Originally Posted by
TimeRender
Firedrops, I saw your idea, but I already explained a few posts prior why it won't work. You have to ask yourself this; if the light is shining up all 360 degrees of the blade, why can I only see the light at the edges? The answer is that you can't. If the outer blade is illuminated, you won't see the black core, you will only see the light. Before you go accusing people of not reading your post, you might want to be sure you have read and understand everyone else's.
But perhaps I was unclear, so I will explain it again. Go get your nearest lightsaber and hold your hand up behind it with the blade turned off. You will be able to see a blurry hand because the blade is translucent. Now turn on the lightsaber. Can you still see your blurry hand? No, because even though the blade is still translucent, it appears to be opaque. If you could successfully illuminate the outer blade with a black opaque blade in the center, what you would see would be no different. The black blade would be completely obscured by the light. You will only see the black core when the light is dim or completely off, and this is not the effect that anyone is looking for. If you need more proof, go find the nearest lightbulb and tell me what color the filament is when it's turned on. (Please don't actually do that anyone. I will not be held responsible for your blindness.)
And all of that is supposing you find a way to brightly and evenly light the outer tube when the center is completely obstructed by the black core, which is impossible. The light from the LED doesn't travel up the sides of the PC blade. It travels through the CENTER of the blade across an angle of either 5 or 10 degrees, depending on the optics used, until the light hits the outer tube and is diffused.
Now I want to make it clear that the reason this will not work actually has nothing to do with the fact that black is the absence of light, or with the behavior of photons, or the wavelengths of different colors of light. All the people who said those things are making this much more complicated than it needs to be and are missing the far more fundamental flaws in this plan. I think anyone here on the forums ought to be able to understand the very SIMPLE reasons I mentioned above as to why this won't work, but I swear to the Flying Spaghetti Monster that if this conversation goes on much longer I will come back with diagrams! DIAGRAMS! You have been warned.