Hello. I used to post rather frequently here and on the TCSS forums from around 2005 to 2015, under a different name and a different gender. LOL
For a few years I was even selling my own sabers as a side hustle, but ADHD kept me from meeting deadlines and I was deep in the red the whole time.
Then the baby came along and I literally had no physical space to make sabers. (My former workshop is now her bedroom.)
I'm back now because the kiddo is now old enough to be interested in lightsabers, and I want to help her make one (mostly) by herself. Also, her best friend, who is also interested in lightsabers, was born just one day before her, so we're planning a saber-building birthday party for them. (Her friends parents are good friends of ours, and they are very into the idea. They are dazzled by my lightsabers.)
Anyway, since I've been away for seven or eight years, and have forgotten some basic stuff, I have made a new account in the hopes of learning from you all about the state of the hobby.
I live in Japan, by the way, which kind of sucks at the moment only because the yen is now so weak and it looks like ordering saber stuff from the States or Europe will cost more than it used to.