Durilium, high-tensile steel

Hey everyone,
I knew I had read what Nick Gillard and the prop guys used as their blades for the lightsabers we see in Episode II! It was in the June 2002 Empire Magazine (The Uk's No.1 film magazine) that I read a quote from Nick Gillard of what they used as their blades. Turns out I was right that they used material that no one can find, unless your lucky. That's why I'm writing. I'm hoping to be lucky enough to find someone out there, who may know where to get Durilium high-tensile steel. Gillard quotes, "which are made of Durilium, the high-tensile steel used in aviation." Now, I don't know how easy it is to find something used in aviation, but if anyone, and I mean ANYONE knows of this specific material, please let us all know. Thank you all for your time.

 

It's used in T-fal irons. Hehe.

 

Yeah, I saw that too. I'm just wondering if they make this somewhere, or is it just solely for aviation and irons?

 

Aviation?

Have you tried soem aircraft builders?

 

Well, alluminum is used for aircrafts too. Are you sure it isn't a fancy name for that?

 

You know what? All of you could be right. Durilium could truly be a cool name for just another metal material, but I think that if it's being used for aviation and specifically just for certain irons, we were meant not to get it. The name just sounds very protective to me though. So that we Lightsaber weilding fan's can't get a hold of it, or something. I don't know, but hope to find out with all your help. Thanks for writing.

 

Well I looked all over the net, and so far it has only shown up in RPG games and an Episode of Dr. Who.

 

Thank you so much Jedi of Corellia. I hope to find more of this mysterious material. Until then, thanks again. I'll probably write shortly.

 

You're welcome

 

Durilium is used in jewelry and as soleplates on soem steam irons. I couldn't find anything on it at dictionary.com or encyclopedia.com. I did find a few references to Dr Who and most of the steam irons were on a bunch of German sites.

 

Okay the deal as I see it is this. First off, Nick is full of crap because while durilium does exist, it is not any kind of real-world metal, at least, not yet. That kind of durilium is still a fantasy metal that has not yet been created.

There is a product called Durilium however. It's the name for a type of ceramic alloy like they use for those really expensive knives made by Kyocera. The creation process of Kyocera's particular type of ceramics is patented, so no one can duplicate it the same way Kyocera does, thus Durilium!

Durilium is a variant process for making ceramic material like theirs that they don't have a patent for. Ceramic material is tough. It's almost as hard as diamond, but it it will chip and break if you used it to duel because it has extremely limited mallability. It's also expensive as ****! I'd say a 36' blade at let's say 1/2" thick would be at least $1000 because it would be a totally custom job and ceramic is hard to make and requires really high tech (patented) facilities and extreme quality control.

In other words, LFL might be able to afford this stuff, but you and I couldn't. Given that Nick thinks it's steel though, I highly doubt it's what they used and I also highly doubt they are using much ceramics in airplanes due to cost. My guess is that it is still aluminum or maybe even steel or titanium.

 

Update: It does appear there are variants of ceramic materials that use aluminum alloys for personal armor, but nothing for steel. This makes sense because the aluminum blend would help the ceramic plates bend so that they could absorb a blow without breaking your bones. This stuff is bone white though, so the aluminum content is very low. Also this variant ceramic is actually used in some aircraft because it is light and saves fuel and it is cheaper than pure ceramic material.

My guess is that if anything like what he is talking about was used, this would be the stuff, and it would have still cost a pretty penney. If I bought something like this I'd never use it because it's still gonna be expensive and you have to get it custom made somewhere, but that's up to you. Good luck!

 

Great research Jar Jar!!! Wow, that does make sense and explains why none of us have acutally used the material they used in the movies. Or, have we? I think that what everyone has done to make their own blades is, just that, their own unique way. If it works for you, just use it. We can be better prop makers and better money savers than them! We are powerfull!!! Although, I wouldn't mind owning one of those prop blades. Anyway, thank you everone for writing and answering my questions. Until my next topic, "May the Force be with you," as you make your lightsaber blades count for you and only you.

 

Here's a term, spelled similarly, that Nick could have confused:

Duralumin
The trade name applied to the first aluminum-copper-magnesium type of age-hardenable alloy (17S), which contains nominally 4% Cu, 1/2% Mg. The term is sometimes used to include the class of wrought aluminum-copper-magnesium alloys that harden during aging at room temperature.

Duralumin (obsolete)
A term formerly applied to the class of age-hardenable aluminum-copper alloys containing manganese, magnesium, or silicon.

 

You know what? From everything I've heard, I do believe there is a durilium out there some where. As far as wether or not it is Duralumin, or durilium, I don't know. The similarity of these two and of the fact that it they both are metal explains to us that they did use metal for their blades. Now, how cheap they were, or how rare they are is unbeknownst to me. Yet, I believe we'll find out here soon enough. With all the research you and I find, the answer is bound to come out. Thanks everyone, and good hunting.

 

didnt those blades bend like mad ? i think i saw plenty of bent blades in the ep 1 dvd extras .

 

No, there was not mistake about it, they did bend like mad. However, the only one that I saw that bent too crazily was that of Obi-Wan Kenobi's. Young Ewan McGreggor. Shows you how much he was into his role. I don't think even Durilium could stop him. Though, from the looks of the blade, it was very light, had a hollow inside like the pvc, when struck together sounded like metal clanging, and looked very similar to an aluminum type material. However, from what my friend said, who, by the way, is a construction worker for over 10 years, a very good material for a blade would be acrylic. It's not too expensive at about $6.00 per 3-4ft. The reason I say not very expensive is because it's solid and lasts you a long time. But, hey who wouldn't want one of the ones in the movies. All you had to do was readjust the blade when ruined. Instead of having to go and purchase a whole new one. Doesn't explain why they had so many prop lightsabers though. I want one!

 

Someone once told me how acrylic blades shatter after continual hard dueling. In the movies they hit HARD, so its reasonable to assume that they tried all teh alternatives for strength, weight and safety.

Whats truly amazing is that they "took out" the bent blades in post.

 

Acrylic is very rigid material, in fact it's really just a variant of plexiglass, so it will crack and shatter rather than bend.

In Episode 1 they used aluminum rods for stunt sabers. Ewan bent the crap out of them because he swings too hard, so they would have to straigten them during practice all the time. This was fairly easy to do because there were open pipes all over the place for set all reinforcement. They'd stick his blade in one, torque it a bit, and hand it back. He destryed his fair share though, and from what I heard he broke more than all the other stunt folks and actors combined.

This would likely be the impetous behind finding a tougher material for the second and third chapters. Sure, and aluminum rod is cheaper, but if Ewan breaks 20 of them and the they have to pay somebody to cast each one, it gets steep. Not only that, but you have to edit out all the bent stuff in post production like Primrodo said, and that's not cheap either.

Thus, they probably did change out the type of material used for the rod, but it's hard to know for sure to what. Ceramic? Titanium? Magnesium? Who knows, but something more rigid and probably much more individually expensive.

 

didn't Anakin and Dooku fight using neon lamps? I'd hate to give one of those to Ewan.

 

Only for the effect of the light playing on their faces. In actuality there were about 8 feet from one another...No actual hitting

 

i havent seen an acrylic blade break yet . i still thik they should be used for light sparing and looks . but they can take a beating . if your interested there is a tutorial in my sig .

 

If you're wanting to do this for a fanfilm, there may be some ideas in the fanfilm forum. You could try PVC, but that might break, and would certainly have a "whip" effect if the PVC was small and flexible. Wooden dowels may work also. Lastly, you could try the old metal plumbing pipes, if you could find any. You wouldn't break or bend them, but you'd have to have a heavy lightsabre hilt to counterbalance it,