If you put Luke’s first lightsaber next to Obi-Wan’s from the prequels, you’ll notice something weird, they’re almost the same hilt. Same emitter shape, same pommel, same silhouette.
Was this just a coincidence, or is there an in-universe reason for it?
Luke Literally Models It on Obi-Wan’s Hilt
In canon, Luke’s second lightsaber is meant to follow Obi-Wan’s design, not Anakin’s. After losing his father’s weapon on Cloud City, he has to build a new one from scratch. When he finally does, he uses Ben’s hilt as the template: same thin neck, same general emitter and clamp layout, with the main difference being the green crystal instead of blue. The idea is that Luke’s “true” Jedi weapon is built in the image of his mentor’s saber.
We get a clearer look at how that happens in Return of the Jedi: Beware the Dark Side. After Han’s rescue brings him back to Tatooine, Luke feels drawn “not to his own home—but to Obi-Wan’s.” In the hut, he “found a few things Obi-Wan had left behind that were useful to him… including the missing parts he needed for the construction of his own lightsaber—the weapon of a true Jedi Knight.”
The book adds that Obi-Wan and Yoda had only told him “a little of the way a Jedi must use the Force to build a lightsaber,” but when he finally starts the work, “he seemed to know exactly what he needed to know. Reaching out with his mind, he found the right pieces—some easily purchased, some much harder to acquire.”
Put together, it’s simple: Luke goes back to Obi-Wan’s hut, uses what Ben left behind, and builds a new saber that follows his master’s design rather than recreating his father’s.
What Exactly Is in Ben Kenobi’s Notes?
When Luke talks about building his own lightsaber in Secrets of the Jedi, he describes how, after losing his first blade on Bespin, he was “forced to walk the path of a true Jedi and build my own.” He leans on the techniques and knowledge he got from Obi-Wan and Yoda, plus what he finds in Ben’s hut.
On that same spread we see a sketch of Luke’s new hilt laid out almost like one of Ben’s construction diagrams: the blade emitter, cycling field energizers, focusing lens, lightsaber energy core, kyber crystal, hand grip, inert power insulator, pommel cap. Luke notes that every hilt is customized to the Jedi who wields it, but that they all share these same basic elements.
