Friends, we know and love the Flamberge sabers.
They answered an urge in many of us, born when we first saw a crossguard saber ignite on screen, for a teaser trailer.
Ultrasabers worked diligently, and came up with a saber that was practical as an LED lit crossguard. But, some have said it's too long...and it is significantly longer than the Ren saber.
It's also heavy, and Ren fights with a mix of one and two handed moves, which can be hard to pull off and not look slow and cumbersome.
That said, I do love my Flamberge, and it's hugeness lends itself very well to some of my favorite greatsword fighting.
But, still...people asked for a shorter one. And, I thought a couple of inches might be able to be removed, but didn't think much more on it. Until I was looking over my spare saber parts, and inspiration struck.
I am very happy to announce the completion of Project: Hauke.
Hauke is just under 11.5 inches, from the face of the main blade emitter to the end of the pommel.
For contrast, my Flamberge V2 is just under 15 inches, making Hauke a full 3.5 inches shorter, which is more than I thought I could shed...but then I had to do some bubbaredneckery type machining to make it work.
See, the Arbiter's MLS unit sits in the neck, not the hilt itself, so there wasn't a spot for the main blade LED to sit. I thought about making a sleeve that I could epoxy in, but then another of those inspirational flashes hit. It took "machining" a socket for the MLS unit to sit in, using a drill press, pliers to hold the main crossguard mounting nut, and a step drill, but...
Boom. The MLS unit just drops perfectly into place. But, oh no! How will the wires for the side emitter LEDs get down to the electronics package?
That's where a needle file comes into play. I cut slots for each wire, and filed a shallow channel in the side of the MLS housing (there's also a bit of a gap between the side of the housing and the inside surface of the crossguard mounting nut). It was going to take some finessing to get everything into place, but I felt that this would work. Interestingly enough, this arrangement means the LED sits a couple inches higher, meaning a 36" blade is only about two inches shorter, from the emitter face, compared to my Flamberge's 40" blade.
This was going to be tight, there's not a lot of room, as you can see when I hold the battery/speaker unit next to it, at the depth it would sit while in use.
First step, label everything.
Okay...ummm...I think everything's hooked up right. Okay, it wasn't. One of the solder sleeves (negative wire going to the side LEDs) didn't take on two wires, so I discarded that, and just straight up soldered them and heat shrunk the lot.
By the way, props to folks who gave me a hand with this. When JediXIX posted a picture of his disassembled Renegade LE, for the first time, I noticed something that I hadn't seen before in the wiring. Thank goodness he posted those, or I'd have had a failed project and/or fried LEDs. He was kind enough to open up the splice points and let me know what value of resistor I needed, because on the crossguard sabers, the Buckpuck supplies only the main blade. The other two are fed from main power, from the sound board and through resistors. So, big big points to him for making this possible, among other unnamed people.
Holy smokes, it works! I had a moment's panic when the button didn't fire it up right away, and wouldn't you know it, when I picked up the LEDs and was looking directly at them as I pushed the button again, this very dark side saber fired right up to VERY bright life.
Now...uh....how do I get those MLS units up through the neck?
Oh, that's right, I planned for that.
After I seated the main blade MLS unit, routing the side wires, I slipped the crossguard main assembly over everything, with the side blade LEDs temporarily out the main blade's hole, secured the crossguard, then just installed the LED housings, and now...IT LIVES!
So, what we've got here is a Flamberge V2 crossguard (with modified main nut), mated to the main body of a Dark Arbiter, capped off with a Renegade LE pommel. I also have spare Flamberge V2 pommels I can use, but to be honest the aesthetics of the Renegade LE small pommel on this is just superb. Oh, and Obsidian V4 sound, because it's awesome.
Hopefully I can do a video soon, with this and maybe some other recent DIY stuff.
Oh, one more thing. Why "Hauke"?
There aren't many written sources from England on longsword technique, but the few that exist (and are fairly cryptic, although Brandon P. Heslop and Benjamin B. Bradak have done some interesting work with them) prominently mention a particular kind of sword stroke called a "Hauke".
