Hi, new forum member. This is my first substantial post
With the release of The Force Awakens in December, I decided to buy a saber, being a Star Wars fan. I received my saber in February, as well as an email inviting me to post a review, which I've been meaning to do, but I've been too busy until now...
Anyway, when I decided to get a saber, I wanted one which I could duel with. I did some research into the various businesses selling sabers, and settled on Ultrasabers, for a number of reasons including:
- they seem to have a reputation for building sabers which can withstand some duelling;
- they have hilts with a balance between aesthetics and functionality. Other businesses might offer hilts that look flashier, but they didn't look to me like they'd be comfortable to hold and swing;
- Ultrasabers offers a lot of options when ordering your saber.
I ordered my saber, a Prophecy v3 with Obsidian Premium Sound in mid January 2016. The website stated that I might have to wait for 2-4 weeks for fabrication and then an additional week for FedEx shipping to Australia. I was pleasantly surprised to receive my order in Australia within a fortnight. Ordering from overseas, I had to provide proof of identity because some details of my credit card were not verified, but Emory handled this issue quickly and professionally. Taking into account the delay for this additional verification for my first order, the fabrication of the saber took only a few days. Everything arrived at the opposite end of the world in fine condition, well packed.
As mentioned, I wanted a saber I could use for duelling, so after more research I settled on the Prophecy v3 - a hilt which I liked the look of, but which I also hoped would be comfortable to hold and swing, including with two hands. When I normally hold a sword, it is two handed, with the left hand at the base of the hilt and the right hand closer to the blade. This is something I mentioned to Ultrasabers when placing my order, and they made sure that the Covertec wheel is on the opposite side of the hilt so that it doesn't get in the way when I have my left hand at the base of the hilt. Since I have my left hand at the base of the hilt, I didn't want any large pommel and so stuck with the recommended regular vented pommel.
One thing I did notice, however, was that because part of my left hand is resting on the pommel, which screws in to the base of the hilt, sometimes when I swing the saber repeatedly, (perhaps with a more wristy action), I find my hand is unintentionally unscrewing the pommel. So I need to either check the pommel from time to time, or move my left hand slightly higher up the hilt. Similarly, I found that after repeated swinging/twirling of the saber, sometimes the retention screws can get a bit loose, so I need to tighten them.
The grooves at the base of hilt add to the aesthetics, but I found on occasion that if I was gripping the hilt too tightly when swinging it (a bad habit of mine, since my hands should be looser), then the edges of the groves can start to feel a bit uncomfortable because they're effectively metal corners pressing into flesh. Something I plan for the long term is to customise the look of the saber, eg add a bit of leather or there, so wrapping leather around the grooved base is certainly something I'll consider.
Other than these two issues, which I consider minor, I find the Prophecy v3 a good length and thickness to hold in my two hands comfortably, and I'm very happy with my purchase
When ordering the saber, I was undecided about which sound option to go with, but am happy I picked the Obsidian V4 sound, since I've got a number of soundfonts on the saber which I can change with the push of a button. I haven't tried to add to or modify the soundfonts yet. Trying to pull out the USB from the base of the hilt looks a bit tricky, since it looks like it's quite snugly packed into the hilt - but I can understand that you wouldn't want those parts moving around when swinging the saber.
For a similar reason, I found the recharge port a great investment, even though it adds substantially to the cost of the saber, because it makes it easy to recharge the saber without having to pull out the battery from the hilt. One nitpick however: when I placed my order, I chose the option for a VP1 charger. What I received was VP2Plus Master charger. Presumably they'd run out of the VP1 charger. It's not an issue to me, even if there's a few dollars difference in the price of the two chargers. It just would've been nice to receive advance notice from Ultrasabers that they proposed to change the charger. I would've said that was fine. (On the other hand, emailing me about the issue might have delayed completion of my saber by a day or two.)
I'm not planning to upload a Youtube clip about the saber at present, but I might in future if there's something a bit different that I can show
This review turned out longer than I anticipated when I first started typing...
