YouTuber Makes Guinness World Record For Creating The 'First Retractable Lightsaber'

A Russian YouTuber and engineer have made every Star Wars fan's dream come true by creating the Guinness World Records recognized "first retractable lightsaber."

Alex Burkan, an engineer and the creator of the popular YouTube channel, Alex Lab, have designed the record-breaking plasma blade that can reach a temperature of 2,800°C (5,072 F) and measures 3.28 foot in length.

"All my life I was a great Star Wars™ fan and the lightsaber was my most-wanted gadget," said Burkan said to the Guinness press office.

Burkan told Guinness that he has been reaching hydrogen generation equipment since 2013. It inspired him to create a real-life lightsaber. But, creating the device, or weapon as some might say, was not as easy as it sounds.

"The key component of my lightsaber is an electrolyser. An electrolyser is a device that can generate a huge amount of hydrogen and oxygen and compress the gas to any pressure without a mechanical compressor," Burkan said to the press office.

After running hundreds of experiments and tests, Burkan was able to create the hydrogen and oxygen burner that would give the saber its length. But, minimizing the powerful burner’s size to fit a compact handle became the main challenge.

The hydrogen plasma blade only burns for 30 seconds in full power and can cut through steel, the New York Post reported.

"This is a first prototype so it has lots of limitations. It works for only 30 seconds on full power, the hydrogen torch is not as stable as it could be and you can easily see it when it moves," Burkan said to the Guinness press office. "Sometimes the lightsaber just blows up in your hand because of hydrogen flashback."

Burkan is already planning to improve the design by replacing the fuel tank with a carbon tank system and upgrading the nozzle.

However, Burkan is not the first one to make a real-life lightsaber. James Hobson, founder of Hacksmith Industries in Canada created a retractable proto-lightsaber. Unlike Burkan’s design, Hobson’s saber uses an external power source—a tank of liquid propane gas and oxygen gas. And, Hobson’s saber lasts longer.

Burkan is currently working on other super-hero-inspired projects.

"Right now I am working on an Iron Man suit and other equipment that also works on hydrogen. I hope to see you again and break a few more records!" he told the Guinness.