This is a public service announcement to those interested in trying UV LEDs in your saber blades.

I recently attempted to use a high-power UV LED as a Flash On Clash (FoC) die on a hilt-mounted star. Here were my findings:

1) Power requirements are pretty intense. At minimum (safe) power I couldn't get any kind of decent light to show through a trans white blade. At higher power it killed my battery in about 30 seconds and blew one of the other die. Pretty sure it had to do with the delta in current flow it caused as it devoured the battery.

2) DANGEROUS TO YOUR VISION. Even using a trans white blade, and wearing anti-UV glasses I got from my dentist's office, I ended up with yellow spots in my vision for hours. I don't even want to think about what a clear blade would have done.

3) UV LEDs do NOT create the same effect as a black light. Though this didn't come up even once in all of the reading I did I just assumed it would. I went back and researched this particular effect and found it has to do with the type of glass used and the chemistry going on in the light tube itself.

Final Thoughts) NOT RECOMMENDED. These die have many uses, but lightsabers are (sadly) not one of them. Though it sounds like a cool idea, it's simply not worth the risks/expense.