Blade Length

[Blues Light]

What is the, if any, recommended blade length for an LED saber? Is one length too long? Does it depend heavily on the emitter?

[Hasid Lafre]

Well a 36" blade seems to be the most popular. A thickwalled blade will have more bladeweight to it. if you add say some weight in the pommel of the hilt it will balance out ok, a thinwalled blade will weigh less and most basic sabers you wont notice the blades weight much.

All bladeholders sold here have a 2" depth to them but in the end it all comes down to preference. I myself like a 35-36" thinwalled blade.

[Blues Light]

Thanks. I'm building a dueling saber so I'll be using the thickwalled blade (most likely the Corbin Blade). I was thinking 36" myself. Has anyone built a saber like this?

[vortextwist]

Thanks. I'm building a dueling saber so I'll be using the thickwalled blade (most likely the Corbin Blade). I was thinking 36" myself. Has anyone built a saber like this?

That't what most of the MHS sabers are for is dueling. Depending on the length of the hilt and how blade heavy you want it depends on how long of a blade you want. If your ordering from here, I suggest getting the 40" blade and trimming to suit your needs.

[chase]

"Movie accurate" is...I think 35 1/2in coming out of the emmitter. Depending on how tall you are, and reach, you could get shorter or longer. I'm 6' and mine is 36 1/2.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

the MR ones are about 36 inches and they feel about right, I'm going with the 40 inch corbin blade sold here which sill come to 38 inches out of the hilt, so to speak.

I don't know how people stand to use shorter ones, even my SW616 feels wrong and thats something like 30, maybe for the kids or as a shoto.

[Eandori]

My Proto2 was about a 30" blade and I can guarentee that it had many positive results for a luxeon based saber.

- With a thin walled blade it was extremly sturdy. Shorter blade = less flexing = no flying tips in a hard duel.
- Same light in less area = brighter blade.
- More evenly lit in the middle.
- perfectly balanced saber on the top hand hold. + overall very lightweight (lighter then Luke RoTJ MR)

During a duel, the lightweight blade and perfect balance MORE THEN made up for the shorter length. I was far more "deadly" with the lighter better balanced blade.

[Darth_DevilGuy]

honestly the longer blade doesn't bother me at all, though thats probably because I've had a little training with actuall longswords which have a steel blade and are about 4-5 time's the wait of an MR. I need to find a dueling group around here, shouldn't be hard I live right near lucas's home town.

[chase]

I agree with Eandori. I use to have 30'' blades. They were very easy to weild. I changed to longer, which I like better because I get better reach. I suggest that if you do the longsword, go with a long blade though, go with what you know. Save the 30'' for an off hand sword or a shorter hilt.

Bigger blade needs bigger hilt by the way. 11-13in hilt for +36''

[37H4N]

I use 36 inch blades with my longer hilts and right now I'm using a 32 inch blade in my two short sabers and they feel just right. Both hilts are about 9 inches so they feel fairly balenced.

[Hasid Lafre]

woops I ment 36" not 26"

[B5813]

I actually like the shorter blade and chose a 30" on my 16" hilt. The center of balance feels good to me. I actually used a 1" wooden dowel to determine the length I liked from a visual perspective. I've not worked with a longer blade length but this 30" one is very bright using a celophane inner core.

[Hasid Lafre]

30" blade on a 16" hilt will be funny looking.

[DarthFender]

30" blade on a 16" hilt will be funny looking.

I dont think it would look any funnier than a wakshasi (sp?) But I think I would do a 1 1/4'' instead of 1 1/2. for the hilt OD. It would look better.

[Hasid Lafre]

I used to have a wakasahi and it dident have a 16" long hilt.

Becides they were used in close quarters like a small hallway

[DarthFender]

My point is that the wakasashi has a hilt that is nearly as long as its katana counterpart. And it doesn't look funny.

[Hasid Lafre]

They do look funny, thats why I got rid of mine.

[37H4N]

*clears throat* It's Wakizashi. :wink: :)

They were also used to commit seppuku, but this was commonly assigned to the tanto. Just a little wiki nerdness for ya.

[Ghostbat]

I was long ago told that the proper length of a sword was such that if you placed the point on the ground the pommel would be at your waist.

I suppose you could put the pommel on the ground but then you couldn't rest your hands all dramatically...

In any case I think I actually prefer the length a few inches shy of that.

[Hasid Lafre]

figure the length accordingly to the length of the hilt and your height. The easiest way would be to measure from the floor to mid-chest height while standing, subtract the length of the hilt. Then you will want to add back in two extra inches for the part of the blade that is inserted into the holder. That is but one way to get a good blade length for you.

[LAN-ED-TUL]

actually the proper length of swords for EACH person is different. you hold the handle with your hand up tightly against the tsuba or guard, holding the blade downwards, the tip of the sword should be 1 to 2 inches from the ground.

thats for figuring blade lengths

[Eandori]

Well, I think those recent answers are of a different set of priorities then my configuration.

My setup yeilded a sturdier, more balanced, brighter and more evenly lit blade. The priority was given to the quality of the blade itself.

The "make a blade length based 100% on your liking" method is obviously giving priority to nothing but how long the user likes their blade.

I will definitely stick by what I said earlier though, a shorter blade is sturdier, the center of gravity is deeper into the hilt, the blade will be brighter, and it's easier to make the blade evenly lit.

[BhujangiJedi]

There is no one proper way to determine the length of the sword - it varies not only by person, but also by sword style.

If you're not trained in a sword style but want to twirl around your saber and maybe spar a bit, then just play around with some sticks and see what works well for you.

Also, consider whether you want to use it strictly two-handed (you'll be able to comfortably handle something longer) or strictly one-handed (you'll want something a bit shorter, especially if you're going to have another one in the other hand), or if you want to be able to do a bit of two-handed and a bit of one-handed, in which case you'll settle for something in between long and short.

One very nice thing about the MHS system is that you can fairly easily add/remove a good chunk off your hilt to convert between a two-handed and one-handed hilt. However, with the standard 7-inch hilts, even a simple pommel+hilt+emitter setup is a bit larger than needed for a one-handed grip and fairly comfortable for a two-handed grip (at least for medium/small adult male hands). Of course you can swap out different length blades pretty easily as well.

For me, a good length for one-handed use is from my hip bone to the ground, pommel to blade-tip.

[Eandori]

There is no one proper way to determine the length of the sword - it varies not only by person, but also by sword style.

If you're not trained in a sword style but want to twirl around your saber and maybe spar a bit, then just play around with some sticks and see what works well for you.

Also, consider whether you want to use it strictly two-handed (you'll be able to comfortably handle something longer) or strictly one-handed (you'll want something a bit shorter, especially if you're going to have another one in the other hand), or if you want to be able to do a bit of two-handed and a bit of one-handed, in which case you'll settle for something in between long and short.

One very nice thing about the MHS system is that you can fairly easily add/remove a good chunk off your hilt to convert between a two-handed and one-handed hilt. However, with the standard 7-inch hilts, even a simple pommel+hilt+emitter setup is a bit larger than needed for a one-handed grip and fairly comfortable for a two-handed grip (at least for medium/small adult male hands). Of course you can swap out different length blades pretty easily as well.

For me, a good length for one-handed use is from my hip bone to the ground, pommel to blade-tip.

Again, this is true... but it's all based on the assumption that the owners desires for blade length matters more then the balance, durability, brightness, and evenness of the blade. If your desire is to have a saber blade length that is "too your own preference", then to each his own. If your desire is to have a brighter, more sturdy, more evenly light, and better balanced blade, then it's not a question of opinion. Shorter blades win, it's just the facts of it.

For me, I prefer my sabers to look bright, even, and not break when I duel. So in my preference the values of shorter blade outweighs the desire to have a longer blade. Proto2 was 30" of blade and that was about optimal for that setup.

If I could do exactly how I wanted it... I would have made a 34" blade and shortened my hilt up by 3 inches. But my current electronics would not fit in that, and the current technology of luxeon and my components would have sacrificed too much. Just my style on that saber.

Hope that makes sense, I'm not disagreeing... I'm saying that they are kinda different catagories. If you follow me.

[BhujangiJedi]

I'm saying that they are kinda different catagories. If you follow me.

Yeah, for sure. My post was lacking in technical considerations for the specific purpose here, which is to build a light saber, which you filled in nicely. I was more focused on the "how do you choose the blade length for a sword in general?" approach. Also, I think you would ideally want to have your saber properly balanced, but I think if you have the resources and skill to do that with a custom built light saber, you're already far beyond asking simple questions on this forum. ;) It's no small matter to figure out how to optimally select your hilt parts, position the electronics inside it, and ensure that the weight balances out nicely with a blade of appropriate length.

[USJMB]

like everyone has said, it really is preference. I generally have a 34 inch blade with 32 inches expose with about a 12.5 inch hilt. I do this because it is the similar in length to my katana that i cut with. But everyone is different, so you might as well slide the blade in unfinished at 40" and then feel it out. You can always keep shortening it to your liking.

[Hasid Lafre]

But remember to find a stopping point cause you cant take back what you cut.

[Novastar]

There is also the consideration of thick-walled vs. thin-walled.

For my Flange III hilts, they are about 10.5" long, and quite light. Thin-walled blades work out nicely for balance at about 32" of "shown" blade (so 34" overall)... but I imagine thick-walled blades would need to be somewhat shorter... although not by much... in order to also give a more "correct" balance.

As to balance... everyone has their different thinking on it. I tend to see if I can balance the saber right at the point where my forward hand sits (at the emitter). A little forward of that (towards the blade) is OK too... but not excessively.

Corbin would refer to the first few inches of the blade as the "ricasso", and so yes--I imagine that is a good range for balancing. From the forward hand point to the ricasso. Anywhere in there and you're doing fairly decent on balance.

[Hasid Lafre]

I stopted caring about balance, cause if i cared about balance I would have a 20" thick walled blade.

NAH! I will just find the length I like at the point where iam not hitting my body and I will be happy.

[Novastar]

That's odd... in most cases, I've found that in order to balance a saber (in the fashion that I am mentioning above)... USUALLY people must use longer blades (such as 34", 36", 38") in order for things to jive well.

Then again, hilt lengths and weights will vary like the rotoscoped saber colors in the SW movies... :)

In general...

If Hilt = heavier... then blade needs to be LONGER to balance out.
If Hilt = lighter... then blade needs to be SHORTER to balance out.
If Hilt = longer... then blade needs to be LONGER to balance out.
If Hilt = shorter... then blade needs to be SHORTER to balance out.

Again, that is in general. If someone wants to get technical someday, they could create some kind of formula for both thick-walled and thin-walled blades, and figure in hilt weight and length to get a *fairly* accurate balance idea.

This would STILL not take into consideration the weight distribution of the hilt... d'oh! :)

[Hasid Lafre]

Withmy old hilt at about 13" and a small change a 35.5" thinwalled blade was pritty well ballanced. with roughtly the same hilt my thickwalled blade had to be 33" tip to tip. And that annoyed me so Iam gonna stick to thinwalled blades.

If there was a blade thickness that was inbetween thick and thin walled blades I would use them. But avas I cant find any blade thats like this.

[B5813]

It has to be more about personal choice than balance unless you're so extremely limp wristed that you can't actually use your hands to both position/move the hilt and blade where you need it to go.

[sar-oi]

I'd go for balance and durability over aesthetic and getting all three would be a big bonus. My MRs are having to have different lengths according to how I'd like to use them, close quarter, reach etc. The Maul for example has had to have the blades shortened so I don't have to keep compensating speed/reaction to avoid hitting the ground. If I was to use the hilts as a single I know I could just use a longer blade but then what's the point to the saber and that's money I could use on some other part?
Yeah, its not the size that counts. It's what you do with it!;)

[Drichar Deis]

The inuendo in that one Sar-oi

[DarthFender]

I used to think that, too. But really, it's not the length of your saber blade that makes you a deadly swordsman.... It's the OD. HA HA HA

[sar-oi]

Er... Yeah... Right.;)

[Barmic Rin]

Well for me, anywhere between 32-36" is good.
Still working out the lenth i'll need for my dual. gonna be around 22-24" I reckon.

[SpectreT65]

I'm a big guy with fencing (saber-class, not epee or foil - different style), stage fighting, and a very little bit of longsword training. I've also got strong, thick wrists and forearms, so weight isn't as much of a consideration, except for the bruises I could leave on my sparring partners if I goof. I avoid "gorilla grandstanding", mainly out of respect for my surroundings.

That said, my own preferences are as follows for fighting-blades, depending on style:

Two of my cubits blade length (About 40") with balance inside one-half span of the crosspiece (My span is 10", so less than 5") is a regular hand and a half sword (Lightsaber seems to fit this category) for me. So I'm already running a couple inches short with a full-length battle blade. This is for switching up between one and two handed use, though I can fence with it - weakly and slowly.

Fencing saber, Just leave your hand at your side and measure from the tip of your middle finger to your earlobe.

Dual-wielding, I stick to daggers. Blade length one cubit each, so 20". Emphasis there is on being everywhere at once and deflecting everything your opponent throws at you. It's nice being a deceptively fast fat man. :D

As to blade strength and illumination evenness, Eandori has the right of it

[Hasid Lafre]

Alot of the siths favy form form 2 was durived partly from fencing.

[Sohryu76]

What did the Jedi do?
they had no weight in the blades... so their sabers were MASSIVLY unbalanced...
argh...

[Hasid Lafre]

They swung the handle like anyone else. I wish I could figure out how to make the polyC blades we use as weightless as possable.

[Zero Unit]

The saber blades generate a gyroscopic effect that gives the feeling of mass, so they actually do feel the blade's presence.

Personally, I prefer having some weight to the blades, because it makes spinning easier.

[SpectreT65]

OT:

Sir Alec Guinness was a decent stage fencer, though he was getting a little slow. Something about being "too old for this". More on Vader below.

Mark Hammil was trained in Kendo to prepare for the Bespin duel, though I have no idea if he was any good. Prowse was a decent foil fencer, but Vader's armor and helmet limited his mobility and peripheral vision so much he resorted to barbarian broadsword chopping in the Bespin fight. They both pretty much wailed away with reckless abandon on the second Death Star.

Prequels:

We all know the stories about Hayden Christiansen <sp?> and Ewan McGregor memorizing over 100 move sequences to battle in front of a green screen that would be turned into Mustafar post-prod. I don't know how they did it; I'd have felt like a complete tool trying to act without any scenery. That's choreography, and Novastar can tell us a heck of a lot more about that. :D

[Novastar]

I can at least contribute that when you're busy doing battle choreography, you don't pay much attention to scenery other than how you have to interact with it. If you have to jump on a green box as opposed to a "stone gargoyle"... it won't matter much to you as the actual battle is happening.

But... it was probably VERY helpful to the actors to work inside a facility with greenscreens and simulated steps/terrain. Attention to allowing the actors to avoid slipping on "real" surfaces and making special "steps" that would not otherwise be there in the reality of terrain were probably taken into consideration.

Finally--yes... there is something to be said for moving around "simple stick" props. I'll be honest--almost ANYONE can wield a stick/carbon fiber rod quickly. They're light as all hell. Not to mention, excellent effects + super costumes will make people look uber.

Question really is... can you look good in REAL life? That's pretty tough. Even for the BOP shows! And also... it might be a good consideration to say, hey... would these BOP goons look as good with JUST plain old sticks with no LEDs, no lights? And without sound effects? :)

So... no matter how you slice it, there is work to do. For my productions, the main work is in the "one take, sweat it out athletically". For film productions, a lot of it would be in the post-prod effects, and for the costumers/scene designers. Sure, the choreography should be good, but... imagine if it was just "ok". You'd still be thinking: "WHOOOAAHH. SAAAABERRRSS. GLOOOWWWY... EFFECTS! Wow! Dude!!! Flying flips! Super acro twist things!"... much of which will either require 5 to 7 "takes" or attempts... and all of which will require huge techy nerds to go in and graphically edit all the footage... sometimes frame by frame!!! Yikes! NO THANKS! :)

[Angelus Lupus]

So essentialy, the movie fights look more spectacular, but with BOP you know that everyone is doing their own stunts FOR REAL! I think the real question is: What would the BOP goons look like with CGI effects added? ;)

[Sethski]

I originally liked the idea of 3/4" blades coz they're so light you can whip them about quickly...

...but they feel too flimsy for duelling to me (cue more innuendo) - girth equals mirth as they say (or is that just fat people traditionally being more jolly and better company?)...

Anyway, my serious point is just to add that I have 1" thick walled blades in my Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan conversions from EL and I found them loads more comfortable after chopping a couple of inches off the blades. I'm about 5'8" and the blades are now around 33" and a bit out of the hilt.

That little bit makes all the difference, so I'd suggest cutting them down a bit at a time, within the limits of what still looks good to your eye, but also to find what feels comfortable.

[SpectreT65]

@ Novastar:

Yes, and being able to stash some big green mats in case somebody sticks a landing on an acrobatic stunt is probably a good thing too. :D

Acrobatic gymnastics are definitely beyond the skill of this fat man. Tumbling, sure, but at my age (36), there's some switch in your brain that says, "Your butt doesn't belong above your head..."

As to looking good doing it, that's choreagraphy, too. You can be skilled enough to knock someone's block off 37 times in less time than it takes to describe the postures and movements of the first one, but it'll look like crap. I can only imagine what it took to get BOP happening and not looking like a Category Five CF. I can barely teach enough to my friends that we don't all get slaughtered in our impromptu battles.

[eastern57]

For my Flange III hilts, they are about 10.5" long, and quite light....

Seriously? They look way bigger than that. You must be a smaller guy than I thought... you carry yourself taller, perhaps...

[Novastar]

Seriously? They look way bigger than that. You must be a smaller guy than I thought... you carry yourself taller, perhaps...Well, not all of the hilts are that size. Those are just the Flange III sabers. The saber I used in BOP I was *HUGE* (for me). Something like 14.5". I don't know. But... over 12. I think I did OK, though.

As to my height, yes, I'm actually about as tall as Bruce Lee or Tom Cruise. :) Look it up if need be. ;) I'm not young either. I'm going to say late 20's early 30's to leave people guessing, heheheh.

As to mats--yeah, none used for the BOP projects except behind the "lift" for where the ST has to "fall down the hole" and same for NecroST, lol. As to the blaster deflect + side kick... yup, I really nailed Anthony. In the throat according to him. He was fine. I think he was just whining, hahahah ;) Just teasin'... Anthony's TRIPLE ACES in my book. But still... we're all nothin' special. Look at teams like Sideswipe or Loopkicks. Those folks are sick! BTW, I think I might be able to attend the Loopkicks 2008 camp this year. ROCKIN'. If I'm lucky, I might be blessed with meeting Anis Cheurfa. If so--wow... talk about an AMAZING kid. That guy is the *BOMB*.

Alright sorry to de-rail... 3/4" blades I've never tried! I can't believe I had forgotten about them, and so I'm gonna try one with maybe an adapter or two someday... see how they feel. No need to worry if they don't work for certain aspects... I'd just take 'em out! I will assume that you will REAAAAAALLLLY need a fantastic diffuser in there though. 3/4" doesn't leave any room for error nor is it forgiving to light. You have to hope the light doesn't get stifled.

And finally... BALANCE is where it's at. It's not a pun off of BOP, I'm serious: if you balance your blade + hilt = saber -- you can put whatever the heck you want in there... 3/4"... 1" thick... 1" thin... it doesn't matter to some extent. Although sure, if the whole saber weighs 5 lbs. ..., well geez! Stop using lead hilts!!! :D

[Hasid Lafre]

Ok I got to thinking about something else with bladelength.

Now some if not all know that the shorter the blade the brighter it will be. A shorter blade will be brighter than a longer blade cause theres less length for the light to travel up.

Now what would the optimum bladelength be? wheres the point where to long a blade is to much and to short a blade is to small(for most).

With my old ThickW tcss blade it was 33" tip to tip with a mirror and about 3 foot of polyP and the tcss diffuser tube. Now that lit up way better than my 35.5" thinwalled blade with corbin film, polyP and a reflective disk.

But with a thinwalled ultra style blade it lit up better than my old corbin/poly thinW blade that was around 34-36"(unsure of the length but most ultra blades are 36").

I know films have an effect but these are roughtly all different length blades.

oh my god ive gone cross eyed(austin powers) thats enought for now.

[Novastar]

It's a good question, but it really has to do with almost every aspect of the saber... how far the blade mounts (usually a little <=2" is a good guess)... how powerful the LED... how well-driven the LED... how well diffused the blade is... how thick the blade is, both ID and OD... is there reflector material in the blade's base... is there a good mirror tip.

But if someone were to ask MY opinion, I'd say a *TOTAL* blade length of around 32" to 34". That is including the tip, and also speaking as if the blade is not installed into anything.

The only way to be certain would be to make EVERYTHING identical (and I mean everything)... except vary the blade lengths. Diffuser, driver, LED, blade mount and tips would have to remain 100% identical.

[Pullo]

Sorry total noob.
I think it must solely come down to what you are capable of handling when it comes to blade length. Surely thats why Yoda has a shorter blade in ROTS.

[SpectreT65]

Sorry total noob.
I think it must solely come down to what you are capable of handling when it comes to blade length. Surely thats why Yoda has a shorter blade in ROTS.
Actually, that's why I mentioned my own "fighting blade" measurements in archaic form. They use your body's proportions. Officially, a fathom is six feet, but it's tip of middle finger to tip of middle finger with your arms straight out to the sides, so everyone's fathom is a little different.

Cubit is tip of middle finger to elbow, span is tip of thumb to tip of pinky with your hand spread as wide as it'll go, inch is tip of thumb to thumb knuckle (the real origin of the phrase "rule of thumb"...)

As to our little luxeon hobby, it's looking like my fencing saber length is probably ideal for brightness and evenness.

[Novastar]

Doing things with a "standard measurement" can certainly work, but what I've found that is most effective in determining the length of the blade that should accompany any given hilt... is simply to determine where you want the balance point--and give it an appropriate blade length!

For example, as Corbin as I have discussed before, most everyone (and I say MOST) want a blade that is balanced directly under the forward hand near to or at the emitter (right hand for right handers), or a little forward of that hand, more under the lowest portion of the saber blade--sometimes referred to in certain fields of swordplay as the "ricasso".

Conversely, very few people want a "top heavy" saber... and it's fairly difficult if not impossible to have a "bottom heavy" saber. So... it seems pretty clear that the CORRECT balance point is going to be near (or directly underneath) your forward hand... no matter who you are.

So, what the HULL am I blithering about??!!!? Simple:

* Let the saber hilt's weight determine optimum blade length
* Let it determine this according to the balance point of your preference under the fwd hand

So basically--make your hilt, and then all will be revealed to you on how long the blade should be. YOU don't decide... your HILT decides for you! :) As if... it is.... ALLLLLIIIIIIIIVVVVE!!!!! aaaaaaaaa!!! :mrgreen:

[DARTH KALEL]

why we are talking about blades which would be better for dueling and light transfer I don't mind the wieght of the thick walled but if I got the same impact resistance roughly then I would rather go thin walled and maybe throw some more film inside. how durable are the thin walled

[Novastar]

Well, this post is mainly about blade length (and concepts relevant to it), but... I can now vouch for thin-walled blades being quite sturdy.

Granted, you do NOT want to play "mix & match". That is... do NOT try something moronic like pitting a thin-walled vs. a thick-walled. It would not be pretty.

However, thin-walled vs. thick-walled ALSO affect balancing and weight naturally... so... those are good considerations as well. In fact, I just sold a saber that probably lends itself best to a thick-walled blade. It was that monstrous "claw" saber. The "Great Sword" saber, heheh...

[Drichar Deis]

[QUOTE=SpectreT65;80621](the real origin of the phrase "rule of thumb"...)QUOTE]

I thought the orign of that phrase was that you couldnt beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb?

Sorry love xx.

[Eandori]

My personal preference is for a saber that is balanced like Novastar said... right on the top hand hold (behind the emitter). I also like my blade to be as bright and evenly lit as it can be.

It's been my experience that for most MHS based sabers we use, a thin walled blade with 30" of viewable blade is a near perfect balance and short enough to get huge benefits from evenly lit and brightness... yet not so short that it feels stupid.

[SpectreT65]

(the real origin of the phrase "rule of thumb"...)

I thought the origin of that phrase was that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb?

Sorry love xx.So do most people. That's why I said the real origin. There have been a few fascinating articles on it, most notably one on The Straight Dope. :D I'd post a link, but haven't the foggiest on how to do that.

...and back on topic;

I've pretty much exclusively gone to thin walled, for better overall weight and balance. I think the thin-walled is more flexible, and therefore more durable for sparring than you'd expect. It also causes you to subconsciously modify your swing to a more deflective rather than brute force style. The fact you can make a longer blade (by an inch or two) without compromising balance is just icing on the cake.

[Novastar]

Playing devil's advocate, I can ALSO say that if I did not slightly modify my behavior when using a thin-walled blade instead of a thick-walled (vs. one that is like-kind)... I would likely bend, warp or damage it.

I'm not sure if they would "fracture" very easily, as... with nothing in the tube to force them to stay rigid... they stay pretty flexible.

Still... I *DO* remember cracking one. Although I have a feeling that was an older MR blade that was "converted" into a Luxeon style setup. I remember being worried that it might be par for the course for most all thin-walled blades, but... I have not broken one since. I have more faith in Tim's thin-walled blades than I do the MR ones though.

Besides--the hit that broke that one was HARD. :)

[DARTH KALEL]

good to know i've just been using the thick wall but I would like something a little lighter and thinner some times. i'm going to be making me one of those XWING blades for show, and then the thick walled for dueling should be fine. again thanks xwing that blade looks so cool, can't wait.