Sabers for Kids

[zao nephalem]

I'm a dad. I want to get sabers to do actual fighting and 'games' with in the back yard for my grade school kids, and one for myself, ... a little nicer. I'm looking for guidance - assume I know nothing.

As it is children, what is the smallest hilt?

They need nothing fancy, but I do want sound on theirs as well. Recommendations?

Blades - what type? Kid full force isn't adult full force.

Mine: I think I want a basic black hilt (any will do), ultra edge blade, obsidian sound (is that the best?), triple light setup, with a port for recharging. Am I missing anything for my build-out? Are there other things to consider?

Thank you in advance for the help!

[Racona Nova]

Hi, nice to have you here

I'd recommend the Initiate v3/Apprentice v4 lineup for children as those are the smallest hilts available that can be equipped with an Obsidian sound board. You might want to consider the v4 as this has several fonts pre-loaded, including a Silent font which quickly mutes the saber!

Blades...children can be quite powerful, so you should have a look at Initiate-sized (24") Heavy Grade blades. Mid Grades are suitable, too, but can't hold up to heavy and intense fighting. They will bend easily if regularly used in heavy fighting. Heavy Grades are much more durable. Note that there are normal (silvery) blades and UltraEdge (white) blades, it depends on the actual blade colour which type of blade is more suitable.

As for you, you may want to have a look at the Dominix (or Dominix LE), Sentinel (or Sentinel LE), Dark Menace, Dark Shock (or Dark Shock LE), Dark Prophecy and Dark Liberator. They're very comfortable, easy to handle and look excellent in almost every colour (which one do you prefer?). And they can be equipped with the Obsidian sound board, of course!

For recharging, I recommend getting the 2.0 A Fast charger as well as a spare set of batteries (at least one spare set for each saber) with the XTAR VC2 Plus cradle charger or - if you have more than 2 batteries to charge - theXTAR VP4 which can charge 4 cells at once (check out the XTAR homepage for more information: www.xtar.cc). I bought it and I'm extremely happy with it! You can get it from Amazon for example, Ultrasabers doesn't offer that model.

The Li-Ion setup uses two 14500-sized 3.7V PCB-protected batteries, so you need batteries with that specifications - best option is getting them directly from Ultrasabers as those will guarantee full compatibility. You can't be sure to get the right ones when ordering them at Amazon, Ebay or similar...

[Felinus]

I'm a dad. I want to get sabers to do actual fighting and 'games' with in the back yard for my grade school kids, and one for myself, ... a little nicer. I'm looking for guidance - assume I know nothing.

As it is children, what is the smallest hilt?

They need nothing fancy, but I do want sound on theirs as well. Recommendations?

Blades - what type? Kid full force isn't adult full force.

Mine: I think I want a basic black hilt (any will do), ultra edge blade, obsidian sound (is that the best?), triple light setup, with a port for recharging. Am I missing anything for my build-out? Are there other things to consider?

Thank you in advance for the help!

If you're looking for the best sound board, go with the  Diamond. It's new as of March 2017, so if you read these forums you won't see as much about them, simply because it hasn't been around for long, and there isn't as big of a user base. But, just watch the videos about the Diamond board. The actual sound coming out of it is the same as Obsidian, but you get a lot more options for how you can customize light + sound effects.

Charge port is a great idea. It's expensive, but in my opinion the biggest advantage is just long-term reliability. If you have to unscrew the pommel & pull out the board every time you recharge batteries, you'll be doing that hundreds of times over the life of the saber. This means bending wires... and bending wires eventually break. I have to pull out the board to reconfigure it via my PC, and I'm trying to keep that at a minimum... I'm so glad I got a recharge port.

[skribs]

Regarding Setups:

If you want the triple-LED setup for the brightness of the lights, get a Tri-Cree LED with the Obsidian Sound Board.

If you want the triple-LED setup for the customization options, the Diamond is a good choice, but beware the software isn't super user-friendly right now (there are suggestions on the Obsidian forum that would make it a lot easier to configure).

Regarding Blades:

As to kids...keep in mind that what they lack in strength, they more than make up for in lack of control.  I'd personally get a heavy grade blade, unless your goal is to use these on bright sunny days.

Regarding Hilts

I'm going to echo pretty much everything Racona Nova said.  The Initiate/Apprentice for the kids or one of the simpler larger sabers for you would be great.  I'm going to add Lost Gray to the list, it looks beautiful and is pretty smooth.  Ultrasabers has specifications for a lot of their sabers, so you can look up the different sabers and see their size.

Regarding Batteries

I would get the recharge port for the sabers with the fast charger, in addition to getting spare batteries and the external charger to charge the batteries.  My experience with the batteries has been as such:
1. The batteries lose charge over time, whether or not they're in the saber (and they lose charge faster in the saber, even if it's off), so you want to have 1 charger per saber
2. Sometimes a saber will drain faster than usual, so sometimes you get where you're going and you're expecting the sabers to last for 70-80 minutes, and one only lasts 20 minutes, so you want spare batteries that are charged

I hope this helps.

[Galactic Overlord]

I do not recommend the heavy blades for children because:

#1. They are much heavier and more difficult to wield, especially for someone lacking adult strength and coordination

#2. The increase in sturdiness is matched by the increase in destructive force. The regular blades have some give, they flex on impact, but the heavies do not.

I'd also recommend 24" blades for children, and only 32" for larger, older children. The longer the blade, the less control they will have.

Finally, I recommend that you do not get a feature on your personal saber that your children's sabers do not have, because then they will want one that does what only yours can do. Ask me how I know.

[zao nephalem]

Good thinking.... but I'm going to risk it....

theirs, I'm thinking....


Item Name:   Dark Initiate LE v3 - Express Options
Item Price:   Not much....
Options:
Choose Your Setup:STUNT SETUP
Express Blade LED Color Options:Consular Green



Item Name:   Dark Sentinel v4 with Obsidian Premium Sound
Item Price:   a bit.....
Options:
Blade LED Color:Blazing Red
Flash on Clash:Flash Violet Amethyst
Battery Configuration:Li-Ion Setup with BuckPuck (Batteries & XTAR VC2 Plus Charger Included)
Recharge Port:Recharge Port + 1.2A Fast Charger
Blade Length:36" Standard Size
Blade Option:UltraEdge Heavy Grade
Windows:Yes Include Windows in Emitter
Pommel:Regular Vented Pommel (hole in bottom) [Recommended
Sound:Obsidian USB V4 Sound! [V4
Switch Type:Red Illuminated Black AV Switch
Blade Tip:Round Tip
Include Retention Screw Wrench:No Thanks
Include Blade Plug:No Thanks
Include Saber Stand:No Thanks
Include MINI USB Cable:Yes
Include Covertec Clip:No Thanks
Install Covertec Wheel:No Thanks


Thoughts? Am I going overboard for my first one?

[hazard502]

I haven't read through much of this topic but ... for blade type against kids 12yrs and younger I'd stick with regular grade.

Heavy grade with light swings can pull serious damage on hands, fingers and limbs in general. Medium grade is plenty strong enough to defend from blows coming from kids in this age range.

Just my 2 cents.

My son is 9 and very strong and skilled, we've hurt each other plenty of times with med grade blades 

[Galactic Overlord]

I would avoid using the express options, as I think it can change the price for the same saber sometimes, not sure.

I advocate either going cheap (low end hilt with regular batteries and one of the basic colors) or go big. Whatever you decide, you'll probably want to order them before the current promotion ends.

Sending hilts back for upgrades is not cost effective. If you want upgrades later, you're really better off just buying a new saber.

Looking back, I'd recommend buying from one of these "tiers":

1. cheap basic stunt

2. obsidian v4 with either FoC or Tri-Cree

3. emerald with obsidian v4

4. diamond

The problem is, what is important or unimportant varies from person to person, and even over time to the same person. Given the other options you've chosen for your proposed Sentinel, I'd recommend going ahead and making it an emerald with obsidian v4 or even a diamond; their FoC is MUCH nicer looking than the FoC without the emerald or diamond. The diamond has a lot of extra features for a little more cost, but it is a lot more complicated to use/change the settings.

[JdiKnhtJMH]

Definitely go with rechargable batteries whatever you get, that'll save you a ton of money down the road as long as no one loses them or worse yet puts them in the remote control or something.

[MavRick]

 Here is something to consider, all of the sabers you have chosen comes with a large hole in the pommel for the sound. In my experience this leaves the speaker open to damage and children have a tendency to put their fingers in the hole! I would suggest getting different pommels so this doesn't happen. It will add to the cost but it is worth the money to have the speaker protected IMO.  IT may just be me being paranoid but I do not like the large in the pommels. MTFBWY!

[Racona Nova]

^ I second that. A good alternative is the Catalyst pommel (Dark Catalyst pommel for the Dark Sentinel), it doesn't add much length, but protects the speaker much better than the standard "hole in bottom" does!

[Zren Tobas]

Nice. Or at least a Consular pommel for the Dark Sentinel would be cool and be a good look actually and would make a better hand stopper pommel