maybe this is kind of a sad commentary about me, but a couple of friends and i built staves like this in 1980 for a halloween costume party. instead of wiring blue leds to illuminate a crystal (which looks really cool, btw) we wired it up to an estes rocket ignitor and a packet of crumbled solid rocket fuel. (kids, don’t try this at home! do it at a friend’s house…)

anyway, for wiring we used enameled wire unwound from an old transformer that we then buried in knife slits along the length of the staff from the top to the place where the handhold was. this allowed us to have a tiny hidden switch to light the explosive charge. the kinfe slits were covered with wood putty, then the whole staff was sanded, stained and lacquered.

it was all good fun until a buddy singed his eyebrows off. then it was great fun with a burnt-hair smell!

looks great, but was disappointed over the on/off switch. should have used a magnetic switch internally(similar to whats used on window and door security sensors), then had a ring on your hand, or even a metal band with a magnet that could be slid down into place.

Hey; I’m the John who built the staff; just wanted to make a couple of comments. First, the Rhino work was all done several weeks after the fact (I hadn’t done much modeling in a while and wanted to refresh my memory). Second, I do intend to do something different with the switch; a magnetic switch sounds like a good idea. (That’s why it’s still taped on; any type of switch can go in there to replace it; the wire leads are long and the cavity is decent.)

Yah ,this is a great hack but it could be awesome maybe with some fiber optics going down the handle?