Corbin Blade Wraps

[Ishi-Goturi]

Hello, all.

As I am eagerly awaiting my converted Luke ROTJ from Ultra, I'm considering purchasing as Corbin-style thickwalled blade from TCSS (as well as a belt clip! ), because the mid-grade blade Ultra is going to provide isn't as thick as the TCSS blade I already have, and I don't want to mix blade thicknesses in duels and risk smashing the Ultrablade. lol

My question is this: How many wraps of the Corbin film would you guys recommend for this saber? It won't have a driver that will create the scrolling effect, but that's okay with me (since Luke's saber didn't really do that in ROTJ anyway). I'm getting it converted in Ultra's Consular Green, if that makes any difference. I assume more wraps of the film would cut back on brightness, but if it creates a more noticeable coring effect, is it a good trade-off?

One more thing... Mirrored or Aluminum tips for Corbin blades?

Thanks, everyone.

[QUI-GON JINN]

I think the most common set up ina Corbin blade is a double wrap of film with a mirrored tip.  The mirror is usually better than the aluminm disc at reflecting light back into the blade to help even it up,  as  Corbin blades have a tendency to fade towards the tip.  You could also add a few feet of clear cellophane gift wrap to brighten it up a bit.  That's what I do with all of my blades that I make.

[jpbeck]

You could also add a few feet of clear cellophane gift wrap to brighten it up a bit.  That's what I do with all of my blades that I make.

When you add the cellophane-- how do you roll it-- I mean do you stress if it get crinkled  (like it always does for me)? Also, you roll it length wise so it's one long piece right?

Thanks for your time.
Joe

[Seth Ski-Woo]

Hi JP/Joe - it makes it a lot easier rolling it on a dowel rod. I've found when I do it I get a bit of crinkling happen when I'm manipulating it during the process, but it should be crinkle-free when it's finished.

And as for the rolling, if you have a sheet that measures the length of your blade (or just under) one way and up to a few feet the other way, then roll it so the side that matches the blade length goes lengthways along the blade. Hope that makes sense.

...anyway, I still stress about it, crinkles or not, it's just really fiddly coz you don't have enough hands and it tests your patience bigtime

It definitely adds to the brightness and evenness, although the coring effect from the corbin film will be a bit subtler.

[Sidneyious]

You could do the same thing with the standard tcss diffuser.

But a double wrap is what most go for.

IIRC the more wraps you get the more of the core you get.

[Aluke123]

You recall wrong then Alias.

A single wrap of corbin's film has more of a core than a quad wrap. The quad wrap is MUCH more even though. It's a trade off. Laser core or blade evenness.

[darthmorbius]

2-3 wraps looks nice...

[jpbeck]

The DIY wrap in Tim's store, are they "Corbin's"?

If so I did a double wrap on two blades and a tripple wrap on one, they look the same. I'm going to try the cellophane gift wrap stuff as soon as I get down to Michaels craft store. I also bought a 1/4" dowel today and I'll try the kitchen cellophane later in the week. Thanks for the tips guys.
Joe

[Ishi-Goturi]

Two wraps seems to be the general consensus, but if only one wrap produces more of a coring effect, I might just stick with one layer. I'm not too concerned with blade evenness, since I'll also have an Ultrablade to use with it.

Thanks for the info, everyone.

[jpbeck]

So you have a show blade and a battle blade? I was thinking along the same lines, I never used my Ultra blades either.

[Sidneyious]

Ah ok then.

[QUI-GON JINN]

You might want to buy a bigger diameter dowel rod.  For a 1" thin walled blade,  I used a 3/4" dowel rod to roll the giftwrap on.  For a 3/4" thin walled blade I use a 5/8" dowel.  For a 1" thick-walled blade,  I'd use the same 5/8" dowel.  Using the larger sizes gets the cellophane to the right diameter to properly fill the blade without much un-rolling to be done.  Make sure the dowels are sraight...if they aren't you'll have a hard time getting the cellophane to come off the dowel rod without wrinkles.

Sethski is correct in the way that you cut the film.  If you can't find a roll as wide as your blade is long,  you'll have to cut the cellophane length-wise to the length of the blade and possibly install two rolls of the cellophane,  one inside the other.  I've found that 4-6 feet lengths work quite well.