Thick vs Thin

[Eco]

Okay, I'm getting a little irked by people dissing on thick walled blades.

I realize that they are indeed heavy, and that thin-walled blades are plenty durable unless you're working with Novastar.
But mainly I hear that thick walled blades are not as bright as thin walled blades.
I don't get this, because my brightest blade is a thick walled blade. It's 28" exposed, and uses Tim's polystyrene blade diffuser and 4' of cellophane.
It provides an insanely intense beam of light.

I understand that the thin-walled blades have a larger interior diameter, thus yielding a higher surface area for light to reflect off of, but I have not yet seen demonstrated that thin walled blades really are brighter than my thick walled blade.

Or, when people say that thin walled blades are brighter, do they mean noticeably brighter or just theoretically brighter?

[Malaki Skywalker]

I have a set of Frosted white tubes from Tim, one with Erv style and one with 8 ft of Cellophane. Their both Thick walled and seeing as they have the out-to-the-edge effect they catch so much light. The UltraEdge, which is thin walled gets its sock knocked off by the thick walled (Could be because its less opaque) but still, its a thick walled.

[DJMoonbass]

its not thick vs thin as it diffuser vs film.

i dont like diffusers. the dont work for me. i will alsways go with film.

but thin wall thick wall. it really doesnt matter to me. i used to have a thick wall and thin wall ultrablades and next to each other same color, new batteries couldnt notice a difference, put it next to the TCSS battle blade. HUGE DIFFERENCE! why? the diffuser just doesnt work very good for light and eveness. film winds hand down. IMHO

[psab keel]

My personal preference is thin wall, but whatever you like best is what you should go with.
: )

[FenderBender]

Note: Nova uses mostly thinwall


I have done this comparison, with film only and we sand the outside of all our blades. Thinwall won. Same LED, same driver, same length blade (34" exposed) thinwall wins.

[Shadar Al'Niende]

Okay, I'm getting a little irked by people dissing on thick walled blades.

I have done a lot of reading after purchasing my thickwalled. Thin and thickwalled blades both have their place, although now that I understand the differences I will always buy a thinwalled. You see, I do not duel with my lightsabers except maybe with my 2 yo who doesn't swing the things harder than maybe just tapping it on the table Even if you did duel with these, unless you were going full speed against a wooden boken or a brick wall, i doubt you would truly need a thickwalled blade anyway. The brightness issue has been nicely put to bed by Fender's gracious comparison..

That being said, some people just like a heavier blade. Sure the weight is not truly that much heavier, but it is noticeable. It is just like some people want a longer blade than others, for me...32" visible is good. I would aslo imagine the longer the blade, the more pronounced the weight difference. I believe a thicker walled blade gives a more solid look and may lend some intimidation factor to a sith type saber.

[Novastar]

Ah, Eco... what you say and what ARKM said... this is more right than all of you know.

Because... "from a certain point of view"... I believe thin-walled blades *CAN* be made to be brighter than an "identically made" thick-wall blade. However... the opposite can be made true if the blades are not designed the same.

This applies to sound as well. Which I've mentioned in many threads--"so-so" speaker + EXCELLENT resonance = WOW!! ... ... but "good" or "great" speaker + garbage resonance = average sound.

Finally... as the final punctuation is put on irony:

Note: Nova uses mostly thinwall...

This is... true and at the same time FALSE... depending on your POV, as we have:

* From 2005-early 2007... I used nothing BUT thick-walled blades!

* BOP I used entirely thick-walled blades, all with Corbin film, with maybe one or two exceptions (I think the Skyblade sabers were TCSS "milky white" diffuser core)

* BOP II... ... used ENTIRELY thick-walled blades... with the possible exception of a later performance where I installed a thin-walled blade in Dani Cox's saber (Alexandra Novastar)... as a test. This performance was not seen on public video.

In fact... there are many live performances of BOP I and II that I have not shown via public video!

* I started thinking about thin-walled blades for BOP III as BOP II came to its completion. I tested them... and never looked back.

So... what Fender said *IS* true...
...
...

...

FROM A CERTAIN POINT OF VIEW!

[Zero Unit]

It's 28" exposed

And how long are your thin-walled ones? If they are longer, that could contribute to the dimming factor.