I think the problem coming up with a workable "black blade" is that people are approaching it counter intuitively. LED blades are at their core...lit by a core LED shining up the hollow tube. But in the black blade, you want something the complete opposite of that, right? So for this to work, you're going to need to come up with a new method of illumination. Here's my idea--tell me if you've heard this one before...
You start out with a smaller diameter clear polycarbonate tube. The inside is coated with a black opaque film or paint. That's your black core. Now around this tube you wrap a diffusing film. This completed assembly is then slid into another larger diameter clear polycarbonate tube. In order to illuminate it, you would need a series of smaller LEDs arranged in a circle pattern so they shine up the clear outer portion of the blade assembly. So when viewed on the side, you would have an effect of a dim center and brighter edges.
Here's a crude illustration of what I'm talking about
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I know it's not perfect, and it's not going to be very bright far from the emitter because there is no reflector at the end so it would have to be pretty short, but I think it would be interesting to see how this looks in practice.
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