I'm not really sure what you mean... I mean honestly if you painted a wooden dowel black you would have a black lightsaber...

[Jedi-Loreen]

Dude, how old are you? Have you ever seen a light that was black? Black absorbs all light waves, you can't have a "light" or a blade if nothing is being emitted.

Even a "black light" is really ultraviolet.

It's an interesting, though not original, idea, but it's not possible. If you tried to filter a white light, you'd have, pretty much nothing but a dark tube. Using a wooden dowel or some other rod or tube shape, painted black, like suggested, is about the only way you could acheive that.

Check out the Visible portion of the Electromagnetic Spectrum. There is no black.


http://www.szote.u-szeged.hu/phys/frames/edu/spectrum.gif

So yeah, I guess you could go ultraviolet.

Or maybe infrared, but nobody would be able to see that unless they had night vision goggles. :P

[Soulkeeper7700]

actually from what i understand, night vision goggles dont show infared well either... but i could be mistaken

[Hasid Lafre]

thats right they dont. you need a night vision goggles that can see infired. currently only the military has tech like that.

Or atleast I havent seen any on the market, and ive looked.

[Novastar]

Hasid is right... the military guards quite a number of technological secrets. Only some of which "trickle down" to us mere mortals over time.

Ironically, high-powered LEDs are one of those items. I recently learned from a friend in the industry that those "military style" LED flashlights that you can find all over the place NOW (aka Luxeon III, Luxeon V, etc.)... were available to the military only--many years ago.

Only more recently have "normal folks" been able to get such things for "recreational" usage.

Anyhow... back to the topic: a black saber sounds great, but it would take some ingenuity and fun tricks to make it cool enough to be worth it's weight in gold. Maybe the brightest white LED out there + a really dark filter so that it GLOWS... but... filters to dark grey or black??? I dunno. Sounds really really tough to "pull off" the illusion. Well, other than UV.

[987654321a]

:D

http://i97.photobucket.com/albums/l227/hydralics51/Darklord.gif

[The Witch king of Angmar]

I just think it would be cool if it could emit a black light but unfortunatly it wouldn't work.

[Madcow]

If you're looking for the blacklight effect - that makes neon colours nearby glow. You can acheive that quite nicely with a royal blue lux.

MC

[37H4N]

I have no idea how you would be able to do this in real life, but heres a JKA mod that has black cores for the sabers.

http://jediknight3.filefront.com/screenshots/File/43887/2

Again, this probably isn't possible.

[Ghostbat]

Hmmm... it's not really radiating black (as there is no such thing) but that screenshot made me think... how about a jet black core with UV or deep blue light shining into the wall of the tube?

I think you would need the brightest LED you could get and diffusion film wouldn't really do much as all the light would be transmitted along the polycarbonate and not inside the tube... sanding the tube might work or might invalidate the entire point and just make a dim blade.
Dunno, I'm doubtful but it could be a starting point for experimentation.

I will still tack on my warning to learn as much as you can about UV LEDs before you play with them, eyesight is not a toy :)

[Madcow]

In that case you could just use a polycarb blade without any diffuser or film. The effect would be a dark blase with the edges lit.

MC

[37H4N]

Yeah, maybe get something a little thiner than a diffuser and paint it black. Then glue that to the blade tip. There would be maybe a quarter inck space between the black rod and the blade wall for which the UV Led to shine thru. could work. :roll:

[TimeRender]

Nevermind this post. I misread the one above it. Mods, delete this.

[Ghostbat]

In that case you could just use a polycarb blade without any diffuser or film. The effect would be a dark blase with the edges lit.

MC

I was thinking (and mind you I have NO idea if this would work) that the central rod would be needed to block your view to the opposite wall of the blade in order to get a dark core. I think coreless it would just be a wimpy blade and not really have the effect that is being looked for.

37H4N has a better idea then a second tube though. A black film would have the same effect but wouldn't almost double the weight of the blade :)

[chase]

Just try painting the diffuser black. Just do one coat. See if it works, if not...well then you know it doesn't work. White led with black diffuser. It might glow...