Hello, saberland!
This will be a long post, but the saber on display here DOES tell the ENTIRE Lord of the Rings story from Hobbit to Return of the King (RotK).
First, let me say that this saber is one that I hand-made entirely from scratch; only the electronics, which I assembled, and the LED heatsink are not the product of my dremel, my chop saw, and my hand drill. The hilt is solid copper, which I acid-etched in painstaking detail. The Crystal Chamber holds a lab-created diamond in a hand-made brass setting.
Years ago I saw the Johnsons' Lord of the Rings saber, Arod Megil, and my eyes were opened to what a custom saber could be. I present my masterpiece, Aberth Cain (Welsh for "Noble Sacrifice"), a LotR-inspired custom-built hand-made saber that has taken me weeks to plan and build.
This Saber tells the entire story of Aragorn, aka Strider, the "crownless [who] again shall be king" from Lord of the Rings.
Aberth_ignited_Arkenstone.jpg
The inset stones in the sink tube shroud represent the rings of power that Sauron made subject to his One Ring: green zircons for the elves (if you've read the Silmarillon, you'll know why); pearls for dwarves; and brown zirconia for the Man-kings who became the Nazgul.
The captions of the pictures in the comments will explain each of the hilt features. So let me walk through the innards.
NB3 for a dedicated orange blade (red-orange, amber XPE2 mix) with yellow FoC thanks to the green XPE2 die.
The custom PVC chassis holds a 16650 KeepPower battery and features in-hilt recharge with a kill key switch: turn it on or off using a 5/32" Allen wrench, or remove the kill key to charge.
The RP is nearest the pommel, so the 20mm speaker faces the EMITTER, not the pommel, with sound vent holes hidden in the dragon-skin pattern on the underlying hilt. Loud. As. Heck.
A Nazgul boot sound introduces Temple Guard font, and the Balrog roar introduces Shameem's brand-new font, Cyber Assassin.
A power level indicator underneath the sound card shines through the hilt.
And the diamond (yes, really) in the crystal chamber is lit by a blue accent LED wired to run off the SPEAKER signal for a pulsing, living crystal effect. The Arkenstone meets the blue glow of Sting. Thanks to Erv Plecter for double-checking the wiring on that before I applied power and potentially fried the speaker amp.
And now, story time with pictures and close-ups!
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The story of the Ring starts with the rings of power that the three races of Middle-Earth wielded and how Sauron created One Ring to control all of them with his dark magic. The poem says:
Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
three, seven.jpg
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
nine.jpg
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
One Ring.jpg
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to Rule them all, One Ring to find them;
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.
[Story continues on comments due to attachment restrictions.)
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