# Star Wars question

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-question/236429
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 25, 2004, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-question/236429 "2004-03-25T21:31:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Beauty\_Personified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Beauty\_Personified](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beauty_Personified)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2004, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-question/236429/21 "2004-03-27T06:10:34Z")

</div>

> [@Jean Grey](#):
>
> Accordind to EU material I’ve read, you do indeed need to use the Force to create a lightsaber. For Jedi (source: _I, Jedi_) the process generally takes weeks of meditation and being one with the Force to finalize the process and make the parts work together. This could be dogma, though, rather than a true necessity.
> 
> For Sith (no source, sorry), I believe actual Force manipulation of the crystals as they’re superheated is required. Not too sure on this, though.

I got the impression that, yes, the Jedi method is more dogma than necessity. I seem to remember that the Jedi method involved fashioning a crystal (the lightsaber’s key component) with simple, personal tools (a method where meditation, and a steady hand, would be beneficial - one error in crafting the crystal, and it’s useless), while the Sith would use more industrial methods (mass-production?). Perfect natural crystals are very rare, apparently.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/star-wars-question/236429.md?page=1)