YouTuber Makes 'World's First Retractable Plasma-Based Lightsaber'

Any self-respecting Star Wars enthusiast has dreamt of owning their very own lightsaber, but sadly for most of us, the closest we've ever got is one of those plastic ones, which are in essence just neon sticks.

But YouTuber James Hobson has made numerous valiant efforts to create a 'real' lightsaber, and his latest bid is his best yet.

Sharing his methodology on his YouTube channel 'The Hacksmith' - which has more than 10 million subscribers - he said: "How the heck do you build a plasma-based lightsaber?

"Well, theories say that plasma is best held in a beam by a magnetic field, which, scientifically, checks out.

"The issue is producing a strong enough electro-magnetic field to contain a blade. Well, the lightsaber would have to be quite literally built inside a box coated in electromagnets, which turns it into a kind of useless science project."

To get around this, the former engineer and product developer used liquid petroleum gas (LPG) as a fuel, which is mixed with oxygen and turned into a superheated beam.

Unlike previous attempts, this means the lightsaber doesn't have a metal rod at its core, which makes it less like a sword or a glorified stick. Plus, it can be retracted and still packs the punch to cut through a sheet of steel, burning at 2,200°C.

Hobson is able to change the colour of the beam too by adding different chemicals, with sodium chloride turning the beam yellow, boric acid turning it green, strontium chloride turning it red and calcium chloride turning it amber.

The main way in which the lightsaber differs from those wielded by Obi-Wan Kenobi and the rest of the gang is that it relies on a custom-built backpack to carry the LPG, as Hobson said a backpackless version would require unfeasibly powerful batteries.

Maybe one day though, when the force is with us - and our batteries.