alternate blade retention

[Mineral]

The cool factor on this idea is through the roof. The people in this hobby do stuff that's cool, just for the sake of it being cool. In my opinion, if TCSS had a product of this type with a sub-$75 price tag, it would be difficult to keep up with demand.

And a great thing for TCSS would be the barbie-doll effect:

...This opens up the realm of modularity of the design and system as a whole. 1 base emitter/adapter, 3 sizes of internal collets (3/4, 7/8, and 1"), and several styles of the outer housing. The line could then be expanded offering different styles of collets that give a different aesthetic to the blade/collet interaction.

So have a $50-60 base model, but also sell styled and sized internal collets and different sleeve/housings for $25-30 per component to really customize the look.

For the customer, no more locating/drilling/tapping a hole for a weirdly out of place thumb knob on the end of your hilt, easy tool-free blade changing, and serious nerd-cool-cred with the people you show your saber to.

[FenixFire]

The cool factor on this idea is through the roof. The people in this hobby do stuff that's cool, just for the sake of it being cool. In my opinion, if TCSS had a product of this type with a sub-$75 price tag, it would be difficult to keep up with demand.

And a great thing for TCSS would be the barbie-doll effect: So have a $50-60 base model, but also sell styled and sized internal collets and different sleeve/housings for $25-30 per component to really customize the look.

For the customer, no more locating/drilling/tapping a hole for a weirdly out of place thumb knob on the end of your hilt, easy tool-free blade changing, and serious nerd-cool-cred with the people you show your saber to.

Well then maybe I should be charging my $140/hour consulting fee......just kidding this consulting is fun, and I hope to see this go somewhere.

[Darth Vand-Alar]

For the customer, no more locating/drilling/tapping a hole for a weirdly out of place thumb knob on the end of your hilt

This is exactly the reason i started this post.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

There are these things called discrete set screws which also make for decent blade retention screws. I use them quite a bit when I don't want a "not so weirdly out of place" thumb screw on my blade holder.

[Mineral]

Well then maybe I should be charging my $140/hour consulting fee......just kidding this consulting is fun, and I hope to see this go somewhere.

I bet you could get him to call them FenixFire-style collets

[Mineral]

There are these things called discrete set screws which also make for decent blade retention screws. I use them quite a bit when I don't want a "not so weirdly out of place" thumb screw on my blade holder.

But you need a tool to remove your blade. Nobody's saying the current way is bad, just that this way would be cool.

[FenixFire]

Sometimes it feels like the old guard don't like innovative thought...or in this case rethinking a method that had been done by a couple of smiths about a decade ago or so I have been told. I run into it alot usually right before a startup launches and really hurts the market share of the big name being complacent. Bissell and Hover both turned down Dyson back in the 70's because they thought the no-bag approach would cut into their sales of bags...then they both had to play catch-up.

[Forgetful Jedi Knight]

But you need a tool to remove your blade. Nobody's saying the current way is bad, just that this way would be cool.

Cool, but mostly impractical. It could/would only work in certain design instances.

[FenixFire]

I bet you could get him to call them FenixFire-style collets

Not interested! I know what it takes to bring product to market and successful launch them. I just offered it up, took me a grand total of less than 5 minutes to sketch and post the image. Though I would not have offered it up to another shop, Tim has my full respect with the quality of his parts and the level of service I have received.

[FenixFire]

Cool, but mostly impractical. It could/would only work in certain design instances.

Not necessarily FJK. If properly designed it could work for 90% of the styles sold in the shop now. The non-symmetrical ones would need some way other way of tightening the collet, but I have a solution in mind for that already using a spanner style threaded endcap. That style would need a tool, but still be "hidden".

Impractical in what way? Cost. To be honest that is exactly what Oral B said when proposing the first manual toothbrush to be retailed for over $5...walk down your local stores toothbrush isle. Guess I was right considering I designed several of the ones hanging there from J&J, Oral B, and Colgate. Commodity pricing is fine if you only want to compete on price...that usually only leads to one place...competing with less than reputable competitors...