UPDATE 2: constructing a special effects lightsaber blade
The first lightsaber blade I ever made consisted of a thin wooden strip coated with green fluorescent paint from a Revell model ghost ship kit. That was back in 1978 - I was 11 years old and got a lot of trouble with my father because I sawed off part of his broomstick for the lightsaber handle.
Some time later, when I learned that the special effects technicians used “frontlight projection material” for the lightsaber blades, the “same material that traffic signs are coated with”, guess what little Tom did to get that mysterious material…
During recent conversations Jon Bunker told me that he used round, untapered balsa wood blades which were painted black and then covered with 3M “Scotchlite” material, leaving a black line for the flickering effect. The reason for using balsa wood for the blades was simple – safety for actor Alec Guinness. I confronted Jon with the fact that we can see different lightsaber blades on screen during the fight, some longer, some shorter, some tapered, some not. Jon replied that he was not the only person working on those sabers, and that different blades were used for filming.
Personally, I’m a fan of strong, lightweight and tapered stunt/special effects lightsaber blades – like the carbon fiber golf club shaft I had laying around for some time. Nevertheless, I bought a round balsa wood stick, about 1 m long with a diameter of 15 mm. It was not that easy to find one which was completely straight, most of them were somehow bent.
I decided to work on my carbon fiber blade first and make some sort of an “idealized” blade. Here is the final result:
The shaft was slightly shortened and outfitted with a steel tang. After that, I completely covered it with 3M 7610 reflective material and added a strip of black tape.
Construction of the steel tang:
I am not 100% sure if such a construction was used for the blades seen on screen. Based on my research and the available information, I felt comfortable with it. The steel tang was glued into the shaft using superglue.
Compare my idealized carbon fiber blade to the two blades encircled on the table at Lucasfilm archives:
