Luke Skywalker's Light Sabres

Episode IV: A New Hope

Initially I had my reservations about building the Graflex based sabre, but I figured no sabre collection would be complete without one.

I fabricated this as cheaply as possible using 1" PVC pipe (giving it an inaccurate 1 1/4" diameter). The grips are auto body molding. The clamp was made before I started making aluminum clamps, so it's just a thin plastic tube cut open to accept Plastruct square tube capped with an "I-beam", and dressed with chrome mylar tape, 7mm clear acrylic crystals, and part of a wall anchor assembly for the lever. The red button assembly is a knob from a halogen torchiere, the "glass eye" is a plastic electrical grommet, and the "ears" are just bent and shaped aluminum. Rather than add a D-ring, I opted for a prequel style cell phone clip for belt attachment.

An ANH/ESB Hybrid?

Here's my friend Stan holding his REAL Graflex based replica lightsaber. It was made for him in the early 90's before the whole replica craze really kicked in. A few details aren't 100%, but surisingly close. The grips are hard plastic instead of rubber and riveted in place instead of screwed, the D-ring is attached with some sort of metal bar rather than an actual Linhoff part, and it retains the glass eye rather than a second red button assembly.

And here's my version...

Eventually I had to do it. After cutting my teeth on a few too many versions of the Anakin ROTS, I decided to build a Graflex style saber again. The main tube is actually 1 3/8" vs. 1 1/2", but it's not that noticable. I used the usual auto body molding for the grips. The clamp is handmade, but not by me. I got it in trade with a geniune Graflex bulb release. I have a real calc bubble strip, but it has too many bubbles and it wouldn't fit in the clamp anyway, so I used an edge connector from an old Nintendo catridge. The "glass eye" is some sort of faucet adaptor, with a modified finish washer and the lense from a dollar store 35mm camera.

"Return of the Jedi" v2

Initially it was thought that the sabre marketed by Master Replicas as Luke's ROTJ design was the hero. As it turns out, it was only used in one or two shots. What was later discovered and dubbed the "version 2" was actually used for much of the film. It was actually a well worn stunt version of Obi Wan Kenobi's sabre from ANH with it's blade removed.

I still need to finish the clamp/activation box assembly, but the sabre is essentially 90% done at this point. It's NOT strictly accurate. I took some artistic license and in some cases, by necessity, deviated from the actual sabre. The emitter, for instance, is an Obi wan ANH "hero" type emitter rather than the "nipple" type with the provision for mounting a blade. As this is a display only piece, I figured that would look better. Then, the neck is too short. The whole emitter/neck assembly excepting the "windvane" was from an Obi ANH project and already that length (part of the reason it was rejected). To make up for that, I made the forward grip a bit longer, adding two extra rings. The clamp assembly is just about right, but the rear grip is too short, and the pommel is a
bit too close to it.

The completed sabre...

I decided to completely revamp the sabre for more accuracy. The pommel and rear grip are unchanged, but the clamp is now fabricated from aluminum flashing, the forward grip has been reduced to the correct number of rings, the neck is longer, and the emitter is now the correct "nipple" type.