O.C, CA Lightsaber Training Class - Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon

Acrylic blades are NOT meant for dueling. They are for daytime shows and such to catch the light (especially the flourescent ones) and look cool. By the nature of the material it will shatter on impact.

Polycarbonate is the way to go, I personally am not a huge fan of the dowel rod inside as they do not flex with the tube and will break. As such you will need to replace the dowel rods more often than I am happy with. What I'm considering is a carbon fiber rod from Randomsabers fitted inside one of the standard polycarb. tubes. This will give me the OD I want as well as enabling me to color the blade without worrying about paint or tape coming off in combat. We'll see what comes of it!

JediBaja, go for the practice hilt if you wish, however I would reccomend putting some sort of a grip on it for better hand control.

 

Smudge is right. Acrylic blades are only for show. DO NOT use them for sparring. They WILL break. While it is true that the dowel rods crack, they do not break and can still be used as they are incased in carbonite...oops....I meant polycarbonate tubes. This also means you can use them in the thinner 3/4 inch walled blades that we no longer use to spar. The heaver 1/8 inch walled blades are thick enough to only need a tube of reflective material inside. If you want to get a carbon fiber blade then go for it. Like Smudge said, you would need to get a better grip for it.

 

I'm going to start fighting with my LED saber with the 1" blades, now that I have some new tubes to make more blades.

I'll be making a colored insert for it tonight or tomorrow morning to bring with me to class tomorrow. Still haven't found what I really want to use inside, so this will probably be temporary.

 

hey... you know how i said i was going to come back? well,i had to take my grandma to her city council meetings on weds. nights and just as that was over... i was running and i tripped and i fell. i slipped in a doorway and on my way down, i kicked the door frame. and i'm not talking about some cheesy luke farmboy kick, i'm talking darth maul kicks obi-wan kick. and was stuck on the floor for 15 minutes before i could get up and i hit my head to boot. i thought i had broke my leg, but i hadn't thank the gods. and i was alone, so i was freaking out becuase i didn't want to call an ambulance... but i messed up the tendons in the front of my shin and bruised the bone, making up and down movement really painful. i was told to stay off my leg and not to drive.... c'mon? no driving? *sigh* you know me and my race cars. so i want to go to class this week, just to hang out if driving is feasible.... this is no way to start the summer. i hope everyone is well...
x,
lisa

 

Wow! that sucks, but I am glad to hear that there was no permanent damage. By all means come and hang out as soon as you're able. We all miss you! In any case, get better soon!

 

So i've been toatally swamped with school, and real life...
I presume there is no class next Sunday due to Disneyland...

I'll see if I can make it on Wed...

 

That is a correct assumption about next Sunday, no class because of Disneyland.

 

That is correct. There will be no class for the next two weeks. Reason: Disneyland and then the 4th of July weekend. I will be out of town for that.

 

Just stopped in to say that it was great to see ya'll again yesterday. Was awesome to see Matt and Rob show up as well. Hope to make it more often now that things are lightening up over the summer. Might even squeeze in a few wed. nights here and there.

 

Class was unexpectedly good on Sunday. I thought it would only be Lori and myself, but Shandon and his wife showed up as well as Matt and Rob. This made it a much more exciting class. It was good to spar with Rob again, he is an excellent swordsman and really puts me through my paces. I actually managed a kill or two on him. Of course, he kills me most of the time anyway. Matt is still improving and Shandon despite not being there in a while, is going great as well. I showed his wife a few tips too, so she can practice with him between classes. Lori of course is doing better each time we fight, despite being slightly injured accidentally in fall this week. She brought her new LED saber to class and we had some fun fighting with and against it. Rob and Shandon seemed to like the heavier blade more than I do.

 

I think much can be said about that polycarb. tubing Don. I mean, you said you have been using it for two years and it was the wooden dowel protected inside that broke and not the tube. Isn't that the smaller 3/4" tube? Most impressive.

 

Yes, Shandon and that was the thinner walled version that we no longer use with EL. The heavier 1/8 inch walled can be used without the wooden dowel even. Smudge uses that for his practice blade with only blade film inside it.

 

The thicker tube in Lori's saber made it unbalanced and very heavy. I would like to see a lighter tube to see if it could hold up in a battle. We have made much progress since the first sabers that whipped each other.
Lori, you should try to make it a Wed night class just for fun.

 

Want to get back down for saber practice. Course, the carwreck did play a bit of havoc with my knee, so it might be jeessstttt a leettttle bit longer before I can get back into it again. (I did the misspellings just for you, Lori! )

At least will see most of you at Disneyland this weekend...

(I really need this! LOL)

 

Yeah, well Rob, if I didn't WORK nights, I would be at the Wednesday night classes.

 

I know, sorry that you can't make it
We could use another Jedi on the battle field

 

Excuses, excuses. (just kidding)

 

I am going wednesday and Phil will bring me some stuff.

 

There will still be a class this sunday before the meeting. A short class, but still a class. If anyone wants to come. We can caravan from there to the meeting.

 

what time is the class on sunday?

 

Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. If it's the regular time of 2:00, then it really will be a short class, 30-45 min..

 

I could start at 1pm if there is an interest in doing that.

 

On a more interesting note:

I spent a couple of hours with our Brothers of the Blade in Bakersfield on the 3rd of July. PASTORJEDI and his two students were glad to see me again. We had met the previous year when I was there. This time, I brought my EL lightsaber and shinai for demonstrations. They were using nicely made homemade hilts with golf club shafts for blades. Interesting and functional. They also had a couple of MR sabers as well. I talked quite a bit about the different types of electronic lightsabers and spent some time showing them how our class works. These guys were good, having done much coreography for thier fanfilm. I will try and get a copy of it to show at our meeting. Overall a good time was had by all and I'm sure we will get together again next time I am up there.

 

Please post here if you are planning to be at the class before the meeting. If no one posts that they are coming then class will be cancelled and will continue next Sunday.

 

I'll come, I just need to know exactly what time we're starting