Saber Forum

At the risk of sounding stupid, i kinda just want to throw this idea out. A lot of people ive talked to, along with myself, think itd be very cool to come out with a black saber blade. Im hoping that Caine or Ultra will chime in on this one, but i was thinking, if you could have a white saber, why not black? or maybe even just a real deep purple kind of color. almost like a black light kind of style. is that possible?

A LOT of people have tried to make a black saber. If you can figure it out feel free to let us all know haha!

lol i had a feeling id get a reply like that. :P if i knew more about the lighting system id prolly be able to elaborate more on how id do it. but all i cant think of right now is something along the lines of a black light. or take the adegan silver blade and put a black transparent film around the light source lol.

There's a reason my name is ProjectBlacksaber...

(In JKA, I have modified the game to where there actually ARE black lightsaber blades :L )

But yes, I would LOVE to see a black lightsaber blade. Then I could actually live up to my name in real life! XD

I think I remember reading about this in another thread some time back. I don't know much about the mechanics of it all, but I believe the problem is that black light literally does not exist. You see color when one shade of light is absorbed and the others are reflected (or is it the other way around? I forget) and black is created when ALL colors of light are absorbed just as white reflects ALL colors. Hence the difficulty in creating a black blade.

The suggesting of using a transparent black lens is good, but I think that'd be more likely to create a gray blade than anything else. Still, I suppose that's a step in the right direction. Maybe if one played around with the diffusion in the blade... *shrug* Either way, gray could be cool in and of itself if you ask me.

Now don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE to see a black lightsaber blade. That'd be SICK!

Thats exactly right, it would be pretty crazy if we could get to the black saber blade. and just like you said, the black lense creating a grey saber is a step in the right direction. Im merely trying to spark ideas, and people who build their own sabers to strive for this legendary effect that alot of people crave. me personally, a grey or deep purple would still be pretty BA  :P

Idea: What would one get if he threw a black lense... on a purple saber? Gray + Dark Purple = ?

If I had the purple saber, I would so try that myself.

Hell that aint bad.. now we just need to find some body who has the materials to conduct such an experiment.

I will give my two cents on this only because not even a month ago I was in the same boat. Ok, so there are actually hundreds of pages between this forum and others on this subject. The blacklight/UV blade with a black filter..... 1st of all. That wouldnt work because anytime you use filters, Its "subtractive" as far as light goes. As opposed to Ultrasabers RGB set up, that is "additive" because its turning on more light.. Ok so weve got that down. Now the black blade has been only about 50% accomplished, and by a couple members on a different forum. What they did was  1  put a black tube of sorts inside a regular polycarb tube and the main light was white and reflected off the black tube giving you the black blade look.  2nd  was a black film put into the poly c blade just like you would anyother blade film. BUT both of these blades ONLY gave the black blade look from 1 angle. Thus not fully giving it the look.  As far as using a blacklight / UV LED.  Good luck getting a sabersmith to use those. They wont because UV light is dangerous to look at and can burn you, just like a tanning bed if your near it too long. Anyway, just do research, If there is a way, I would hope someone finds it. But I warn you !  You have the laws of physics working against you.  Good luck guys and I hope yall can do better than i did and many others.   : )

a thought on this one - I was searching for how to do it as a black light but that doesn't seem likely (I was looking for a way to may all the stuff around glow in reaction to the saber turn on, imagine the effect of the Force on everything nearby just as you ignite your blade of chaos)

Now my point - gray/black tube or filter with white slits for the "light" to break out of the "dark" ?  might work with the tube, not sure about the lens.

You cannot produce black light, in the same fashion you cannot emit light through a lens that is black because it will not pass through. Even in the games there is no "black light" it is the core with a white glow surrounding the blade. To replicate this I would suggest a high lacquered reflective black tube/blade with LED going around it, or somehow have a two part socket the would allow the light to emit far enough to have a width wider than the blade, in other words the light would not go inside but rather the blade is in the middle of the beam.

Good luck to whoever attempts to build this or find another solution, may the force be with you.

Like I said, it'd be DANG cool if it can be done... but a black saber really is pretty darn near impossible to create. To do it to the level of quality we've all become used to (thank you ultrasabers!), you really would have to almost totally redesign the blade and/or lighting method. I'm not saying it can't be done, just that it would be very hard. If we did it with the materials available today, at the very least it would be a pretty dim blade. Then again, with a black saber that might sort of be the point. No light. No hope. Only darkness, death, and destruction. A sith with a black saber is the harbinger of DOOM! lol

someone has already done this a black light is probaly impossible but black film is not!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/user/makototsai#p/u/5/GvB7sLCKid8 (http://www.youtube.com/user/makototsai#p/u/5/GvB7sLCKid8)

this one is better in my opinion

http://www.youtube.com/user/makototsai#p/u/6/YjFZ8-dJmdA (http://www.youtube.com/user/makototsai#p/u/6/YjFZ8-dJmdA)

THEY DID IT!!! OH MY GOD!!! Some one has to get a hold of this guy and find out how he did it!

(referring to the second video post)

*watches the second video* O_O How did he do this!?! I agree with Darth Sicarius on this one, we need to find out how he accomplished this!!!

Yup, lights are around the black tube which make it look glowing, still, I'm impressed.

indeed. it is impressive.. most impressive. but, how would it hold up for dueling i do wonder..

The second one you notice he doesnt take it off the stand...its relatively easy and not new to get an ILLUSION of 'negative blade' from one direction for a static display-only saber and there are multiple threads elsewhere that explain how others have done so. Getting it to look that way from every direction on a moving blade as you swing it around...well I won't say impossible... [I know a way using multiple motorized tubes but the expense, time, math and alignment precision required would be not worth it for something that would be quite non duelable] ...but I'd stake everything I, and the many others who have EXHAUSTIVELY covered this subject to death on saber forums, know about physics that this isn't a 360 degree visible while spinning negative blade but another "from a certain point of view" ONLY one.

They are both neat, the top one actually looks better to me. The second... simply doesn't do it. It looks too unreal for me. Too much like the digital world has leaped out of my monitor. The top, seems much closer to what I think of with a black blade. White core with a black 'glow'. Granted, the effect of a black glow is entirely illusion as that is not physically possible, but it's still more real to me. The only thing is that I think the white core should be thinner, almost like the effect of a regular ultrablade. I suppose to do that you would have to use a much thinner polycarb tube. Either way, kudos to the builders. Those are still very neat sabers!

This topic has been beaten very much like a military snare drum during the Civil War...!

If you want to re-create what you saw in Makotosai's videos, get a saber with a white LED and some black electrical tape. Run a length of tape down the side of your blade, snip the tip into a point, and VOILA! You've got a Blacksaber that does exactly what you saw. Really, it's just a one-sided illusion.

Or.....

Get a clear blade and stain it with a black paint. When the light struggles to find its way out of the tube, you will see a faint hint of..... well, GRAY. Not black.

Graysaber.... doesn't have the ring in your ear like BLACKSABER does, but try it. It's the only way you'll learn for yourself that it is quite improbable (I don't like to think anything is impossible) to get the effect you really want (TFU style).

Good luck. :D

If you use the electrical tape idea but use 4 small strips of tape and put them on all sides of the blade you could achive the "black core" but with 4 view points instead of one. Still will only work if looking at one of the 4 sides at one time but will give a little movability.

I'm only guessing, i haven't tried this but hypotheticaly.........I can see it in my head  :D

Thats just my 2 cents!  :-\

Or you could try even SMALLER strips of tape, all the way around. You know, instead of 4 use 6 or 8 or something. Though each strip would probably further diminish brightness, and again it's all hypothetical. *shrug* this is probably one of those things everyone will talk about forever, and then after all the stuff and everything some random science whiz will make it work and defy physics (with a scottish accent, no doubt) and everyone will hate him and love him for doing the impossible and making all the talk a moot point. LOL

If you add more tape then you get multiple black lines visible from any single angle not a single black core visible from every angle.

Ok it seems I'm going to have to explain how a 'negative' blade CAN be done to show y'all why it WON'T be done.

Remember the double-slit experiment from your physics lessons? That is the key to how to build a negative looking blade; interference patterns. IF you take an opaque hollow tube with a powerful LED at the bottom and cut slits in it what do you have? Slit-thin lines of visible light showing through an otherwise opaque tube. Now put another somewhat larger opaque tube also with slits properly calibrated to create an interference pattern in proper alignment with the slits on the first one. Then put them both inside an even larger clear tube with a normal diffusing film. You will want to have clear teflon roller bearing mounts at the bottom, at the tip and perhaps somewhere along the length if you can do that without it ruining the effect because you are going to SPIN the two precisely aligned interference-effect slit tubes inside the outer diffuser tube. With a sufficiently precise calibration of slits and with a proper rate of spin the optical phenomena of 'PERSISTENCE OF VISION' would cause the eye/brain to perceive the spinning interference pattern of the slits as a solid 'true BLACK' core yet the slits will still allow light out to the diffuser film to create a lighted 'glow' around the black core. Visible from any angle.

IN THEORY.

This is the ONLY way - even in  theory - to create the illusion of a 'negative blade' that would appear to the human eye [actually the visual cortex of the human brain] to have an appearance of a 'solid' black core surrounded by white light TFU style no matter what angle you viewed it at whether the saber was standing still or moving.

It is also throroughly IMPRACTICAL even though THEORETICALLY possible...the calculation and experimentation needed to get everything 'just right' to make this work would simply not be worth the bother...and it could NEVER be dueled with; the slightest jar to the spinning inner tubes would knock them out of alignment ruining the effect...these blades would be so fragile they'd make MR or even plasma tubes seem robust.

Now maybe you can see why some of us old fogeys say FUGGEDABOUDIT and some [not me] want to 'flame' noobs whenever the subject of black blades come up...we really have gone over EVERY possibility even impractical ones like this...unless some totally new physics is discovered at CERN's LHC that enables us to apply some as yet unknown principle of dark matter/dark energy breakthroughs to our saber 'toys'  LOL an any-angle negative blade that is practical for our sabers is NOT going to happen...we'll probably have REAL sabers before we have toy 'black' ones that look like the one in TFU.

I said it before and I'll say it again; Reality bites and it bites black blades HARD.

Sorry, but c'est la vie.

I'm sorry, but worrying about brightness with a black bladed saber seems kinda off to'eme hahaha!

heres how i'd do it:
1. Take saber
2. Turn on saber
3. Turn off lights
4. Turn off saber

your saber is now black. congradulations

You sir has just won the internetz.

So, if everyone's tossing down two pennies, I suppose I should throw my coin in...

Pelan Tan was an ancient Druidic Ritualistic Tradition of modifying the theme, and some say, invited energies into a cast circle.  Pelan Tan was the birth of the black light.  Unfortunately, black light is such a low wave-length light spectrum, that you would need the Adegan white blade for this to work, IMO, but maybe even the purple would work, since that's all were doing here, since a truly "Black" light is just a contradiction in terms...

Take the blade tube, and get yourself some cobalt dye.  You can get this type of stuff at craft stores, and occasionally like a JoAnn fabric store.  The Druids took glass bowls, swirled the cobalt dye around in it, and poured out the excess, to allow the thin film to dry.  Try that, only use the inside of your hollow lightsaber tube instead.  You might need two applications, there will be drying time, and unless you "seal" it in there with say some clear paint, I wonder if the dye would end up flaking off into the lightsaber blade tube... still...  if it works, you will have a lightsaber that makes anything white around it pop, and this could add endless possibilities to a Sith costume... 

I'm broke, and this d@mn lightsaber stuff is not going to help... I already have a real sword buying problem, I have 5 real swords, my Odachi (62.9", two identical except for colors Katana, and the CAS Hanwei practical shinobi ninjato.  I vamp them up too, and am almost done replacing the tsuka (handle) on my Ninjato with authentic Ebony, authentic samegawa (instead of the plastic paneling they come with), and authentic silk Ito.  Afterwards, I am going to remake the saya, and BAM, a 3 year project finally gets to die!

You can all expect me to modify the h3ll outta my Dominix V2 LE w/covertec in Guardian Blue when I get it, as well as coming up with my Sith-like costume...

Sorry, I'm new to the forum, and this is my second post.  I'm just trying to be pro-active and I hope this helps any who venture down the blacklightsaber road...

"Nuetrality can be much more difficult to master than good or evil..."

Hey, welcome!  ;D That's some interesting idea, I never thought of dyeing the tube... Wouldn't that be funny if it turns out to be that simple? lol Also, the sword stuff sounds AWESOME, and I cannot wait to see what you do to that Dominix LE! You gotta post pics of that when you do it...

how about a black film???    it would take down the brightness but pretty much everything would

double tube
a black core and a transparent blade with a p4 white
thats how he did it
the light has to go between the black core and the transparent blade
maybe this would need a diferent emmiter or maybe more leds

Probably more LEDs, if I had to guess. A workable theory, if more expensive. Still... I feel compelled to state that though black lightsabers are AWESOME, we must consider that within the 'actual' Star Wars Galaxy, they most likely would not exist. Even with the twisted physics in Star Wars, they leave the physics of light very much alone. With the possible exception of lightspeed, but that's another subject entirely. And we all know, in the literal sense black light does not exist, as black the color is created by the absorbtion of all colors of light. Light cannot absorb itself, and so black light cannot literally exist. Not according to present known science in this galaxy at any rate. But hey! Fifty years ago, they said the same thing about 'communicators' and half a dozen other pieces of sci-fi tech. Who knows, in six months science fact may be rewritten yet again and we'll all be buying black lightsabers from Ultra. XD That would rock so hard....

Im no expert but it appears as if rather than trying to use a transparent black film, he used a solid black one. He then probably wrapped it tighter inside the blade, allowing the white light to bleed out around the blade, which gave it the solid black with white glow.  This makes me wonder what it would look like when using other colors such as red or orange >:)

You people have the right idea, almost. If you are going for a clone wars style season 2 wielded by Pre Vizla darksaber, it is a black blade surrounded by a white glow. A normal saber is a white blade surrounded by a whatever color glow. So the light itself is not black, but white. I made a thread like this.

in the star wars univers/galaxy there a few black light sabers (starwarskotor2sucksbutshedslight) there was a man who found a black crystal he says he found it under the greens and my kids say (starwarstheclonewars) there are black light sabers so two accounts i know of there are maybe more so if they find a way to use black thay will exploit it ______________________________                                                                 I                                                                                    joke          under                                                                                                      I  ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________ ______________________________lololol   l                          why did captain rex yell at asoka she was cloneing around / you mama so fat when the 2 death star was defeated they called her up to blow up planets

i have an idea that i have shared with someone before. i dont know how well it would work, but if u use a black polycarbonate blade with the adegan silver led in the hilt.

This is what would happen.

http://www.youtube.com/user/makototsai#p/u/5/GvB7sLCKid8 (http://www.youtube.com/user/makototsai#p/u/5/GvB7sLCKid8)

if the black showed just a little more than it could look like the one from tfu

 ;D i found two articules before that had to do with the va color one more red one more blue in customizations check it out

How about just using car window tinting material? Either rolled tightly and placed inside the blade like the Ultra Edge blades, or maybe use a mirrored tint? The center would still be dark if you used the silver LED.

I have no idea if it will work, but I'm sure it will, also not sure who else might have posted this before me, I didn't read all the posts.  Take a saber blade any, then take some Wood or long stick or tube that will fit on the inside of the other blade, put it onto your lightsaber with a white light or ultra saber case silver, and turn it on.  It should make the saber blade appear as a black laser like in the video games black on the inside and white on the outside.  In my mind it works, just gotta figure out best solid tung that's light and will fit good into the blade, I'm going to try it out.  If someone is reading this and already figured it out please send me a message and let me know, thank you.

OK, you jump (or climb) into your Jedi/Sith starfighter, travel to the nearest Dark Hole, and enter inside long enough for your astromech droid to collect dark matter into a sub-atomic partical containment collector.   Returning back to home station you utilize the planets hyperbarrik matter crystalization matter inducer to form a black crystal which would obviously be put into the crystal chamber of your lightsaber.

Well if that's all you need to do then we should have had black blades a long time ago.*sarcasm*

I hereby nominate Lord Tron for President of the United States.

The idea of a black lightsaber makes me wanna pull my hair out.  I realize black is a sweet color, and a black lightsaber seems like a cool choice for darksiders or whatever, but come on.  It's a LIGHTsaber.  A saber... made of light.  In TFU it's a black core with a white aura... I'm sure you've all noticed that's not the case with LED sabers in person.  It's just pure colored light... red sabers are red, blue sabers are blue.  The aura only shows up in pictures.  Hence, there could not be a BLACK saber... because it would give off, erm, "black light".  I could be wrong, but in my experience from various physics classes black is the ABSENCE of light.

I don't mean to complain on your thread, just wanted to keep this realistic.  Black lightsaber would be super cool, sadly it's impossible.  Now a blacklight lightsaber... that could be a handy thing to have around for raves ;)

I think unless one is willing to actually work with a black film-covered lightsaber to create that darksaber style reversed glow, a lightsaber with a black blade is at its core kinda logically impossible, since in the spectrum of light, black is a lack of color/light rather than any combination of anything. if we were working with quasi matter energy particles like in an actual light saber, its theoretically possible, though the implications are staggering. but these are led based with regular boring photon emission, so film around the blade is one's best bet, though.

A blacklight saber is not impossible though, since they do make blacklight UV LEDs

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=black+light+led&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=15676558353580369981&sa=X&ei=7NuJTuGwEofQgAf6rKT5Cg&ved=0CHkQ8wIwAA (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=black+light+led&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=15676558353580369981&sa=X&ei=7NuJTuGwEofQgAf6rKT5Cg&ved=0CHkQ8wIwAA)

This would end up being some sort of purple variation methinks, though it'd probably look rather cool if it could be done right, probably better for the mid grade and heavy grade blades rather than any ultra edge due to the clear-quality. All I'll warn is, be careful where you use it, those black lights can illuminate so many stains here and there, so think twice about using a cloak with food splotches on it.
Also I'd probably also reccomend not staring at the blade, but then again there's alot about this concept I've not tested yet. I've never actually used a single black light LED for anything, so I'm not familiar with a single LED's intensity in this manner. this defintiely requires more experimentation.

Anyone know if the LEDs themselves are easy to remove/replace in the LED modules that Ultrasabers sells? It'd be easier to order and re appropriate one than to make my own from scratch and never have it fit just right.

I've been thinking about this for sometime.  And the black core idea sounds like its the right track.  our current Polycarbonate tubes are hollow, but it is possible for light to still travel in the outer wall.  So a black reflective, and possibly opaque film of some sort would go on the inside, while white or whatever light source travels in the wall around the tube.  Just a thought.

Found out amazon has several sellers, such as LEDwholesalers, that sell Ultraviolet LEDs, rather cheaply too as they can go for $0.60 a pop. So I guess I need to get me one of those emitters there, get a soldering gun (I don't normally work on electronics, most of the soldering I do day to day is with a torch) and see if I can't do a DIY LED swap on one of those things, see how it turns out.


You know as far as the film idea goes, its a shame they don't sell any sheets of film treated with those light-transition chemicals like on the sunglasses. Those darken in a good ratio to the amount of light hitting their surface, and I imagine if they were treated more thoroughly, would go completely black should they be exposed directly to the intense light of an LED. from a speculative standpoint, this would create a polycarbonate blade who's inside would darken the moment the led switches on, but still allow just enough light through coupled with the ambient light already refracting in the wall of the blade, to create a perfect looking darksaber.
I wouldn't even know where to begin looking for that sort of chemical treatment, nor how to apply it to a polycarbonate film. Again, this is all highly speculative. I'd imagine if one of these were to be made for sale, it'd run pretty high in the cost ratio, but then again it would probably be classified as a special blade anyway.

ooh come to think of that, it would look amazing if one were using one of those multi-LED cores inside the blade for a phase blade. I know those potentially have more problems than ultrasabers, cause ultrasabers are kinda made simple so they're the most durable, but the idea itself would be remarkable for a show blade.

Short on time but wanted to post~ (so if something has already been said regaurding this sorry~)

From the pictures I've seen of a black lightsaber was dark on the inside emiting a white light...

It'd be troublesome to make but what if with an Adegen silver lightsaber and you have a blade with a 2nd layer on the inside that has a black coating... so when you see the saber it gives off the white light... but the core of it would be black.

Here you go. :]

A black light led module?  This soooooo needs to be made. I would love to see how the saber looks.  It would be kinda epic I think ;p

Guaranteed when I make one with a black light, I'm gonna post all sorts of pictures of it. I have a consular with quick disconnect on its way to my house so when I finally get a hold of a second LED module, my experiment begins.
 

http://youtu.be/YjFZ8-dJmdA (http://youtu.be/YjFZ8-dJmdA)

This guy did it...
But it looks like he just stuck a black pole or something in there.
Is it that simple?

Yes; that's what it looks like to me, as well.  He's got a white LED, and a blade made of polycarbonate, with a dark core.

Unfortunately, you can't emit black light.  You can have a black surface which emits white light, but the light is white, not black.

I think I'd much prefer the look of the look of the "TFU" Black Black blade over a blade that emits black light anyway.
I've seen the black blade done with other colors...
(Like below)
http://youtu.be/9NpSH0FwpvU (http://youtu.be/9NpSH0FwpvU)
But I think it looks best with white...

Something to note is Makoto's blades are LED string not the single LED that are more commonly used.

You could probably achieve somewhat of a black blade effect with different wraps and just experimenting with the blade itself but I think to get a good effect would take a significant amount of effort, and creative thinking. As of yet with all my forum lurking I have not found any major breakthroughs in creating a black blade but please don't let that stop you from trying if you come up with any ideas on how to do it.

I must say that I was very disappointed when I found out exactly how he got that effect. (By using electrical tape on one side)
I have a couple ideas, but no way to actually test it...

Oh no... not another "black lightsaber" thread...

As Jenny said, black light is impossible.  Having a black blade with a white aura would be impossible as well, unless you take a similar approach and put a black film over two sides.  What I'm trying to say is, a lightsaber blade is cylindrical, so the light shines out in all 360 degrees - to get white light despite a black muffling film you'd need to make it so the film is not black all the way around, so some light can escape to make the white aura.

In otherwords, as far as present science knows.... about the closest you can get to a black blade is either a black film with a whole lot of white holes/slots in it, or else just a grey or off white blade.

Like Nero said, there is no such thing as black light. It doesn't exist. As far as humanity knows, it can't exist. Not to be the party pooper, but unfortunately for all those people into black lightsabers out there.... it's just a videogame thing. Unless you want to paint a stick black and put it in your hilt, of course. ;)

Sorry, I'm kinda new here. But anyway, I'm not looking for an actual REAL Black light. That would be like saying I'm on an expedition to find Santa.
I'm just looking to imitate it..... with out electrical tape.

What I was thinking is some sort of black core or pole in the blade itself and have a white LED. The blade would have to be really reflective along the inside to keep the light in and yet be transparent enough so that we can see the black core. I don't really care how duel worthy this particular saber is, Just that it looks the part.

Is what I'm saying still impossible. I don't know really know anything about polycarbonate blades...

If I'm speaking madness, please let me know.

Honestly, I'd have to play around with it to find out. Your idea seems reasonable to me, though it might require multiple, smaller LEDs mounted off-axis to be most effective... so that the LEDs were shining up along the edges of the blade, instead of being shadowed by the center rod, if you take my point.  It might require some tinkering to get a nice look.

Rome wasn't built in a day...

I should think that if you put a black rod in the center of the blade, leaving space between it and the blade walls, then had a ring of white LEDs around the emitter spaced to shine up between the rod and the blade walls, that you could then get the effect you want. It would be tricky, as you'd have to have an entirely custom built emitter and blade and the saber would more than likely have to be around the 1.5" diameter range (think the Force FX saber hilts), but it seems like it would be possible. Only as a show blade though. You might be able to get it to hold up okay for some spins, but it'd never really be a fighting blade as I understand saber construction.

how about a painted piece of smaller pvc?

Try it.  Post pictures of your results.

if you stick a painted stick up a blade, it wont light anything up. the light needs to be able to shine up through the middle.  sorry guys, not gonna work that way

Thank you Night.

Summary of "black blades":  there is no "black light" so you can not have a three-dimensional "black LED lightsaber".  If there is light shining out you won't see the black...

I think in BloodMagus' defense, his idea falls under "Maybe, if you set the LEDs to shine up the edge, instead of the center," but... again... try it.  Post pics of your results.

Frankly, though, I suspect that a black blade is only possible through CGI / post-production rotoscoping.

Exactly.

Here's the science folks... black is the absence of light. Everything we see, all the colors, are just various temperatures of light. The reason we see things is because light is being reflected off of these objects at different amounts, thus creating a different color temperature that we see. Your brown shirt reflects less light than your white shirt. Therefore it appears darker because the dyes in the material do not reflect the light as well.

When you see an object that is black, it looks black because it is not allowing light to be reflected off of it. The less light being reflected, the darker the black will be. The more reflective it is, the lighter the black will be, approaching grey.

What does this mean for saber? Think about it, we're talking about LIGHTsabers. A saber with a blade of LIGHT. How can you have a blade of light the color of an absence of light? Answer: You can't.

Very well put Arakan, but I'm afraid your argument will be futile.  People tend to want black bladed lightsabers whether or not they're feasible...

Personally I blame Starkiller for this obsession.  I can't stay mad at him though, because those games are just too damn fun...

Sorry for the double post but I just looked at the video. Jenny is exactly right. He has a smaller black core inside the clear polycarbonate blade, and the white LED shines around the black core. Notice that no light emits from inside the black core. It's solid black on the inside, and the white light merely lights up around it.

Considering lightsaber colors all have one thing in common, a WHITE core that turns to a different color along the edges, his "black blade" is the complete opposite. Basically, in layman's terms... he cheated.

Have you guys seen black headlights on cars?  They are regular clear headlights covered in a smoke or black film or polycarbonate protector.  Basically it looks black from one side but lets light through.   You couid either make a blade out of the same polycarbonate they use for that stuff or cover a clear blade with the smoked film.  I'm guessing regular super black window tint would work as well, of course the light transmission would be decreased somewhat.

Try it.  Post pictures of your results.

There's one BIG difference though. With a car headlight the light is shining in ONE DIRECTION. So you can adjust the opacity of the sides of the light cover to keep it black, since the light itself is only being seen from the front.

When you talk about a light saber blade you need the light to come out in ALL DIRECTIONS. 360 degrees around the blade. You can't adjust the opacity of the edges because there are no "edges" per se.

Stand in front of one of those cars with the headlights on and tell me if you see black.

Man. Seriously?

Well, you're welcome to try, but, believe it or not, this isn't the first thread on the internet discussing black light sabers. BEFORE YOU TRY ANYTHING: Do extensive searches because I can almost guarantee someone's done it before. Wait, that's not accurate. I can almost guarantee that someone has thought of it before and that idea has either been shot into the ground and hacked to pieces before coming to their senses, or, perhaps, done it before with poor / limited results and little if any success.

On any lightsaber forum this is basically the cliche' that will get you the least accommodation and illicit the least amount patience from users.

EDIT: Also, you've stumbled upon perhaps the only saber community that would not have, by now, sent out hit squads to kill your pets for even bringing it up. Consider yourself lucky!  ;)

Try it.  Post pictures of your results. 8)

Heh.  ;)

D'OH! You're right!  When lit it only looks black from the sides but the light going to the front still looks white. Sigh, posting at 2am after a few drinks  :-X

Dudes!  I totally figured out how to make a black blade!  You use carbon-based buckyballs in an adhesive matrix to make the rod, which makes it black.  Then you dope the surface with quantum dots tuned to emit white light.  The dots self-illuminate the black surface and give off a white glow!  Of course, you'll need nano-tube wiring to provide power to the quantum dots.  But that's a detail.  Also?  It would cost upwards of U$10k.  But again... it's a detail!  For a true black-blade enthusiast details are irrelevant, right?

Not sure if that's possible, or just technobabble, but either way proves the point on just how impossible this is.
On another note- there's some discussion on insering a black core that light shines around. Regardless if that works or not, would it be possible to have a similar system for normal blades? I mean, currently blades are just a solid color all the way through. In the movies theyre white with the color radiating around it. Could this be achieved by having a blade within a blade, so to speak? Have the smaller blade fitted inside the larger one so there is some space between them, and have a white led illuminate the inner blade while a ring of colored leds illuminates the outer one? I'd imagine that the white light could be bright enough to shine through the colored light, but you could still see the color along the edges where there is no white light shining through. Thoughts?

Quantum dots are nanoscale conductors that capture light and turn it into energy. Good joke, though ;)

While I'm on the side of "no such thing as a black blade", if I were asked to come up with my take on the idea, I'd consider filling a blade with black paint, either pouring or spraying-probably try spraying 1st. Then rig some kinda wire thing on the end of a thin, long dowel and scrape away the paint with the hopes to get some kind of random crackling look similar to electrical arcs. Then using the aforementioned idea of letting the light shine up through the walls of the blade, along with the light that shines through the scraped paint might make an intersting look,... or it may look like shelle. But that's probably how I'd make an attempt at it, if someone asked me to do it and after I explained the concept of a lightsaber.  :P

I thought a black bladed lightsaber would be cool WAY before any video game showed me one. The concept is cool but it is a practical impossibility as is an actual lightsaber. (sorry to dash all of our dreams folks, but that's why we have the good people at US to help us live our fantasy)

Since people's dreams haven't been dashed by all the other people saying that same thing, I doubt you're crushing anybody ;)

A review of the literature* indicates that Quantum Dots can also emit light. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_dots#Light_emitting_devices)

*for admittedly small values of 'literature.'

Black is not a "light"

Black is a lack of light. That's why there are "black holes" because the gravity is so strong nothing can escape, not even light... thus it's a black hole.

*sigh*

It really never ends, does it?
 ::)

She's not saying that black is light. We are speaking of quantum dots ::)

Anyways.... quantum dots DO glow, but I'm not sure you want the future of solar energy sprayed on your blade ;)

just spitballing here but what if you took the film out of your non-ultraedge blade and the put it on a white led? I'll try it when i get home from work with some of the spare tubing lying around but that should give the illusion on film...

I've done it.. I know how to make a black core with a red glow blade.
















































(http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q214/Osmethae/2012-02-2800-15-49808.jpg)

Yay! You tried it and posted a pic of your results!  Well done!  :D

Took me years of complete concentration and.. magic

Heh. Nice one dude.  :D

Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods With a Thousand Young, is always willing to help out with sabers ;)

SO going through the tech thread looking for some Soundboard advice i came across this... It seems not many people have experimented with this... I have been giving this some serious thought... The only way i can see doing anything like this would be a black cello wrap... just over a full wrap of clear cello... White LEDs will usually transmit SOME ambient light up the blade wall... if you werent worried about the overall unlit look you chould wrap some black under the celar cello so your fiffuser would pick up the look... Ill be looking into this later this week and let you know what i find... right now... I need to figure out why my Sound board keeps shutting off and getting hot in one spot...

Hey Elloel! Welcome to the forum! if you do figure out anything cool with your idea let us know, you may become a hero. :) I noticed that you still need to post in the rules thread. Be sure to read through those rules and post that you understand what the expectations are. I hope you have a great time here in the forums and good luck figuring out that soundboard issue.

looks to me like a strip of electrical tape over one side :-\

I know I'm just perpetuating a myth here, but I had an idea and ran with it the other day.

This was the result:
(http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/6508/blackcoregreen.jpg)

id like to see a vid of black blade results its very easy to photoshop a pic

i dunno, the black blade thing to me, it just doesnt seem right


i really am having trouble understanding the appeal behind it

To each his own, but I think you're the first person I've seen who doesn't think it would be awesome :D

Strange User, I thought we met before you and Vel did.... lol

But yeah, until I see a video or the thing done in person, I won't believe anyone's pulled it off.

Yea, black core sabers don't interest me. They annoy me.

Because it is TEH KEWL!!!  ::)

I personally don't care for it because, according to basic color physics, a LIGHTsaber cannot be black because according to basic color theory for light, black is defined as the total absence of light and color. Given that a lightsaber has always been shown to emit light (evidenced by the surrounding objects reflecting that light), then a black lightsaber cannot exist, especially not in the form that it shows in SW (black blade with a halo of light), because an object that is black can't emit light from the surface.

Wait, you don't want one either? I don't remember reading that before. In that case, you were definitely the first :D


In every black lightsaber thread, at least one person has to bring that up ;)

There's generally a reason for that...

There is no reason to bring logic into a discussion ;) It never stops people from trying and hoping anyways, and soon after one thread dies another will be made. So I've stopped using logic.

Hell, the only reason I liked the concept was because black and green is my favorite color combination. <_<

Side note: camera effects are fun to play with.

I have seen a video of it.  hold on a moment and I will find it.

found it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPqGZHLIeuI# (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPqGZHLIeuI#)

Yeah, I was thinking that if you get any Heavy grade blade, and find a way to paint the inside black, then only the outer walls of it will light up with color. Sorry if this was posted before, I don't have time at the moment to read all the way through this one, but I think it's doable.

The video guy has a nice thing, but it's not a true black saber blade. As mentioned before, physics denies the actual existence of a literal black blade, but a black core is the generally accepted goal for a black saber. He didn't really achieve that. I like his saber though. lol

Oh for the love of Yoda, don't tell me this conversation has resumed...


Thank you.  I tire of posting this little nugget of logic every time somebody brings black lightsabers up.

I should get Ultra to make a rule against such discussions...

...please do lol

I wouldn't mind it, though I think it's a little extreme. Certainly, too darned many threads about it keep cropping up. Awhile back there were 3 going at once! :P Though if I ever complete my experiment, I'd love to post a video for the sake of sharing the irony. I mean, a guy who hates black blades.... inventing one that's duelable? You know it's funny. ;)

Yeah I know that the guy in the video i posted didnt have it perfect but that video was made 2 years ago so its probably gotten better

Not to disagree, but, well, yes. I disagree. Given his approach and the technology involved... I doubt his approach could result in anything much better.

All future discussion of a black lightsaber blade should be posted here.  :) http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=8539.0 (http://www.saberforum.com/index.php?topic=8539.0)