Luke's Severed Hand Stunt Prop from ESB

[Captain Dunsel]

The bulb spring and brass cap would appear to be removed from the Bakelite socket in this hilt, correct?

I don’t see it in this picture:

Do we have any pictures of this area of the original, with better clarity?

 

[Boba Flint]

It could be gone but I do see this.

 

[v312]

I don't think there's a variation without that knurling (at the top). I've never seen it and it wouldn't make sense from a design point of view of the Kobold. I think they milled it away because it might have been visually distracting.

-Roy

To me it looks just roughly filed by hand to remove the knurling and make it the same diameter like the black part.

In a way it is a good thing as it saves us from chasing a Kobold variation with the correct knurling, step/no step, etc.

So the question is just how wide is it?

Some of mine are with 7mm knurling band and some up to about 12mm (if you count the step).
I'd guess it's less than 1cm from the picture ...

 

[roygilsing]

The width is 9mm. Both in my reverse engineered drawings as on my Kobold.

 

[Halliwax]

The bulb spring and brass cap would appear to be removed from the Bakelite socket in this hilt, correct?

I don’t see it in this picture:

View attachment 1702185

View attachment 1702187

Do we have any pictures of this area of the original, with better clarity?

Alley, I was just talking with Chris about this. The black front lip is there, but doesn’t it look like not only the brass bulb contact is missing.. but a lot more Bakelite is as well?

In that photo it looks to me like I can see the finish of inside the flash..

Wicked confusing

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Alley, I was just talking with Chris about this. The black front lip is there, but doesn’t it look like not only the brass bulb contact is missing.. but a lot more Bakelite is as well?

In that photo it looks to me like I can see the finish of inside the flash..

Wicked confusing

Agreed. There is definitely something strange going on in that photo.

 

[Halliwax]

Agreed. There is definitely something strange going on in that photo.

Isn’t great in this hobby we always have photos with killing questions still to be answered… loose sleep over this stuff

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Isn’t great in this hobby we always have photos with killing questions still to be answered… loose sleep over this stuff

I find it interesting (and frustrating) that the photographs of our favorite props seem to be taken with the same type of camera that captures distorted pictures of UFOs and Bigfoot…

 

[dkraude]

Love the research and discussion. Very interesting.

 

[Boba Flint]

The more I look at that one pic where I think the brass cap is showing, the more I'm feel it is just a trick of reflection and light and that the cap is missing.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Roy’s kit arrived, yesterday. This is going to be a fun one to wrap up. roygilsing thank you for providing another outstanding kit!

Although I think the brass cap is gone, I may hold off on removing mine until better reference appears. The original is still out there; I am confident that we will eventually get better images to confirm what poor photography currently suggests to be the case.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Does the original appear to be one of those stunt hilts that the production spray painted, at some point?

There appears to be silver paint remnants, here:

 

[Captain Dunsel]

It also appears that the slide switch has been removed:

 

[eethan]

It also appears that the slide switch has been removed:

View attachment 1703025

Oh! Thank you for confirming this, I didn't see that ref, awesome

 

[Captain Dunsel]

OK. I went ahead and put my money where my mouth is and removed the brass cap from the bulb socket on my build. Once I saw that the slide switch—as well as all of the brass socket pins—had all been removed, it became clear to me that the GRAFLEX “guts” had been removed, at some point.

I believe that the GRAFLEX top of the hilt was likely originally intended to be a dueling hilt, thus the likelihood of the brass cap and spring having been removed, as well…

 

[Halliwax]

Loving where you’re going with this

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Loving where you’re going with this

Thank you! (Fingers crossed that I don’t stumble before the finish line.)

 

[thd9791]

I always assumed the silver paint was an attempt to rehab a graflex with the plating missing, worn down to the brass

This is looking beautiful! Good call on the brass parts, removing them. I absolutely agree - I used a metallic silver paint pen for the painted look lol

 

[thd9791]

Holy **** there’s a big tarnish spot on the top in teecroozs photo - I wonder if it shows up anywhere in filming before this lol

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I always assumed the silver paint was an attempt to rehab a graflex with the plating missing, worn down to the brass

This is looking beautiful! Good call on the brass parts, removing them. I absolutely agree - I used a metallic silver paint pen for the painted look lol

Agreed, I think that they may have spray painted the flash, originally, to try to cover the massive plating loss and exposed brass on the flash.