Clear or Colored Blade, with White or Colored LED? (Day Cosplay)

[Heeltoeshift]

Hi folks,

I am building a saber to be used primarily for cosplay in a well-lit convention center. I am using cheap "Amazon Special LEDs" that illuminate a saber, but not as bright as a Rebel or Cree. (limited funds, need very soon)

My question is: For the best looking blade, should I use:

RED LED with CLEAR blade?
or
WHITE LED with RED blade?

(or red LED with red blade, but pretty sure that would be dimmest)

I am referring to the colored blades found at the TCSS shop, here:
http://www.thecustomsabershop.com/1-...ong-P1080.aspx


For reference, BigKevin's saber with these cheap LEDs (red LED, clear blade):


Thanks!

[Miraluka]

Well lit area + dim LED sounds like you want a day blade. Otherwise you're just going to have a white blade. I don't know if you want a red or white LED. White might be brighter... probably paler. Red would probably be deeper and dimmer.

[bigkevin61]

For your question, in trying to get the best "Day Blade" here are my thoughts:
If your choice is between the cheap "Amazon Special LEDs" for BOTH Red & White LEDs, I'd probably go with the Red, as I have the cheap "Amazon Special LEDs" in White as well, and tried to use that with Purple filters and the LED was just not powerful enough. When using a colored Blade (Colored Discs, filters, etc), and a White LED, you never get the full power of the LED, as the colored material blocks all but that color of light from passing through. You at least KNOW what you are getting with a specific colored LED.

The funny thing is you said "(or red LED with red blade, but pretty sure that would be dimmest)", when actually you would (in theory) get minimal loss using a colored LED with a matching colored Blade (since the colored blade isn't really blocking the wavelength of light for the matching led).
In fact, since there are no Colored Tips at TCSS at this time, (which would be an issue if you use a white LED and clear tip, unless you get the opaque white tip, and paint it red) I've hear of a few people using a Colored LED & Blade setup to combat the "washed out effect" you get in daylight. IE, the blade at best, lights up fine, and at worse, still looks the right color, and not washed out like you could get with Clear or Trans White blades.

IF you are looking to get a white LED from TCSS, (say, this one: White Cree XP-E2 CopperNova) I also have that one and it blows the white cheap "Amazon Special LEDs" out of the water.
If that is the case, then you may want to go with these with red blades (and painted tips). I'd have to defer to someone who may have tried that setup.

[Kouri]

I've played around with the day blades before. Your best option is definitely color-matching the LED and blade material (red LED/red blade).

I'm not really a fan of white LEDs in colored blades. With a really bright LED, you still get a white blade. With a not-so-bright one, you just get a dimmer color than if you'd used a colored LED.

[Heeltoeshift]

Awesome! Thanks for the quick and helpful replies everyone. I will be going with colored blades and colored LEDs then, for best daytime performance.

[CET]

I've tested all of the combinations you described and I've had the best results (especially during the day) with a red blade and LED. I used a tri-cree RRW, the white being set for FoC and only visible with a clear blade.

Here's a larger version of my avatar.

IMG_20151217_143244337.jpg

[Jacobpac]

I posted this in another thread, but use red LED with Red blade, blue LED with Blue blade, green LED with green blade. I had that same question. Ill post a pic of the results I liked. Match LED color with blade color.

[Jacobpac]

image.jpg