TOPIC: Champion Epoch Standard Finish - Frost White 12W +

Since I only had my Monarch for a few days before sending it in for a quick update to the AV Switches, I thought I would do a review of my recently received Epoch. I know there are quite a few Epoch reviews. As such, I am going to let the pictures speak for me on this one, but this is a great hilt. My Epoch has the Sabercore soundboard in it with a 12w+ Frost White LED.

- Overview
To me this is a sleeper. This is an awesome saber without it being overly flashy. It's beautiful in its simplicity, comfortable, and fun to mess with.


- The Hilt
This hilt is really well made and quite striking. There pretty much is no wrong way to grip it. It's a long hilt and will work well 1 or 2 handed. It's smooth and comfortable just about any way you hold it. I love those emitter windows! The light shines beautifully through them. They are lined up with the AV switch so you are pretty much always looking at them. The White AV Switch looks great no matter what color LED is in the saber. This is a FUN saber. I just can't put it down.











One thing I especially wanted to mention is the choke. The pictures I saw made it look like it had just slight etched lines in the aluminum, but those are deep groves and make this look really impressive. This speaks to the amazing craftsmanship Saberforge is showcasing here.





- The 12W+ Frost White LED

It is worth mentioning that the LED did not work for me right out of the box. However, Saberforge did a great job of getting me a new LED in the mail right away. KUDOS Saberforge Customer Service! I did get quick connects on this and changing the LED out was a breeze, but for me, this saber looks like it was made for the Frost White. This color is made up of 3 White Die and 1 Blue Die. It produces an amazing color!





It is also nice and bright! Here is a picture in daylight (excuse my best buddy Max who sometimes photobombs my pictures) ha.








This LED was a surprise to me as I really liked the Frost White color.

- Cons
There are 2 minor things that I have noticed while playing with this saber.

1) As you can see from the picture, the kill key port is somewhat asymmetrical. If you look carefully, it's rounded on the left side (bottom of the picture) and straight on the right (top of the picture). It is hardly noticeable in hand and has little to no impact on the saber, but I felt it was worth noting.

2) I am not a duelist. I am just a guy who likes sabers. But, in just handling my saber without hitting anything with it, the aluminum has become more and more scratch up as I have handled it. I can only imagine my titanium wedding band may be the culprit, as I know aluminum can be soft. I do not mean to imply that the material is soft or not well made, but that the brushed finish appears to scratch easily. Since I bought this saber to be able to play around with and not sit on a shelf, it does not bother me and actually gives it a bit of personality, but it needed to be said. I am not sure if this is common with stand finish with other Saberforge sabers. It may also be the nature of the material.




Overall, this saber / color combination is amazing and I am thrilled for it to be the second saber in my collection. As I become more proficient, I may put a Spark 2 board (possibly the one I just built in another thread) in it eventually. I hope this helps anyone who has had their eye on this hilt.

That Epoch and Frost White looks incredible. You make a great purchase. I love how sleek the Epoch is. The windowed emitter is beautiful as well. Congrats HotRod.

HotRod wrote:
Great way to describe. It really is a beautiful hilt. Great choice!

Congrats on your Epoch HotRod. I've always liked this hilt and have sworn to myself to have one someday. And the Frost White is a perfect choice for it. Well done.

HotRod, Congratulations with receipt of another Member to your Collection and Thank You for sharing your Review. There's a growing appreciation for Frost White and seems the ideal choice for an unchallenged pairing, very effective and illumination brilliance. Remain eagerly excited to your other incoming Hilts namely the Juggernaut and Exalted also. Clean fluid lines in such a slimline design. How wide is the Hilt and Deep the Emitter?

Nice little review Hotrod. I really love the emitter on the Epoch. Sorely tempted to use that on my first ASP build. Thanks for the eye candy!

Wow! Okay, first off, great choice in sabers! The Epoch looks awesome with that Frost White. Secondly, great write-up! You got your impressions across clearly, and I enjoyed reading it. Thirdly, great pictures! They do a fantastic job of showcasing the saber and the points you want to bring attention to. I wonder, does this saber's blade actually look like in the pictures? Since this one has a white core in real life and cameras do that to sabers anyway.

OvrcAHst wrote:
Thanks, OvrcAHst! I'm flattered you remembered. My Hero Exhalted was ordered on 1/10 and hit the Build Queue on 4/10. The Juggernaut I picked up off of Etsy and it was ordered on 2/7 with a build queue date of 4/5. Still excitedly waiting on both. It's kinda strange, I ordered my Epoch on 1/25 and it arrived before the Exhalted and only a few days after my Monarch which was ordered on 1/4. I'll definitely review those when I get them.

Okay, took some pics for you. These show some dimensions and the last one shows that the vented pommel does have a chamber.

Looks like:
- Length: 12 1/2" (my Monarch may be longer, but I don't have it back yet to compare - still a very long hilt)
- Emitter Depth - 3 7/8" to the long side of the shroud from the edge of the LED Heat Sink / Holder
- Diameter - 1 1/2" from the outside edges (the inner diameter is exactly the same as the LED)
- Blade Plug 3 1/8" (The top of the blade plug rests against that inner ring you can see in the diameter pic)













And this one is just for me because I love how the blade plug looks in this one.

RyanRising wrote:
First off, Thank you, Ryan! Your comments are very humbling. I did this one in a hurry so I felt I wasn't concise enough, but I really appreciate that. I want my reviews to get better to help people make informed decisions. I probably gush a bit more than I should....but I can't help it and these sabers are awesome!

Your question honestly is a great question...so much so I wish there was a thread around it where people tried to capture their actual blade colors for people to see. I have tinkered around trying to find ways to photograph what it "actually" looks like. The light from the emitter (to me) looks very close if not exactly the same as to the pictures and just seems to beam out of there. The blade is a bit different. It does not have the aura that the camera shows.

This is the best I could get



This is taken in my living room where I have windows on two sides in the middle of the day (not on a full charge and Max photobombed me again)




It's funny, on a low battery, it almost just looks like an LED flashlight with a tube on the end. Anything above a half charge looks really great. The picture with Max and the saber on the floor in the primary review is where the camera is picking up the flare from the ground, and as many others have said, the color you see on the ground is the actual color of the blade.

I walk several miles daily. I've started taking this with me. My wife had it at night the other night while we were walking and from 3-4 feet away or more, it did give off that crazy glow and looked REALLY good.

I think if you took it to a convention and you were in daylight under florescent lighting, you could probably could still tell it was lit up, but it would be somewhat underwhelming since it's not green, blue, or red. But at home and at night, it's awesome!

Thanks for the measurements HotRod. I won't re-Post your Post containing the information to avoid duplication of images. Thank you for the information and with going above and beyond to deliver them. Here I was simply hoping for a few numerical digits however you aided them with image references also. Epoch has been one of those Hilts that has sat on the fence for a long time with my favouring/ordering process and I think just maybe, it's time for it to come off the fence.

Superb! That makes at least two of us with a White Epoch! Love the Epoch! And the 12W+ White is super bright.

OvrcAHst wrote:
Ha, sorry about that. I guess anything worth doing is worth over-doing. I could have just given you the numbers. I am a visual person and think visual aids usually help me more than text.

This is a funny hilt. I got it and though "it's pretty cool" then as I played with it more it grew on me. It's a great hilt, but because of it's simplicity it is not the first hilt that would catch your eye. I am thrilled to have it and at the same time would not buy another. It's that kind of thing.