TOPIC: Black Lotus Review

My brother recently received his Champion edition Black Lotus saber. The specifications are as follows:

Champion edition
12 watt Amber
Black Stingray leather grip
Crimson sound board
26 inch blade

This saber is truly a beautiful one. The silver on the pommel and switch section perfectly contrast the black and leather. It is very light with or without the blade and is perfectly balanced. It can be wielded comfortably with either a one-handed or two-handed grip. The claws on the emitter give off a menacing feel and the leather goes so well with the rest of the hilt. The machining on the pommel is extremely well done as is the switch section. A few issues did come up, however. Upon unboxing the saber the viper claw directly above the activation switch did come off. We attempted to screw it back in to little avail, as it would come loose again shortly afterwards. The claw itself was undamaged, as were the screw and emitter. This appears to be an isolated issue and we will be sending it back to be repaired. Another, smaller issue relates to the pommel. Since the Covertech knob is fastened directly above the pommel, which is rather large, my brother was unable to utilize the new system. The knob slides in a little bit before hitting the pommel and being unable to be put in all the way. This also has an easy fix, as it is compatible with the original clip and is able to slide in and lock without issue. Don't get me wrong this saber is amazing and these two problems are very minor and have easy fixes. I would recommend it to anyone who wants a good Sith style lightsaber. Sorry I can't post any pictures, because we haven't taken any as of now. I may be able to post some after we email Saberforge about the claw and after we get it back. I hoped this helped a little bit and I did a good job reviewing the saber. This is my first review, so go easy on me, huh?

Update:

Today we got the Black Lotus back from getting repairs done. I am slightly disappointed with the results. This isn't to say that I don't like Saberforge anymore, but I expected more based on my previous experiences. First off, the belt clip issue seems to be resolved. It appears that an adjustment was made to the pommel to make it so that it lines up with the clip. However, the main problem of the claw was not resolved. I was not present for the initial unboxing, but from what I have gathered, the original claw and screw came unattached and separate from the hilt itself. It is all too evident that the hole into which the claw is supposed to be screwed was stripped, as the area surrounding it was messy. Upon attempting to screw in the claw, the screw, once again, fit too snugly into the hole and the same issue of being unable to attach the claw arose. We have reached out to Saberforge once again and I hope that we can get this resolved once in for all so that we might enjoy the saber in its full glory.

Update:

We got the Lotus back again. Good news: the claw issue was fixed! Bad news: For some reason, the pommel fix was undone and the blade plug we had in when we shipped it out was missing. We had gotten another blade plug as part of a sale, but it was blocked from going in by the claws. Saberforge replied to an email by saying that this can be fixed by slightly unscrewing a claw before inserting the plug and screwing it back in one it's situated. However, I would like to get our original blade plug back. They said that they require more information to address the pommel issue again, but I suggested to the others that we buy a timing shim to fix it. We suspect that instead of replacing the emitter as they had said they would, they made us an entirely new hit altogether, since the settings saved onto the hilt had reverted back to the default and the pommel was back to its original position. The customer service has been phenomenal; they responded to every email we sent and both times they paid for the return shipping, which is not covered in the warranty. Despite these setbacks with this hilt, I still intend to stick with Saberforge for my future saber purchases.

Update:

Sorry for taking such a long time to follow up on this again. A few weeks after posting the last review, our issues were finally resolved! Saberforge came up with a solution to our pommel dilemma that worked for everyone. It turns out that the pommel was not the issue, but rather the belt clip. Saberforge asked us to simply test the hilt with the other version on the belt clip, and it worked fine! So, they sent us a new clip of the old design. The hilt does not swing freely on this clip, but rather stays quite rigid. This is not a problem, however, since my brother has said that he won't be using the clip for purposes that would make this problematic. As for the blade plug, a new one of those was shipped to us as well! This one is in the original design and fits into the hilt much better than the other one that we have. It does require a bit of pressure to be applied to get it in, but taking it out has no problems at all. This just goes to show that Saberforge will always come through if you give them the chance. All of our issues were resolved and we now have a fully-operational badass Black Lotus saber from Saberforge!