Principles of Lightsaber Design
I had some thoughts on this, so I decided to write down what I thought up, and see what you guys think, and if anyone else has thought about this.
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There are number of aspects which need to be considered in a well-thought-out lightsaber design. As I can think of them, these are:
Mechanical Design
Electrical Design
Functional Design
Aesthetic Design
Perhaps there are others, but this is what comes to mind.
Mechanical Design
Not a whole lot to say here; for most of us, the biggest areas are covered with the MHS parts; structural integrity, mating parts, etc. Basically, you need to make sure your parts fit together properly, and that everything will be strong enough to withstand dueling. Outside the MHS realm, I would say that Slothfurnace's Luke ROTJ is an excellent example of good mechanical design.
Electrical Design
I won't say much here either; this is something that is really covered ad infinitum on these forums. We'll summarize by saying “make sure your electronics work!”
Functional Design
This is something not covered quite as much as mechanical or electrical design. Of course, if a saber is not meant to be used in dueling, it's “function” is different, and therefore what a “functional” design is will also be different.
For a saber meant to be used in dueling, there are a number of functional considerations. These will also depend on the dueling style of the user; an ideal hilt for one who prefers to fight “pommel up” would be different from one who fights “blade up.”
Comfort
This is where most of us learned that the T-grips on the OT sabers are not very comfortable. Control boxes are also something which can get in the way and be uncomfortable if improperly placed. There are many ways to make a hilt comfortable, from leather, to heat-shrink, to o-rings, to choke points, the list goes on. Experimenting is great for this.
Weight/Balance
This is where someone like Novastar who has lots of experience in dueling will have to chime in. Personally, I have tried to make my sabers with the balance point as close to the grip as possible, to try to simulate a weightless blade. On one hilt, this entailed filling the pommel with lead. On the other hand, you don't want a super-heavy hilt either. I've also read that swords for WMA ideally have a balance point ~4” from the grip.
Safety
Sharp edges are a no-go if you intend to duel. They are a danger both to yourself, and your friends.
Aesthetic Design
Ok, I'll admit; this is the real reason I'm writing this. After all, whether we duel or not, most of us want our hilts to look awesome/beautiful/(insert favorite adjective). Now, fully realizing that a design one person loves could be strongly disliked by someone else (and we see that happen here all the time), there are some general principles which can be applicable to any design. Let me word it another way. Some people like copper/brass sabers, some people like industrial-looking sabers, some people like shiny sabers, some people like heavily-weathered sabers. Some like accent LED's, some like crystal chambers, etc., etc., etc. But there are still some things that separate, for example, a well-designed steampunk saber from a poorly-designed one. That's what I'm trying to get at here. So here are my thoughts:
Beauty
Ok, maybe that's not the best choice of words... But I don't know what other word to substitute (the English language is so insufficient sometimes) I read once that beauty is something which has both Unity and Complexity. Not that these are what would be called sufficient conditions, but I believe they are necessary.
I'll illustrate what I mean. If you go to the MHS builder, and build a saber with blade holder 2, main body 1, and pommel 1. It has unity, but no complexity. Someone builds a saber like that, and we look at it in the gallery and think “boring.”
On the other hand, imagine a saber covered in all sorts of do-dads, accent LED's sticking out weird places, T-grips on a sinktube on the bottom half, and little brass tubes all over the top half. It would have complexity, but no unity. We would look at it, and say, “what were they thinking!??” Note that it could be technically very impressive, that is, it might have excellent mechanical design; this does not make up for the lack of aesthetic design. (Although it still might impress saber smiths at your skills)
The point is, the design needs to have a unity of focus, but still have enough complexity to make it interesting. I think acerocket's unnamed brass and copper saber is an excellent example of a design that does a good job at this.
Balance
This is something I noticed when looking at the movie hilts. Take the Windu ep II/III hilt. Notice the use of gold accents at the top, in the middle, and at the bottom. The elements are not the same, but related; these help bring unity/balance to the design. The same goes for the black area which is both at the top, and around the pommel, with the same type of design. Once again, the elements are not the same, but similar and related enough that you can recognize that they go together.
Another good example to look at is the Luke ROTJ design; This one seems pretty popular. Look at the dimensions. It gets larger at both ends of the saber. If the pommel was larger than the tube diameter, but the emitter was not, it would look unbalanced toward the pommel. If the emitter was larger than the tube diameter, but the pommel was not, it would look unbalanced toward the emitter. Managing OD size at various points is another way to achieve balance and unity in the design.
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Anyway, those are my thoughts on saber design, for the moment. I'm really curious if anyone else has thought about this, and what sorts of things you came up with as guidelines to have a good design.
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