Which blade?

[DrakoniamX]

I want to buy a blade for my MHS saber, and i've had so many different suggestions saying different things every time so its really confusing!! I'm going to be using a Red/Orange Lux III LED, what blade is most evenly lit and very bright with this LED? Any Ultra Sabers blade or TCSS blade with how many wraps? (I'm going to be fighting a lot with this blade, too.

Pics would be great, too!! :D

[killphil]

The most evenly lit blade would be a thin wall tube with a quad wrap of corbin film and 6 ft of polypropylene or cellophane.

Or use a white polycarbonate tube and use a double of Corbin film and 4-6ft of poly P/cellophane.

Either of those 2 recipes will yield you the best results.

The 1st will be evenly lit within the tube and the 2nd will be evenly lit from the surface of the tube.

Hope that helps.

[DrakoniamX]

The most evenly lit blade would be a thin wall tube with a quad wrap of corbin film and 6 ft of polypropylene or cellophane.

Or use a white polycarbonate tube and use a double of Corbin film and 4-6ft of poly P/cellophane.

Either of those 2 recipes will yield you the best results.

The 1st will be evenly lit within the tube and the 2nd will be evenly lit from the surface of the tube.

Hope that helps.
yea that helped, thanks, but i dont really know where to get polypropylene or cellophane, and recipes using parts from TCSS or whole sabers?

[killphil]

Look at the sticky topic right above. That will explain all you need to know about constructing the blade.

[mihunai]

Uhm, killphill, he said he wanted to do a lot of fighting, so a thinwalled blade might be, allthough brighter, a bad idea.

If you want to duel, get a thickwalled blade. for evenness, get cellophane, for a core effect get Corbinwrap. more cello, more even, more Corbin, more core. thats it.

mTm

[killphil]

Uhm, killphill, he said he wanted to do a lot of fighting, so a thinwalled blade might be, allthough brighter, a bad idea.

If you want to duel, get a thickwalled blade. for evenness, get cellophane, for a core effect get Corbinwrap. more cello, more even, more Corbin, more core. thats it.

mTm


Contrary to popular belief, those thinwalls can take more of a beating than most of us are capable of delivering. Just try breaking one sometime and see if you don't break yourself first. The tip will pop before you break the blade. Thin walls are just fine.

And your wrong about the Corbin film. The LESS Corbin the more pronounced the coring effect is.

[DrakoniamX]

woah which one? sorry but ya'll are confusing me lol

[killphil]

It's not so cut and dry as Corbin=coring, cellophane=evenness. A combination of both produces the most evenness as well as a slight coring (coring only applicable in a clear tube, not in a Ultraedge/white poly C blade).

Check out our experiments from a few years ago when we initially hammered this out from ideas presented by Gelu Khan and Erv:

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=3058


My comparison's are on page 5 of the thread right below. that should give you a good idea of the differences of the blades and combos available to you.

http://forums.thecustomsabershop.com/showthread.php?t=3074

As you can see, we have been all over this in much detail. Just read each thread in it's entirety and check out the comparison's to make your own decision.

[mihunai]

Contrary to popular belief, those thinwalls can take more of a beating than most of us are capable of delivering. Just try breaking one sometime and see if you don't break yourself first.

And your wrong about the Corbin film. The LESS Corbin the more pronounced the coring effect is.

well, of course the thinwalled are sturdy as well, but id rather be on the safe side instead of risking to throw away 40 bucks or so, wouldnt you?
as for the corbin, my bad.

mTm

[killphil]

I've been dualing with the same pair of thinwalls for over 2 years. They've held up extraordinarily well. I won't even use thickwalls anymore due to the inbalance they cause.

Trust me, unless you're trying to wrap your saber around a tree/building/rhinoceros, you'll be perfectly fine.

[DrakoniamX]

Oh ok, so what i've decided is that i'm going to use a thin walled,but if i was using corbin film only how many wraps for the best evenness?

[killphil]

the more the better, i've never tried more than 4(quad) wraps. the more you use, the less coring you get.

[DrakoniamX]

oh ok, yea i don't care much for a coring effect, i like a more even blade

[DJMoonbass]

ill just throw in my two cents. my favorite blades and ill never replace my preferences. are the thick walled ultrasabers blade. i never get over the coolness of a fresh brand new blade. i love the ultrasabers becuase they look cool UNLIT and lit. and to me the normal ultrablades are pretty even. and with a mirrored tip there bright! so that just my opinion.

[DrakoniamX]

Yea, i have a ultra thick walled myself, it can take quite a beating and is still very bright.

[psab keel]

My personal preference has always been a thin walled tube and for several reasons.

1. They are cheaper
2. They are a lot more durable than most people give them credit for. I've never broken a single thin walled tube. I've intentionally tried to damage a tube. I've been able to crack one once (a hairline fracture along the tube's length), and I've been able to dent them, but I've never actually had one snap in half. That's not to say that it's impossible, it's just not likely. And when I damaged these tubes, I was outright abusing them to test their durability. I was smashing with all of my strength, on concrete, against trees, striking them on concrete with a hammer. Dents, dings, scratches, yes on all accounts. But broken, not at all! A duel is nowhere near as brutal as tests like that!
3. I have uses several different methods of diffusion over the years, and have settled on films. I have always been of the belief that the more light you can pump into the tube, the brighter and more evenly lit your saber will be. So a thin wall tube will always look better visually than a thick walled one.

Again, these are just my own personal preferences, and are merely opinions, not facts, so take please take them as such.

Perhaps this might be of some use to you.

Psab

[DrakoniamX]

Yes thanks!! A friend and I are doing a choreographed fight for halloween on, i dont know how many streets and neighborhoods, but its gonna be a long night!! And yes its a long way till halloween but why not plan ahead? I'll probably go with a thin tube ultraedge maybe, i like how the light goes to the edge but i heard that it sucks in daylight.

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

When we say "thinwall" and "thickwall" in regards to polycarbonate blades those are relative terms..."thinwall" should not be misconstrued to mean 'weak' or 'fragile'...even "thinwall" polycarbonate blades are VERY strong simply because polycarbonate as a material 'flexes' and can thus absorb a lot of impact without much damage.

See these videos which show both the impact absorbing ability of polycarbonate as a material in comparison to acrylic [and why you should never duel with an acrylic display blade] and polycarbonate's durability as a saber blade specifically:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsls5ZPCUnE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONMGtSC_B4w&feature=channel_page

Its worth knowing that 40 years ago NASA selected polycarbonate [under its then patent name Lexan] as the material for Apollo Astronaut moon helmet visors and that armoured limo 'bulletproof glass' and modern police PR-24 batons are also made of polycarbonate.

While nothing is 'unbreakable' you are very UNLIKELY to break even a "thinwall" pc blade in any 'normal' dueling...but if you want to abusively 'gorilla' duel or use it as an actual defensive baton then yes a "thickwall" blade is even stronger albeit less bright and heavier.

Polycarbonate is not perfect however...it can scratch and will 'scuff' from dueling...for that reason TCSS has available the Novus polish packets...which are worth it imo.

[DrakoniamX]

Holy smokes hahaha thats amazing!! Love how he shoots it with a shotgun. Yea i understand how strong it is, thinwalled it is!! Sorry if this has been answered but whats the difference between Corbin style and TCSS style battle blades?

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

The TCSS battle blade uses a solid diffuser rather than a film diffuser.

Functionally the main difference is that some people find that repeated heavy dueling impacts can cause 'crinkling' to appear in a flexible film diffuser that can be visible in the commonly used transparently clear poly-c blade tubes.

Personally I've found with both Ultrablades and Corbin Blades from TCSS that yes the diffuser films may momentarily 'crinkle' on impact but then flexes back and the crinkling disappears, so I havent had an 'issue' with it yet...but then I don't duel 'heavy'...people who do and find that a frequent issue may prefer a solid diffuser so it is a worthwhile option.

In the event you do go with a white poly-c blade rather than a clear one film-crinkling shouldnt be as much of a concern since the white poly-c is translucent not transparent.

I wouldnt worry too much about it anyway imo.

[DJMoonbass]

every ultrablade i use for fighting has those stupid crinkles in em but what the heck i dont care. ;).but film has a tendency to do that and as far as i know theres no cure to the crinkle virus

[DrakoniamX]

haha nice, the crinkle virus?? yea my ultrablade does that too

[DJMoonbass]

but even though they crinkle i just love em to death! i never did like the look of the white blade... like the diffuser. its just ehhhh. the silver in my opinion accents the saber and gives it a more saber ish futurish look dont ya think?

[DrakoniamX]

yea very true, and to me its much brighter and more even

[killphil]

every ultrablade i use for fighting has those stupid crinkles in em but what the heck i dont care. ;).but film has a tendency to do that and as far as i know theres no cure to the crinkle virus

The cure to crinkling is to not glue your film down. Just cut the film to length so it has no pla for sliding in a secured blade. Even if it were to crinkle while dueling, simply taking the blade out of the blade holder would solve that right away.

[psab keel]

I would go with thin walled blades personally and you can read my reasoning for that in my earlier post, so I won't go into great detail. Thin wall is durable enough, and if you find that it isn't you're likely abusing it.