Thoughts on length... of hilts and blades

[BlackDOG]

OK...you can stop the snickering about length now.........

I am working on a saber I am calling "Resurrection"...its along story but I have a nifty blade holder with mediocre handle.

I cut off part of the aluminum tub that was the bottom part of the hilt. Now I think it is too short. My question is, what is good hilt length.

I have read numerous threads about fitting innards in shorter sabers, but from a purely visual standpoint, what do you guys think is a good length for a hilt and blade?

That is for an adult Jedi...not a youngling or Yoda type........

Pics to follow.

BD

[xl97]

Id say 12- inches is a good starting point.. IMHO..

from there you can make adjustments based on any special requirements in your design. (padawan, yoda....longer if sith or double bladed..etc)


OK...you can stop the snickering about length now.........

I am working on a saber I am calling "Resurrection"...its along story but I have a nifty blade holder with mediocre handle.

I cut off part of the aluminum tub that was the bottom part of the hilt. Now I think it is too short. My question is, what is good hilt length.

I have read numerous threads about fitting innards in shorter sabers, but from a purely visual standpoint, what do you guys think is a good length for a hilt and blade?

That is for an adult Jedi...not a youngling or Yoda type........

Pics to follow.

BD

[chase]

The first saber I got was 13in. I was happy at first and then decided to buy another hilt but make it shorter at 11in. Now I can't even pick up that 13in because it's too big. I turned it into a double blade. As for blade length, it really depends on personal preference. With that I started with a 30in. blade for balance, but changed to 36in. because it was more "movie accurate". I really like the length. So 11-12in. hilt with 38in. blade (36in. coming out of emitter). That's my 2 cents.

[ArkaiHalon]

personal opinions.

Hilts:
Depends on the saber itself (Dooku's curve would look silly on a short hilt), but also what you intend to do with it.On average, i go for about 10-12 inches. Yes that's a bit of a range, but it fits with my needs and looks requirements. My off hand saber is 9.5 inches, so it's good for a shorter blade, and is easy to control. The Kraken on the other hand is closer to 12 inches. great for a two hand hold, or can be used with the strong hand alone.

Blade:
Again, depends on the saber itself, and what you intend to do with it. a short hilt would look silly with a longer blade. same for a long hilt with a short blade. It's about balance, and comfort. Anyway, my "full lenght blades" are 36 inches, 34 out of the emmitter, and my short blades are 30 inches, 28 out of the emitter.


But that's just me.

[TimeRender]

Well in my opinion a single bladed saber starts to look silly once it gets any longer than 13 inches. On the other hand, it gets hard to handle even a short blade once your hilt gets shorter than 8.5.
What I sometimes do is loosely base a saber design on a historic sword that I like. My first MHS was based off of the renaissance war sword I purchased from Museum Replicas. The hilt on that is about 10.5 inches. The actual length of the grip was only about 9 inches. Add two inches of hands-free space for the switches, another two for the emitter, and you've got a 13 inch long lightsaber hilt. The blade of the sword was 40 inches, so I went with the longest available polycarb blade. The overall effect was a lightsaber with very similar proportions. That gave it a nice aesthetic appeal. It also gave me some ideas about the fighting styles to use with that saber.
If you wanted to make your saber the same way, start by looking for a sword that you like the shape and proportions of. The length of the sword's blade should be equal to the length of the saber blade plus the emitter. Subtract the length of the cross guard and any other parts of the sword hilt that cannot be gripped, then add however many inches you need for switches, hopefully two or fewer. There you have it!

[Ghostbat]

In my opinion the right length for a hilt is long enough to get both your hands onto with a bit of room between them, so you have room to maneuver and change grips. If you are going to use the saber entirely one handed (or use two sabers) this is less of an issue.

This makes my hilts pretty long as I have freakishly large hands :)

Blade length is a matter of personal choice / balance / style. The shorter it is the faster it will be and the easier to spin, longer will give you a serious reach advantage but will be slower. Your sweet spot will be your own, I would suggest starting with the distance from the ground to your belt buckle and adjusting from there.

[BlackDOG]

Thanks for the input....

This first shot is my sink tube saber(dismantled) for reference on top and "Resurrection" on bottom. Notice that the pommel is not inserted because I have to hone the tube to get it to fit right....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/Birdlaw/Sabers/DSC09043a.jpg

This is a proportion shot to show the 40" blade in the 11.5 hilt......Too long?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v294/Birdlaw/Sabers/DSC09045a.jpg


Your comments are most helpful.

The story behind resurrection is that this hilt was purchased in 1998-2000 (IDK when exactly) off ebay....it was touted as a "real working lightsaber" and was, in fact, a EL saber with polycarbonate blade. The problem was the blade was never shipped or lost and the seller disappeared. The hilt looks suspiciosly like a T-9000 from Lightech, but I cant get a reference photo, because it looks like he is no longer making them....IDK does not matter anyhow, the blade holder is cool.

I gutted the hilt to make a a J-Lo EL blade about three years ago but abandoned the project while technology was in flux. The hilt was designed around a 3/4" blade so is very narrow in the inside at one point. In order to ressurect this project, I had the machine shop drill out the hilt to accept a 1" blade. One of Tim's led holders would never fit inside due to the narrow connecting point. I had a heat sink machined to fit the new hole and am planning to breach load the LED and heatsink/holder. The led is mounted to the heatsink/ holder via TIm's screws. The lens holder and optics will fit on top and be held in place by a snap ring...I hope...that is if I can get a groove machined in the right place.

Ideas on hilt additions, deletions?


BD

[TimeRender]

In an 11 inch hilt I would cut it back to 38 at least, probably back to 36.

[ArkaiHalon]

nice looking hilt. I agree with TR, a 36 inch blade would look better.

[grayven]

I'm a 12" to 13" hilt guy myself. I feel a hilt this long is just as much a weapon as the blade.:D.

[Hasid Lafre]

35.5" blade including the tip.

I would say that looks really close to a LT saber as the only time Ive ever seen a crown emitter on a saber is my old one, a LT hilt and a ultrasabers customer customized stunt.

If it was el Iam guessing that it was a LT saber.

[BlackDOG]

The hilt has been cu down from over 13" to the nearly 11" it is now.......the length before was way to long. I was worried I cut too much off.

Thanks.

[Barmic Rin]

It all depends, you need to take personal height into account at some point.

I'm 5'9, my personal saber is around 12.5", blade 36". I personally would cut that blade down from 40 to maybe 35-37. It depends on how you plan to swing it.