If you’re going to cosplay as a Jedi, it’s only fitting that you play the part by building your own lightsabers. You don’t have to travel to a galaxy far, far away to get the crystal, and you can find parts to build the hilt right here on Earth. RPF user teecrooz purchased lightsaber parts and assembled them and added some weathering to make them as close as possible to Obi-Wan’s lightsaber:
I have a steel emitter which I blued and then burnished with steel wool (just did this today, so I’m not sure if I’m done or how much more work I’ll do on it at this point). For the grenade section, I soaked this in water, buried it in the yard, removed most of the rust with steel wool, let it sit around for a bit, kicked it around the driveway, blued the steel, burnished it with steel wool and did some weathering with a ball peen hammer. The brass was soaked in “Easy Off” oven cleaner and rubbed with steel wool until I was happy with the finish. I just started on the clamp today. I’ve drilled some holes and added one of Phillip’s bubble strips, but there is still plenty of work left to do until I’m happy with it. The booster is one of Russ’ anodized aluminum pieces. I’ve knocked it around a bit to remove some of the black and add a few dents, but it probably could use some more work. The tap has made it through unharmed up until now. The entire piece is held together by one of simplyprops adapters.
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That’s a nice casing. I prefer sonic screwdrivers myself – but the work done to make this "real" should be respected.
The next question is: what will you put inside it?
It would be great to see this in daily use. Optometrist’s tonometer, opthalmoscope, otoscope. Flashlight or electric toothbrush [I’ve suggested all these for sonic screwdriver, too]
The "best" I can think of, for sabre or sonic, is: crystal radio. There’s a "rocket radio" design that uses a sliding ferrite rod instead of a variable capacitor. You can also use headphone leads as an antenna. Shove an audio socket on the base. Extra points go to a worm thread system, to adjust the position of the ferrite rod in the coil.