The OT stunt lightsaber blades research thread

Hey folks!
I'm not an expert researcher of OT stunt blades,
But I do have photos taken from the archive that shows real close-ups of the blades, blade base attachments, hilt cores, as well as cross sections of the blades themselves.

Not sure if I can go into detail, but I can tell you guys the blades are composed of a few different materials.

Could you share photos here?:love:

Not for dueling just for show

I'd be interested if they can be dueled with.
 
I remember an interview where Nick G said they decided not to go that route in I and had aluminum tube with 2 or 3 set screws on a threaded tang

II and III used Texalium. My understanding is that it's woven or braided?
 
Here you go...I have a red one. The color starts to fade/disappear now. Those tubes are PVC shrink wrapped, very sturdy.
RotS lightsaber blades.JPG
 
Just re read that whole thing

Forgot other members here like golf clubs as well..

I’m amazed at people posting about carbon fiber, it’s been around since the 60s. Even bicycles in the early 80s were experimenting with it

They also have a hard time believing they would spend that kind of money on blades..

They build 6 aluminum r2d2’s for ANH, totaling in around 30k a piece, I believe they had the money for carbon fiber rods.. even if they made them themselves

If not carbon fiber, fiberglass would work just as well...

Re reading that thread, I feel real confident they used fiberglass clubs

Tom go whack your fiber glass club up against something, it makes the same exact sound as we see BTS

There was a comment about the v3 blade falling out and sounding like metal, I wholeheartedly agree...

BUT I think what we are hearing is the metal rod hitting the ground. It also falls down the emperor shaft. So god only knows what it hit on it’s way down

Listen to the blades hit each other. The luke and Vader hit the aluminum rails, 2 different sounds

I’m sold now that the blades were fiberglass, or carbon fiber

Can’t see them being aluminum because they would bend and dent... check out mcgregors blade in the ep1 video up above...
I have to say i completely agree.
 
Some of this is very hard to describe, and best seen as you watch Jedi

The ROTJ shared graflex MoM saber. Box is lit by the pyro charge
fullsizeoutput_203e.jpeg

and here's a movie mistake, an un-rotoscoped shot of the blade. There's your base blade diameter right there, we know how wide Graflexes' are
fullsizeoutput_2037.jpeg

Vader's bladed MPP has some upper grip screws too - my impression is that theyre silver or brass
fullsizeoutput_2041.jpeg

and I believe this to be a metal hilt without the blade and not resin. His glove is literally reflected in the clamp box and it disappears as he moves the handle
fullsizeoutput_203d.jpeg
fullsizeoutput_2036.jpeg
fullsizeoutput_203c.jpeg
 
Some of this is very hard to describe, and best seen as you watch Jedi

The ROTJ shared graflex MoM saber. Box is lit by the pyro charge
View attachment 1308085
and here's a movie mistake, an un-rotoscoped shot of the blade. There's your base blade diameter right there, we know how wide Graflexes' are
View attachment 1308086
Vader's bladed MPP has some upper grip screws too - my impression is that theyre silver or brass
View attachment 1308087
and I believe this to be a metal hilt without the blade and not resin. His glove is literally reflected in the clamp box and it disappears as he moves the handle
View attachment 1308088View attachment 1308089View attachment 1308090

I agree with everything expect that “metal cast”. I’m still in the resin camp

Slow down that scene and play it over and over

I also have a good picture of where you can see how the circuit card traces are painted
 
Do you? now this I'd like to see, thats a very reflective paint if that's the case

I'm super stoked about the exposed blade!
 
I spent some time recently to do some further research regarding the original ESB stunt lightsaber blades. Motivated by my work on the ANH Obi Wan special effects lightsaber replica, I threw in every piece of information I gathered in the past (40) years about those blades. There are quite a few theories out there what real world item was used for the blades. Some even said those blades were manufactured for the movie.

A statement from Steven Sansweet stuck in my mind: the ESB stunt lightsaber blades were made of “German World War II tank antennas”. Have you ever tried to research German World War II tank antennas? To cut a long story short, I was not even able to locate a decent photograph of an original German WWII tank antenna in the web. BUT I found some images of miniature model tank antennas, which was quite promising. At least they featured the correct taper – a constant, long taper from bottom to top, which you do not easily find on modern carbon or fiberglass tubes.

A few weeks ago, I found something on a Chinese website which caught my attention: tapered fiberglass flagpoles for small motor boats. On a family trip to the nearby Wannsee here in Berlin, we passed a small boat harbor and I found myself taking a closer look at the boats. And there it was: a boat antenna which matched the image of the ESB stunt lightsaber blade I carried in my head for such a long time. Some more telephone calls and research, and I had it in my hand finally.

I am now 100% confident that the HMP CX-4 antenna has been used for the dueling blades in ESB.

Image of the complete antenna:
CX-4 full view.JPG


Blade tip:
CX-4 blade tip.JPG


The CX-4 antenna is on the market for more than 40 years now. I found an older model on ebay Kleinanzeigen Germany and bought it immediately.

The antenna base:
CX-4 Adapter.JPG


hmp-Logo on antenna base:
CX-4 hmp stamp.JPG


Some specs:

- length of the fiberglass antenna part (without the metal base): 116 cm
- diameter at base: 18mm
- diameter in the middle: 15mm
- diameter at tip: 10mm

Material: fiberglass composite (center: thin antenna cable inside a thin white fiberglass tube, surrounded by some dark, softer “filler” material, with an outer dark fiberglass shell (an “early” type of fiberglass from the late 70’s/early 80’s). Painted white (UV protective layer).

I think what they did for preparation of these stunt blades was removing some of the inner material of the rod on the thicker end, leaving just the outer fiberglass shell. Then they inserted a metal sleeve and added a metal ring with grub screws on the outside to secure the blade on the stunt lightsaber handle. I will do that with my antenna in the next couple of days.

A big “thank you” goes to PrinceZip/Kevin for his help and support throughout this final part of the research. Without you, it would not have been possible to locate the correct real world item!
 
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I wonder how the prequel carbon blades are made.. they held up to dueling?

I remember an interview where Nick G said they decided not to go that route in I and had aluminum tube with 2 or 3 set screws on a threaded tang

II and III used Texalium. My understanding is that it's woven or braided?

thd9791 is correct. The texalium rods they used on Ep III were basically a carbon fiber/glass/aluminum composite from an outdoor sports retailer in New Zealand called Kilwell Fibre Tube. I did a lot of research about this six years ago and found a new source:


SB
 
I’m not having any luck finding them just yet, well with a website in English lol

Their newest model which has some design changes over their originals:

 
Their newest model which has some design changes over their originals:


Bless you
 
Here's a small breakdown of their history, including their time as HMP:

 
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Holy **** this is amazing.

Tom, princezip, THANK YOU

Yep I need to hop on this. ANY documentation of disassembly and alteration would be greatly appreciated.

OMG THEY'RE 18 MIL AT THE BASE
 
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