someone else did all the work of getting the EL stuff into the hilt. The parks blade is pretty sturdy, after inserting it, you can still tighten it down even more with a small allen wrench. but i never bother to tighten it down, i've struck quite a few things with it and have had no problems. course, i never bought another el blade from parks or lighttech, i just duel with my son using his hasbro plastic blade.