Chirrut Imwe staff

[smithjohnj]

The organic parts of the staff reminds me of woody vines such as an old grape vine. I suggested that might be a good inspiration for sculpting the staff but that type of vine is not structurally strong enough to actually use as a staff. A quick search on google for walking sticks turned up two possible natural sources, vine maple and rhodedendron. Research on woody vines might give you other ideas.

 

[GreenCircleCube]

Do you guys have any other wood type suggestions that can support someone like a walking stick? We chopped down a peach tree we used to have because it got sick and I was wondering if it was possible to carve/shave a branch to make it look like the staff and apply a dark wood finish on it. Any thoughts?

 

[GreenCircleCube]

Do you guys have any other wood type suggestions that can support someone like a walking stick? We chopped down a peach tree we used to have because it got sick and I was wondering if it was possible to carve/shave a branch to make it look like the staff and apply a dark wood finish on it. Any thoughts?

Actually, the tree got sick because of an insect problem. Do you think the insects made the wood weak? I'm pretty sure it dead if the tree died so it wouldn't be the best for a walking stick would it.

 

[smithjohnj]

With regard to the peach tree you mention there are two possible issues, insect damage which killed the wood and any resulting decay or rot after the tree was dead. I was looking for a way to describe what to look for and decided to look on-line and found something which will do a better job than I could. Here is a way that a termite inspector or a housing inspector would check out the condition of the wooden structure of a home. It will also help you determine the soundness of your wood to see if it is worth your time to pursue it's use.

The pick test can also be used to identify decayed wood. To perform this test, a pointed tool, such as an ice pick, is inserted beneath the wood grain to pry loose a thin section of wood till it breaks free. Sound wood will snap crisply and typically breaks off to one side of the pick. Decayed wood will break with a dull sound and usually breaks above the pick's point of insertion.

Any hardwood, including fruit wood from fruit trees such as apple, pear, peach, etc. are all strong enough for a staff. Some woods are especially hardy such as ash which is used to make baseball bats, hickory which is used to make handles for tools like axes and hammers, maple which is used for butcher blocks, and oak used for flooring. All of these are very strong but also hard and therefore requires more effort to carve. Also the grain structure of different woods can make the carving you want to produce more difficult to produce as you have to "fight" or overcome the existing grain pattern to produce what you want it to look like. Conversely woods that are easy to carve, like basswood do not have the same strength. There are also softwoods which are more than strong enough to work as walking staffs. Spruce for example was used to make airplane wings. However many softwoods are resinous and the sap causes its own issues.

Others might provide you with better options but you might start with the large diameter dowel rods you find in a home improvement store. These are likely made of poplar, an inexpensive hardwood which can be worked well with hand or power tools. However is not a pretty wood that takes a fancy finish. It is most often painted which can either give you great flexibility as an artist, or provide you with more work to get it to look like some other type of wood.

 

[Sith4Life]

etsy has a staff

 

[Lichtbringer]

But it´s not really accurate.

 

[GreenCircleCube]

With regard to the peach tree you mention there are two possible issues, insect damage which killed the wood and any resulting decay or rot after the tree was dead. I was looking for a way to describe what to look for and decided to look on-line and found something which will do a better job than I could. Here is a way that a termite inspector or a housing inspector would check out the condition of the wooden structure of a home. It will also help you determine the soundness of your wood to see if it is worth your time to pursue it's use.

The pick test can also be used to identify decayed wood. To perform this test, a pointed tool, such as an ice pick, is inserted beneath the wood grain to pry loose a thin section of wood till it breaks free. Sound wood will snap crisply and typically breaks off to one side of the pick. Decayed wood will break with a dull sound and usually breaks above the pick's point of insertion.

Any hardwood, including fruit wood from fruit trees such as apple, pear, peach, etc. are all strong enough for a staff. Some woods are especially hardy such as ash which is used to make baseball bats, hickory which is used to make handles for tools like axes and hammers, maple which is used for butcher blocks, and oak used for flooring. All of these are very strong but also hard and therefore requires more effort to carve. Also the grain structure of different woods can make the carving you want to produce more difficult to produce as you have to "fight" or overcome the existing grain pattern to produce what you want it to look like. Conversely woods that are easy to carve, like basswood do not have the same strength. There are also softwoods which are more than strong enough to work as walking staffs. Spruce for example was used to make airplane wings. However many softwoods are resinous and the sap causes its own issues.

Others might provide you with better options but you might start with the large diameter dowel rods you find in a home improvement store. These are likely made of poplar, an inexpensive hardwood which can be worked well with hand or power tools. However is not a pretty wood that takes a fancy finish. It is most often painted which can either give you great flexibility as an artist, or provide you with more work to get it to look like some other type of wood.

Wow, thank you for the extensive research, you're the man. I'm pretty sure the peach died from insect damage, and also wouldn't be that strong right now since it is buried in snow... thanks for the help.

- - - Updated - - -

But it´s not really accurate.

I'd try to find a good size stick/branch and try my best to carve it out the best way I can. But if it's not 100% accurate I'm fine with that because I plan to make this have a practical use as well (if it were just a pure display item, I'd try my best for 100% accuracy)

 

[GreenCircleCube]

So I just watched the movie again and the scenes in Edau (where Galen Erso is), Chirrut's staff does light up. Only the black painted barts and a little part of the top section lights up.

(non light up)


(light up)


It seems like the light up is not put in in post, but rather a separate staff that they made that had leds. I don't know if I would make a light up version or not, unless anyone has an idea of how it can be done seamlessly?

 

[smithjohnj]

Adding an LED light is relatively easy; you need an LED, a battery, and a switch to turn the LED on and off (sometimes a resistor to reduce the battery's current so the LED does not burnout too fast,). All of these parts are provided in those small keychain lights. I would place the battery and LED (and resistor if necessary) into the endcap which you want to light. I would place a simple contact switch in the center grip and run small wires from the center grip to the endcap. In the center grip there appears to be two, semi-circular areas almost made to place your thumb. That could be ideal to place the contact switch. If you want to have the switch also in the endcap then the whole situation is much easier, you could use the entire light almost "as is".
.
Here are photos of a partially and fully disassembled very inexpensive light which is often given away as a promo/advertisement for free. However you can never find one when you need one for free so you can also pick them up on ebay. I bought several as the shipping from China can be more expensive than the light. (Often the light is as inexpensive as the batteries alone.) You see just how simple you can make the circuit. (The fully assembled version is at the top of each photo with the keyring still attached.) Depending on the sizes you might be able to reuse the entire packaged light and just "move" the switch by taking it out of the package and replacing it with something similar, either also in the endcap or in the center grip.



This design places the batteries side-by-side (with just a thin piece of metal connecting them) to provide a suitable length to fit between your fingers. Placing the batteries on top of one another will make the package thicker but shorter which might fit better into the endcap. It is difficult to do much damage to these and even if you destroy them you are not out much money so experimentation is painless.

Any thin wiring needed can be taken from almost any old telephone/computer cable.

 

[GreenCircleCube]

Adding an LED light is relatively easy; you need an LED, a battery, and a switch to turn the LED on and off (sometimes a resistor to reduce the battery's current so the LED does not burnout too fast,). All of these parts are provided in those small keychain lights. I would place the battery and LED (and resistor if necessary) into the endcap which you want to light. I would place a simple contact switch in the center grip and run small wires from the center grip to the endcap. In the center grip there appears to be two, semi-circular areas almost made to place your thumb. That could be ideal to place the contact switch. If you want to have the switch also in the endcap then the whole situation is much easier, you could use the entire light almost "as is".
.
Here are photos of a partially and fully disassembled very inexpensive light which is often given away as a promo/advertisement for free. However you can never find one when you need one for free so you can also pick them up on ebay. I bought several as the shipping from China can be more expensive than the light. (Often the light is as inexpensive as the batteries alone.) You see just how simple you can make the circuit. (The fully assembled version is at the top of each photo with the keyring still attached.) Depending on the sizes you might be able to reuse the entire packaged light and just "move" the switch by taking it out of the package and replacing it with something similar, either also in the endcap or in the center grip.

View attachment 693858View attachment 693859

This design places the batteries side-by-side (with just a thin piece of metal connecting them) to provide a suitable length to fit between your fingers. Placing the batteries on top of one another will make the package thicker but shorter which might fit better into the endcap. It is difficult to do much damage to these and even if you destroy them you are not out much money so experimentation is painless.

Any thin wiring needed can be taken from almost any old telephone/computer cable.

Yes I am familiar with wiring since I took a digital electronics course in high school. But my concern is that is there away to make a top that has those black lines painted in but also could light up. I would just make a plain aluminum top with no leds if this is not possible, just wondering if anyone had an idea of how to do it.

 

[Lichtbringer]

It looks like the top is made of machine parts, or casts of them.

In the middle it looks like a fastening nut for a mills drawbar (or a vertical mills bar) with a hexhead machine bolt on top of it. Bottom looks familar too, but i don´t remember, maybe hydraulics stuff.

 

[smithjohnj]

First let me try to calibrate our terminology. Starting at the top of the staff endcap, there is a flat cylindrical knob with two etched black rings around the sides, Below that a wider black ring, a hexagonal block, another wide black ring, and then another cylindrical section which the Visual Guide calls the Crystal Containment Lamp. Below the Lamp chamber is another wide black ring, etc. All of these black rings are recessed in their respective surfaces. All of the surfaces have a metallic, and thus reflective surface. If you use a high-gloss black paint. like enamel, it will also be somewhat reflective.

The location of the light source is already identified as the crystal containment lamp. Fortunately this section also has the largest diameter. You should place your lighting source inside this section. You then just need to allow the light to shine out from the top and bottom surfaces of this chamber cylinder and wash onto the reflective sections above and below it.

One approach would be to form the chamber as three concentric cylindrical areas. First the inside cylinder is hollow to hold the lighting components. The next section is the inside walls of the cylinder which would be clear acrylic or something similar. This section is required to provide structure to support the sections above and below the chamber., Then the outside area is aluminum tube or whatever you are using for the endcap material. This would allow me to use the outside tube as the form to cast acrylic resin with another plug in the center to form the hollow. You could also eliminate the acrylic and use a ring of endcap material and just drill angled holes from the top and bottom surfaces of the chamber into the "hollow" space. In the first approach the light should appear more evenly illuminated, in the second it might be more spotted: but with all the angled and reflective surfaces this may not be an issue. The second option would be stronger and I would probably fill the holes again with something like acrylic to keep dirt out of the chamber.

 

[Diyvader]

Could anyone make me the metal parts? I've got a ton of branches that are about right for his staff, but no lathe or access to one or knowledge of using one lol.