Rigid duel capabable lightsaber blade that rolls up to fit in your pocket

[LightSaberScroll]

Hello, I'm an engineer and inventor and Star Wars fan. I've always been fascinated by the lightsaber.  I'm currently working on a way to make the lightsaber blade more compact and retractable but still rigid enough for dueling with the minimum amount of design tradeoffs.  I'm currently working with a new technology/material, a rigid lightsaber blade (made out of a engineered material) for dueling that rolls up into a compact form factor small enough to fit in your pocket.  Parameters (length, width, overlapping diameter, translucence, strength, materials, etc.) can be changed/engineered. Let me know what you think.  Just a proof of concept idea right now. Thanks. 

Check out my two proof of concept videos below:

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

*raised eyebrow* Fascinating!

I am intrigued by this material and look forward to seeing if you can develop it into a practical blade. From your videos there are a few questions and a concern I have:

I saw that you did not completely unroll the material...is the demonstrated rigidity dependent upon a portion at the base remaining 'rolled up'?

What degree of dueling strength is there to the material in its extended rigid form; is it suitable for light sparring only or for heavy or even 'gorilla' dueling as well? Even if it is only suitable for light impacts it still could have 'show blade' uses for cosplay, choregraphy etc but for dueling the stronger the better, all else relatively near-equal [meaning that sufficient strength/thickness did not make it unacceptably dim].

How long can it be made in its extended form? The demo seems to be of a length which could be OK for short shotos but for mainstream use most of us would want a blade around ~ 3 feet to a meter in length or somewhere close to it; under 30" would only be useful for shotos [I love shotos and could want one even @ 20" but suspect for most people such a short length would have limited appeal...I hope that longer lengths will prove practical].

I'm guessing there would not be a practical way to use blade film with such blades therefore is the material in itself an effective light diffuser as its apparent translucence suggests it might be?

The videos show an open tube without closure at the tip...unless this can be addressed perhaps by the material being made to work with a blade tip of some kind [preferably with a tip reflector material] that would be a safety issue especially in dueling.

If future R&D addresses these matters I can see great potential in this...and imo we should always want to encourage new progress in this hobby/business.

So Thank You, Good Luck with continuing development, and MTFBWY.

[jbkuma]

Interesting concept, and nice to see such an innovative approach.  There's no rule against posting youtube videos for something like this here.  You might get some more feed back if you include the videos in your post.  Just click the little youtube button up top and paste in the URL.

[LightSaberScroll]

*raised eyebrow* Fascinating!

I am intrigued by this material and look forward to seeing if you can develop it into a practical blade. From your videos there are a few questions and a concern I have:

I saw that you did not completely unroll the material...is the demonstrated rigidity dependent upon a portion at the base remaining 'rolled up'?

What degree of dueling strength is there to the material in its extended rigid form; is it suitable for light sparring only or for heavy or even 'gorilla' dueling as well? Even if it is only suitable for light impacts it still could have 'show blade' uses for cosplay, choregraphy etc but for dueling the stronger the better, all else relatively near-equal [meaning that sufficient strength/thickness did not make it unacceptably dim].

How long can it be made in its extended form? The demo seems to be of a length which could be OK for short shotos but for mainstream use most of us would want a blade around ~ 3 feet to a meter in length or somewhere close to it; under 30" would only be useful for shotos [I love shotos and could want one even @ 20" but suspect for most people such a short length would have limited appeal...I hope that longer lengths will prove practical].

I'm guessing there would not be a practical way to use blade film with such blades therefore is the material in itself an effective light diffuser as its apparent translucence suggests it might be?

The videos show an open tube without closure at the tip...unless this can be addressed perhaps by the material being made to work with a blade tip of some kind [preferably with a tip reflector material] that would be a safety issue especially in dueling.

If future R&D addresses these matters I can see great potential in this...and imo we should always want to encourage new progress in this hobby/business.

So Thank You, Good Luck with continuing development, and MTFBWY.

The material can be fully unrolled, it's just that it takes a fair amount of force to initially roll it back up if fully unrolled.  The material is translucent so blade film is not required.

I haven't fully tested if for heavy dueling, so for now I would say it's good for light sparring, but may be engineered for heavy dueling in the future.

The material can be made any length.

A blade tip may be added as well, although that would mean it could not fully roll-up.

[JakeSoft]

We've got buckets of machinists, a few EEs and some Software devs floating around this forum. I think you might be the first materials engineer. Welcome!

With a tip glued on one end, even if you couldn't roll it up fully, it would still beat the heck out of carrying around a 3 foot blade. It would sure make packing your saber in a suitcase for road trips to conns and such much easier. You could hide the blade in a jacket or costume pocket when not in use, clip your saber hilt to your belt, and have hands free. Very interesting possibilities for enhanced convenience.

[Obi_1]

This is definitely a new innovation to be on the lookout for!!! The first videos are convincing enough. If you say roll it up in multiple layers, would that enhance the durability/strength of the blade? Even if it does not turn out to be duel worthy - which is my eyes is a nice to have but not necessary - it will help a lot to transport blades to cons or carry them around if yo do not need a fully ignited sword. I could well imagine a run for such a blade if it can be lighted up looking similar to the blade materials currently in use!

Can't wait to hear and see more about it, sabersmithing starts turning into a cross-discipline science of its own 

[Onli-Won Kanomi]

Thanks for the answers to my questions.

Yes there are plenty of uses for blades other than dueling so even if it turns out not to be heavy/gorilla dueling suitable don't be discouraged, there would still be a market for blades for those other uses that have been mentioned.

As for tips perhaps you might be able to use a flexible material at the end instead of a conventional blade tip. A blade tip needn't necessarily be solid for a 'show' or light service blade; the relevant factor for eye-safety would be that it not be totally transparent. So a semi-translucent flexible material affixed to the end might provide for that need and still allow easy rolling. Or perhaps you might cut 'petals' into the end of the material that would fold into a tip closure that would be light diffusing. I think that the issue of tip-safety should not be an insuperable problem and look forward to seeing what you find to be a useful solution.

Once again best of luck and MTFBWY.

[Whosle]

Cool stuff!

 I can think of many non-lightsaber uses for that. Mostly resource extraction and management and other industrial uses.

Throw some florescent dye in it, cut it to blade lengths (- 2" for blade holder) and sell them as dayglo sheaths for normal blades.(that roll up in your pocket)

I'll take 20.

Edit: You might be able to just color it with a high-lighter pen to test out the idea. Blue wavelength is best, but UV works too.

[Obi_1]

Back to the topic of using it as an alternative, light to transport blade: are you able to offer some for sale and experimenting?

[LightSaberScroll]

Back to the topic of using it as an alternative, light to transport blade: are you able to offer some for sale and experimenting?

I'm currently in the process of building a proof of concept lightsaber (saber + hilt) using the material for the retractable saber part.  I am looking for any help/engineers who are hands on and are capable of 3D CAD design for rapid prototyping (3D printing, SLA, SLS, CNC milling, etc.) as well as electronics (Quad Cree LED, power supply, stepper motors, gears/belts, PCB, etc.) that may be interested in working with me (on a sweat equity basis for now) and think outside the box.  I plan to eventually do a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo or kickstarter.  Would like to have something ready to sell before the next movie release of Star Wars.

[BEN KENOBI]

    Always love seeing new tec.

[Obi_1]

Back to the topic of using it as an alternative, light to transport blade: are you able to offer some for sale and experimenting?

I'm currently in the process of building a proof of concept lightsaber (saber + hilt) using the material for the retractable saber part.  I am looking for any help/engineers who are hands on and are capable of 3D CAD design for rapid prototyping (3D printing, SLA, SLS, CNC milling, etc.) as well as electronics (Quad Cree LED, power supply, stepper motors, gears/belts, PCB, etc.) that may be interested in working with me (on a sweat equity basis for now) and think outside the box.  I plan to eventually do a crowdfunding campaign on indiegogo or kickstarter.  Would like to have something ready to sell before the next movie release of Star Wars.

If you need engineering support for electonics, Arduino icommunity s your best friend and DIYino your best choice, due to its flexibility. If you have a list of requirements as to what the electronics should be able to perform, get in touch with me. Glad to advance new tech!