Field manual · An elegant weapon

Lightsabers

A blade of pure energy, a living crystal at its heart and a hilt every Jedi builds by hand. Take one apart, find out why Sith blades are red, try every color and shape — and hear how a cinema projector and a TV set made the most famous sound in film.

Move the pointer over the blade to swing it

First on screen
A New Hope · 1977
Powered by
A kyber crystal
Blade colors in canon
More than a dozen
What it can't cut
Beskar, cortosis, another blade

An elegant weapon

A lightsaber is a sword whose blade is energy, not steel. An energy core powered by a kyber crystal sends it out of the hilt, and it cuts through blast doors and enemies alike[1]. It is the weapon of the Jedi and of the Sith — and for both it is far more than a weapon.

An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

— Obi-Wan Kenobi, A New Hope (1977)

No two are alike. A Jedi is never simply handed a lightsaber: they build one, around a crystal that chose them, with a hilt fitted to their own hand[2]. The Sith take another road. They take a crystal from a Jedi and force the dark side into it — which is why their blades burn red[2][3].

Inside the hilt

Drag to turn

  1. Every hilt looks different, but inside they all share the same basic parts[1][2]. Scroll on and watch one come apart, piece by piece.

  2. Blade emitter

    Where the blade leaves the hilt. The shroud guards the hand, and the emitter matrix inside must go in the right way round: inverted, it makes the power grid backfire — at best the blade shorts out, at worst the hilt explodes[2].

  3. Focusing lens

    Gathers the crystal's energy into a tight, stable blade on its way to the emitter[1][2].

  4. Kyber crystal

    The heart of the weapon. It focuses the energy and gives the blade its color — and in its own way it is alive (chapter 04)[2][3].

  5. Energy core

    The chamber that holds the crystal, ringed by cycling field energizers that feed it power[1][2].

  6. Control module

    The activator that ignites and retracts the blade, plus dials for its intensity and length. Training sabers are locked to a harmless low setting[2].

  7. Hand grip

    Shaped to its owner — and not only to human hands: a hilt can fit a species' own grip, or be carved from wood as hard as metal, like the youngling Gungi's[2].

  8. Power cell

    A cell of the right size, wrapped in an inert power insulator, that keeps the blade alight[2].

  9. Pommel cap

    Closes the hilt. Many carry a belt ring or clip, so the weapon can hang at its owner's side[2].

  10. All eight parts. Drag the hilt to turn it around, or switch on the X-ray to look inside the case.

A single-bladed hilt taken apart. The part names follow Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia[1]; the drawing is ours, not any particular character's weapon.

How a Jedi builds one

Illustration: a vast ice cave lined with glowing crystals; a small hooded figure kneels and holds up a single shining crystal.

For a Jedi, a lightsaber is the end of a journey. For thousands of years younglings took part in the Gathering, a rite on the ice planet Ilum: each of them had to find their own crystal in its Crystal Cave[3][4]. The Clone Wars shows it in the episodes “The Gathering” and “A Test of Strength”.

The Crystal Cave on Ilum, as we imagine it. Illustration made for this page with an image-generation model.
Fig. 1

  1. In the cave the crystals call out. To someone they are not meant for, a crystal is cold to the touch; the one it chooses hears its music and is drawn to it[3]. To reach it, a youngling has to face their own fears[2].

  2. A freshly found kyber is clear. Awakened through the Force, it takes on a color that matches its owner — blue, green, yellow, purple…[2]

  3. The hilt is designed around its owner. Jedi of the late Republic favored four styles — Duty and Resolve, Peace and Justice, Elemental Nature, Valor and Wisdom; the Sith had two, Passion and Strength and Power and Control[2].

  4. No tools: the parts float together by telekinesis while an engineer guides the work — in The Clone Wars, the old droid Huyang[2].

  5. The first ignition, in the crystal's own color. From now on the Jedi knows how to build another, should this one ever be lost[2].

A youngling's first lightsaber, from the crystal to the first ignition. Pick a step, or let it play.

On screen

  • Younglings in the Crystal Cave — The Clone Wars, “The Gathering” · 2012
  • Ahsoka Tano with the younglings and their new lightsabers — “A Test of Strength” · 2012

After the fall of the Jedi Order there was no more Gathering: the survivors built sabers from whatever they could find[2]. The Empire strip-mined Ilum for its crystals, and the First Order later turned the whole planet into Starkiller Base[4].

Kyber: the living crystal

Kyber crystals are rare, Force-attuned crystals that grow on a few worlds across the galaxy — most famously in Ilum's Crystal Cave and on Jedha[3]. They are nearly alive: they “sing” to those they choose and communicate with each other, and they warm only to living things — a sheath or a towel stays cold, a hand does not[3].

They are also enormously powerful. Cut the right way, a large crystal can focus energy into a beam that destroys planets: the Empire looted kyber from Jedi temples, from Ilum and other worlds to build the Death Star's superlaser — the story of Rogue One[3].

Fig. 2

  1. Clear

    A newly found kyber is clear and colorless. It has not bonded with anyone yet[2].

  2. Bonded

    Awakened through the Force, the crystal takes on a color that matches its owner. Blue and green are the usual Jedi colors; Mace Windu's is purple, Rey's yellow[2][3].

  3. Bled

    A Sith cannot make a crystal choose them, so they take one from a Jedi and pour the dark side into it until it “bleeds” red. Darth Vader did it to the crystal of Jedi Master Kirak Infil'a — and the crystal fought back with visions[3].

  4. Healed

    A bled crystal can be healed. Ahsoka Tano purified the two crystals from the saber of an Inquisitor, the Sixth Brother: they turned white and became her blades[3].

  5. Cracked

    Push a crystal too hard and it cracks. Kylo Ren's cracked as he bled it, so his blade is unstable: two side vents dump the excess energy — the reason his lightsaber has a crossguard[2][3].

No blade yet
How a kyber crystal can change. The arrows are the changes seen in canon; a cracked crystal still works, but its blade spits and crackles.

Some crystals break the pattern. Jedi Masters Ki-Adi-Mundi and Agen Kolar each had a lightsaber that could switch from green to blue[2]. A kohlen crystal gives a weak orange blade — useless in a duel, yet the only thing that slices through shields powered by the same kind of crystal, in the novel Master & Apprentice[2].

Every blade color

In the story the color comes from the crystal[2]. Behind the camera every new color has its own story — and some were decided long after filming had ended[2]. Tap a blade to ignite it: it becomes your crystal everywhere on this page.

  • Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin and Luke Skywalker, Leia

    In the first two films the Jedi were blue and the Sith red. The props were plain white rods; the colors were painted in, frame by frame, after filming[2].

  • Yoda, Qui-Gon Jinn, Luke in Return of the Jedi

    Luke's new saber was blue in early edits, trailers and posters. It turned green to stand out against Tatooine's blue sky — and to show it was a new weapon[2].

  • Mace Windu, Vernestra Rwoh

    Samuel L. Jackson asked for purple, his favorite color, so that Mace Windu would stand out among the Jedi of Attack of the Clones[2].

  • The Jedi Temple Guards, Rey

    Familiar from animation, yellow made its live-action debut in the last scene of The Rise of Skywalker, with Rey's own saber[2].

  • Darth Vader, Darth Sidious, Maul, Count Dooku

    The color of a bled crystal — and of the Sith since 1977[2][3].

  • Ahsoka Tano

    The color of a healed crystal: a Sith crystal purified back to the light[3].

  • Baylan Skoll, Shin Hati

    Dave Filoni chose it for Ahsoka to show that these dark warriors are not Sith[2].

  • The Darksaber

    A flat black blade with a white glow — the only one of its kind (chapter 06)[5].

  • Cyan, indigo, magenta, orange, yellow-green

    Seen in High Republic stories and in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order; Ahsoka's short saber glowed yellow-green[2][3].

On screen

  • Shin Hati's orange-red blade crosses a green one — Ahsoka, “Fallen Jedi” · 2023
  • Ahsoka Tano's white blades — Ahsoka, “Shadow Warrior” · 2023

Does the color mean anything? In canon it is not a rank or a job: it reflects the bond between a crystal and its owner[2]. Red is the exception — it is what the dark side does to a crystal.

Not just one blade

Most Jedi carried a classic single blade, but the galaxy is full of variations[2]. Point at a card or tap it to ignite the blade.

Training with a remote

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, Obi-Wan Kenobi gives Luke a lightsaber and sets a floating training remote on him — then pulls a helmet's blast shield down over his eyes. Turning blaster bolts aside is exactly what Form III, Soresu, was made for[7]. Your turn.

Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them.

— Obi-Wan Kenobi, A New Hope (1977)
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Training remote

The remote fires bolts at you. Put the blade in their path to send them back. Three hits and the session is over.

Aim with the mouse or a finger; on a keyboard, ← and →. With the blast shield down you won't see the remote: listen for it, and watch for the faint glimmer of the Force.

The training game needs JavaScript.

With the blast shield down, turn the sound on: the remote's hum moves left and right with it, and every shot gives itself away a split second early.

What a blade can't cut

A lightsaber cauterizes as it cuts, so even a severed limb hardly bleeds[2]. It turns blaster bolts aside and melts its way through blast doors. But a few things stand up to it[2]. Pick a target and strike.

Fig. 3
  • Blast door. Melts through — slowly. Qui-Gon Jinn burns a glowing hole into a blast door in The Phantom Menace.
  • Blaster bolt. Deflected. Using the Force to sense the shot, a Jedi sends it straight back[1].
  • Another lightsaber. Clash. Two blades don't cut each other — they lock and spit sparks.
  • Beskar. Holds. Pure Mandalorian beskar resists a blade for a while: Din Djarin's armor stood up to Ahsoka Tano's sabers[2].
  • Cortosis. Switches it off. Cortosis armor drains the blade's energy and shuts it down for a moment[2].
Five targets, five outcomes. Other things a lightsaber can't cut: armorweave in the Temple Guards' robes, the armor of Snoke's Praetorian Guards and the rare metal phrik[2].

Movie magic

In 1977 a lightsaber was a camera flash. Prop maker Roger Christian found old Graflex flash handles in a London photography shop and dressed them with cabinet T-track and odds and ends; George Lucas asked for a belt clip[8]. Darth Vader's hilt was a Micro Precision Products flash. Obi-Wan's was the most complex: a tap handwheel, a machine-gun booster, a First World War rifle grenade and a part of a Rolls-Royce jet engine[2].

Illustration: a 1970s prop workshop bench with a chrome flash handle, strips of plastic trim, a hacksaw, a reflective rod, film cans and a sketch of a sword hilt.
A prop maker's bench, 1970s style. Illustration made for this page with an image-generation model — not a photo of the real props.

The blades were harder. On set they were three-sided rods covered in reflective Scotchlite, spun by a small motor in the hilt to catch the light — fragile, and invisible whenever they turned away from the camera[2][8]. So every blade was traced by hand, frame by frame. Animator Nelson Shin drew them in about a week; he suggested making them look “a little shaky”, like a fluorescent tube, with one extra-bright frame to make the light vibrate[8].

Fig. 4
One frame, four layers. The props were plain white rods — the color was added only in post-production[2].

Later films changed the recipe: carbon rods for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, then steel and aluminium rods for the prequels[2].

That sound

The hum came from sound designer Ben Burtt. He mixed the idling hum of the interlocking motors of old cinema projectors with a buzz a TV set put into a microphone cable that had no shielding — found by accident, while he was looking for a sparking sound[8]. For the swing he played the hum through a speaker and waved a microphone past it: the Doppler effect bends the pitch[8].

Fig. 5

Our synthesizer follows the recipe; it is not the original recording.

The sound lab needs JavaScript.

Ben Burtt's recipe, rebuilt in your browser. Turn the layers on and off, then drag to hear the Doppler swing.

Nelson Shin added one more idea: the sound of a degausser, because a lightsaber should feel like a magnetic field[2].

Could we build one?

Not the way the films show it — at least not yet. A laser won't do: a beam of light doesn't stop after a meter, it travels until something absorbs it, and two beams pass straight through each other instead of clashing[9].

Plasma — gas so hot its atoms lose their electrons — comes closer: it glows, and it cuts. But it wants to spread out. Magnets can hold it, but only inside a container, and a sword can't have one[10]. Fuel is the other problem: there is nothing in a hilt to keep it burning for a whole duel[9].

In 2020 the engineers behind the YouTube channel The Hacksmith built the first retractable plasma lightsaber. Propane and oxygen burn in a carefully shaped, smooth “laminar” jet at about 2,200 °C (4,000 °F) — above the melting point of most metals[10][11]. The catch: it is tethered to a backpack of gas.

Fig. 6
Add to the flame
The color trick is a classic chemistry-class flame test: sodium burns yellow, strontium red, boron green, copper chloride blue-green, potassium lilac[12]. Purple is the hard one — The Hacksmith's list said “no purple yet”[10].

Quick answers

Can a lightsaber change color?

Yes, if its crystal changes. Bleeding a crystal with the dark side turns it red; healing a bled crystal turns it white, as Ahsoka Tano did[3].

Why are Sith lightsabers red?

A kyber crystal won't choose a Sith, so the Sith take crystals from Jedi and “bleed” them with the dark side until they turn red[2][3].

What is a kyber crystal?

A rare, Force-attuned crystal at the heart of every lightsaber: it focuses the energy and gives the blade its color. Kyber also powered the Death Star's superlaser[3].

How does a Jedi get a crystal?

Traditionally in the Gathering: younglings travel to the Crystal Cave on Ilum and find the crystal that calls to them[3][4].

What is the Darksaber?

An ancient black-bladed lightsaber made by Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian Jedi, around 1050 BBY. It has to be won in combat; Moff Gideon destroyed it in The Mandalorian season 3[5].

Who has a purple lightsaber?

Mace Windu — at Samuel L. Jackson's request — and, in the High Republic era, Vernestra Rwoh[2].

What can't a lightsaber cut?

Another lightsaber, beskar, cortosis, armorweave, phrik and the armor of the Praetorian Guards[2].

Sources

  1. StarWars.com Databank — “Lightsaber” (diagram from Star Wars: The Visual Encyclopedia)
  2. Wookieepedia — “Lightsaber”
  3. Wookieepedia — “Kyber crystal”
  4. Wookieepedia — “Ilum”
  5. Wookieepedia — “Darksaber”
  6. Wookieepedia — “Lightwhip”
  7. Wookieepedia — “Lightsaber combat”
  8. Wikipedia — “Lightsaber”: props, visual effects and sound design
  9. ScienceAlert — “Could We Ever Make a Real Lightsaber?” (2022)
  10. The Hacksmith — “Retractable Plasma Lightsaber”, DigiKey Maker.io (2020)
  11. Guinness World Records — Hacksmith creates world’s first retractable lightsaber (2020)
  12. Wikipedia — “Flame test”

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