Every Wednesday and Saturday night at the Duck Pond, ABQ Jedi meets to clash in the mystical art of lightsaber dueling. While these battles are fierce and climactic, the true hero hides among their ranks — Joshua Pedersen, a “Sabersmith.”
Pedersen runs a local business known as Battle Sabers. Originally created as a passion project, as Pedersen hoped to explore saber smithing and sparring.
Lacking the funds to construct sabers and inspired by his own experience with saber sparring, Pedersen visited the Internet to learn how to create his own. After researching forums and multiple websites, he stumbled upon a guide to make a personal saber out of PVC pipe.
From there Pedersen, started making sabers with instruction from QueLab, developing his skills in metalworking and circuitry in the process.
When asked about his saber-building process, Pedersen said it begins with a simple process of aluminum drilling, threading and pressing.
“Then the hilt is taken to the mill — a fancy drill press that moves the material around an X and Y Cartesian plane while keeping the drill bit in the same space,” he said. “With the mill, the circular motion and control of the drill bit allows for precise grooves and threading.”
After that Pedersen attaches the blade, made of a polycarbonate material. Used in a variety of materials such as eyeglasses and protective gear, polycarbonate is an affordable and durable material that won’t shatter when bent under pressure — perfect for the intense action of saber-sparring.
Finally, Pedersen illuminates his sabers with a single LED, wired inside the hilt with his customer’s chosen color.
Pedersen has made sabers for friends, and has also begun to sell them to local saber-sparring groups. Eventually Pedersen evolved to making his own sabers with aluminum hilts, creating his own process and unique style of saber.
Currently he is in talks with a production company to get his sabers semi-mass produced, and further expand his saber-smithing options. Continuing to produce his classic sabers at QueLab, Pedersen sells red, red-orange, blue, green and amber sabers at $175 a piece.
Anyone looking to get involved with ABQ Jedi can contact the group through Facebook, or watch them in action at the Duck Pond every Wednesday and Saturday night.
Lobos interested in purchasing a saber for themselves can contact Joshua Pedersen by email at sabersmith@battlesabers.com, on Facebook, or at Pedersen’s website www.Battlesabers.com.
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Troy Amato is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Troy_Amato.
