Ive got several designs for a lightsaber of sorts. One is an electrical based weapon and the other is based on heat, much like a "true" lightsaber. However, the design is still based around a traditional bladed weapon. I was wondering, if you could build such a weapon, how desirable would it be and what sort of options would you like to see it have?

I always figured a cutting torch could potentially be made into a lightsaber.

Well for one, it has to be portable and light. I'd imagine that if it was something that used heat to "cut," you'd be tethered or would have to somehow "refuel."

I've seen a design based on tightly directional magnetic fields used to contain superheated plasma in the right shape. Predictably, power was a problem, as was splay.

A real weapon would have to be very light. I'd like to see a tunable 'blade' shape.

What?!!!!! Are these serious questions?

I guess if one was pressed into actually considering stuff like this you would certainly have some problems: 1) No more-or-less solid material to stop "blade" to "blade" on the opponent's weapon; and 2)How do you limit the energy so that you don't have something that contiues for 100 meters instead of just one meter if you are using something like a laser (which I can't see how someone would power with any usable intensity in any case).

Also, if you were using...say, dueling arc welders, you would either have to have some extreme UV shades to block out the light or just use the Force, man.

If just electrifying a blade....It's still a blade and doesn't hold that much more intrinsic danger than not having some heat or energy source behind it.

The design I had come up with had a solid steel "blade" so to speak, but instead of a metal edge you would have a laser on either side. The power source would be contained in the pommel. A lithium Cell. You could create a base, if it ever needed recharged. If the lasers were strong enough the destructive capabilities would be much higher than the traditional katana. Turning the fantasy of cutting through trees or metal into a reality. Since there would be less steel than a tradtional sword it would already be lighter. Another idea I had was to work the sheath itself into the recharger for the energy source. The electrically charged sword was just an idea I had after seen a movie with an electric retractable baton. The lightsaber Idea Ive had for some time.

*runs off to the patent office*

So your metal blade doesn't have to be solid or metal. It can just be an extension of sorts with some kind of relay to redirect the laser. In Star Wars, a lightsaber had no real blade, as opposed to a flat side. It was more like a rod that could cut. Would this cut through mirror-polished steel or bounce off of it? Could a lightsaber cut through a mirror or even a window? Light has some strange properties that I don't understand. Someone who understands physics could explain it to you. They couldn't explain it to me; they've tried.

What I wonder, though, is how this weapon, if created, would be superior to a laser rifle, which would be easier to design or, for that matter a regular rifle, which has been designed and manufactured. It would be cool, but I would like to know the benefit. What would it do that other weapons cannot do?

...it would..be a lightsaber.....need I say more? who cares if a guy with a gun can beat you, he cant cut through doors and crap. Lightsabers > all

For once Crab got it right!

Alas, the ones in the movies required mastery of the force to build. Aside: apparently, when they were filming the fight scene at the end of Episode One, they had to stop to tell Ewan McGregor that he didn't have to make the noises himself, as they put them in in post production. He hadn't even realised he was doing it...

I want a kitchen edition to chop carrots.