One thing I havent really seen mentioned since the new pictures is how evenly darkened the "booster" area is. With the Celebrations shots, most seemed to have gone with it being a mottled streaky type darkened color, but these shots really show how clean and evenly darkened the whole thing is. I've not seen aluminum do this naturally, it almost looks like aged pewter or something.
Has anyone ever tried darkening aluminum in this way by soaking it in leather dye? I found a few places suggesting that for a flat grey color, but I havent been able to find dye locally to try yet.
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this grey area has been at my attention since i first saw the celebration 7 photos. especially this photo here
you can see the boosters under color, matches the cubes on the pommel. my old theory was that its this darker grey because this saber was cast in aluminum, and then machined around the area's exposing a new shiny metal.
BUT i now have learned the cubes are also machined.. i also thought maybe that this sabers aluminum aged with time, with the palm of your sweaty hand using it for many years, might achieve this worn out look.
i know you have stated you've never seen aluminum darken like this, but all my dad's aluminum staging is like this now. it stays out in all the elements and turns dark, when we first bought them they are shiny and bright, even hurts to look at some times when working in the sun. now they are dull and dark
when the celebration 7 photos were shown i was interested in these "dark spots" because i dont ever remember seeing it on the saber, and our best reference for the longest time was this photo
here you cant really see the dark area, one would think. AH! see it was shiny at the time of RoTJ. but with further research you can find this photo here and though its a tiny section, it looks like the booster is still grey during the filming of RoTJ
i think i have come up with a way to age this aluminum to the dark we want. i dont have the weather on my side, and i wont want to be playing with these chemicals inside the house, so once the warmer weather gets here i'll set up the meth lab outside and try it