Arod Megil - LOTR inspired CF saber
Hello Saberfans........and LOTR fans!
After a truly exhaustive effort, Vader's Vault is proud to present:
AROD MEGIL
Several months back, Dave316 here on the forums came to us and asked if we could take a commission for a very special saber. As luck would have it, we had a customer that needed to sell their spot in our build log for a November/December spot. He wanted a special saber to commemorate his proposal to his girlfriend, and present this saber as a gift. Dave and Jenna are avid LOTR fans, as are we, and when he told us his plan and his ideas for the saber and the proposal, we just had to take it on. With Deanna being a sucker for romantics, she was a driving force for doing certain things on this saber. Between the two of us, some of the ideas went over and above the original concept, but that's the way art works.
Dave chose Hyperion from our build gallery as a starting point for the design. He liked the purple blade, accents and the flowing curvy brass shrouds. With that as a base, I sketched out a few ideas and quickly settled on one that subtly incorporated the flowing designs of the movie swords, as well as some Tengwar script. The script following the curve of the forward shroud came from my love of the Sting sword and the engraving on the blade. It follows similar lines. Dave is also in on our second Starkiller run, and since that is going to be his personal saber, he wanted this one to tie in to it with a crystal chamber. Crystal chambers on sabers can be subtle and inconspicuous, or full on exposed and a center point to a piece. We went with the latter. It was a perfect spot to add some detail work to bring a saber to the next level. Starting with a perfect jewelry quality amethyst crystal point, I build the chamber around it. I made chamber support rods similar to the ones used on the Starkiller and added gold leaf and vine work spiraling them. The forward headpiece of the chamber is comprised of sandwiched engraved acrylic delrin discs that are lit up using individual accent LEDs.
I didn't want any obtrusions on the outside of the hilt, preferring the focal point of the topography to be the heavy brass ring. So there are no control boxes, covertecs or d-rings, or even an external recharge port to take away from the sleek elegance. For switches, Dave requested a purple AV switch and for the aux switch I custom made a recessed brass button with an inset 4mm Mystic Topaz (incorrectly said Alexandrite in the vid, which didn't look as good and was put back in the drawer) that is back lit with a green lighted tactile switch.
For purple hilt accents, I wanted it to be something that would 'fit' with a sword design and instead of powdercoating, I used a heavily patterned deep purple leather for the rear grip. This was stretched and fitted over a contoured grip.
The Ring was a feature from my original concept that I wanted to make sure made it onto the final design. Actually, it's pretty amazing how little was changed from the original sketch. I found some thick brass tubing and bored it to just fit over the brass shrouds. I lathed it into an approximate shape then engraved and polished it. This was then soldered onto the rear shroud to keep it from moving. The rear grip, as shown in the video, unscrews to give access to the SD card and the recharge port. This is why the ring was soldered on (like brass plumbing fittings) so it wouldn't move.
The engraving is probably what took the most time. I had to buy a new tool (oh, the horror) and then spend a couple of weeks getting to know it and practice....a lot. During this time Deanna spent some time writing a new Ring poem which is a play on the original Ring poem from the books/movies. We felt that just using the original would be bad luck as it was a really dark binding spell. Deanna wrote a three line poem to coincide with the last three lines of the original but this time with a more positive slant
It was at this time that Dave told us that he was having Sanjuro make the stand for this. We then contacted Sanjuro and secretly had him change the Tengwar script to match what we were engraving on the saber. The stand, like all of Sanjuro's work so far, is a fantastic and elaborate 7 piece stand. It is layer upon layer of acrylic mastery. The base layer is a black disc with the Tengwar inscription. The next piece is the gold ring, and then the insert with the Sting silhouette bisecting the script. A plain clear layer is laid on top of that and locked in place by the Tower motif stand arms. The arms themselves are also engraved with the symbol of the White Tree, and a plaque spans the width of the arms.
We want to congratulate Dave and Jenna and we wish them a lifetime of happiness together!
Quick Specs:
Custom LOTR inspired hilt
Handcut brass overlays with hand engraved Elvish script
Brass Ring with engraved script
Custom Ring poem, translated to Sindarin
Patterned purple leather over contoured rear grip
Modified purple recessed AV switch
Custom brass aux button with inset faceted Mystic Topaz and back lit with green tactile switch
Detailed crystal chamber with gold leaf and vine work
Pics:
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ily5-gDSHIk
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