Skywalker lightsaber

"That lightsaber was Luke's and his father's before him, and now it calls to you."

- Maz Kanata, to Rey

Skywalker's lightsaber was a lightsaber constructed by Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars, and that was later passed down to his son, Luke Skywalker, during the Galactic Civil War. Anakin used this lightsaber throughout the Clone Wars, and he briefly continued to use it after falling to the dark side of the Force and becoming Darth Vader, a Dark Lord of the Sith. He lost the lightsaber during a lightsaber duel against Obi-Wan Kenobi, who kept it in his possession while in exile on Tatooine.

During the Galactic Civil War, Kenobi passed it on to Luke, who used it for three years before losing it in a duel against his father. The lightsaber eventually found its way into the hands of Maz Kanata, who later gave it on to Finn after a failed attempt to get Rey to take it.

This weapon made use of a blade stabilizing ring surrounding the blade emitter.

Description
"What is it?''" "''It's your father's lightsaber. This is the weapon of a Jedi Knight. Not as clumsy or random as a blaster. An elegant weapon, for a more civilized age."

- Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi

The lightsaber of the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker contained kyber crystals that generated a blue plasma blade.

Rebuilding a Jedi's weapon
After losing his first lightsaber on Geonosis and sometime prior to the battle on Christophsis, Anakin Skywalker built himself a new lightsaber.

Dooku's capture
When Dooku was forced to crash land on Vanqor, Skywalker and Kenobi pursued him into a cave. However, Dooku then caused a cave in, which buried Skywalker and separated him from Kenobi. Dooku then took his lightsaber, hiding it alongside his and then arranged for transportation with Capt. Ohnaka and his pirate gang aboard their ship to Florrum. However, Dooku lost both his and Skywalker's lightsaber to the pirates. When Kenobi and Skywalker came to check on their claim, Skywalker tried to take his lightsaber back from Pilf Mukmuk to no avail. Skywalker was then able to retrieve from Mukmuk, free himself and Kenobi and hold Ohnaka hostage until Jar Jarr Binks arrived.

Weapon of a Sith
Skywalker used this weapon to duel and defeat the Sith Lord Count Dooku, also known as Darth Tyranus during the Battle of Coruscant. He later lost the weapon while effecting the rescue of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and it was retrieved by one of General Grievous's IG-100 Magnaguards. The weapon was then given by the Magnaguard to Grievous, who briefly wielded it, but Obi-Wan Kenobi used a trick of the Force to recover it and returned it to Anakin.

Skywalker later used the weapon to slaughter many of his fellow Jedi during his Attack on the Jedi Temple. After this, he slaughtered the entire leadership of the Separatist Council on his Mission to Mustafar. He then lost the weapon in his duel with Kenobi.

Obtaining the weapon
"Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it. He feared you might follow old Obi-Wan on some damn fool idealistic crusade like your father did."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker

Anakin's lightsaber remained in the Kenobi's possession for nineteen years where he was given an opportunity to give the weapon to Luke, Anakin's son, after rescuing the young Skywalker from a Tusken Raider attack. At his home, Kenobi presented Skywalker with his father's lightsaber stating that his father wanted him to have it when Skywalker was old enough but his uncle Owen Lars wouldn't allow it as he thought Skywalker would follow in his father's footsteps and join Kenobi on some "damn fool idealistic crusade". Following the death of his aunt and uncle, Skywalker became Kenobi's apprentice and started to learn the ways of the Jedi. During his voyage to Alderaan, Skywalker began training with the weapon onboard the Millennium Falcon where he used the Jedi form of Form I, to deflect blaster blots from a training remote.

Usage on Cymoon 1
"You hold that weapon like an untrained child. You have no right to it."

- Darth Vader to Luke Skywalker

Following Kenobi's untimely demise at the hands of Darth Vader, Skywalker began to teach himself how to wield his father's weapon. On the moon of Cymoon 1, Skywalker participated in an assault on the moon to infiltrate and destroy the weapons factory Alpha. After the Force guided Skywalker to a cage filled with Imperial slaves, where he was confronted by a guard. Skywalker first attempted to use a Jedi mind trick to ward the guard off, but when that failed, Skywalker ignited his lightsaber and sliced the guard's hand off, allowing Skywalker to break the slaves out of their cage and lead them to the other Rebels. When Skywalker found out that Darth Vader had arrived on the moon, Skywalker searched for him in the facility, as he still believed that Vader was the man who killed his father. As Skywalker approached the Dark Lord, he had his lightsaber drawn and activated as he came face to face with his father's so-called killer (and Obi-Wan Kenobi's).

Usage on Hoth
When Skywalker was captured by a wampa, a creature native to the ice planet of Hoth, he found himself hanging upside down from the ceiling of a cave that the wampa resided in. Seeing his weapon on the floor, he used the Force to call the weapon to him, cutting himself free and slicing off one of the wampa's arm allowing him to escape.

When Han Solo found Skywalker nearly frozen to death, he used the lightsaber to cut open his dead tauntaun and keep Skywalker warm while he put up shelter.

During the Battle of Hoth, Skywalker using the combined ability of a grappling device and his lightsaber to cut open a hatch on the bottom of an Imperial AT-AT walker prior to throwing in an explosive to destroy the enemy vehicle.

Usage on Dagobah
During his training with Jedi Master Yoda on the planet Dagobah, Skywalker entered a cave that was strong with the dark side as a test given by Yoda. In the hollow, Skywalker had a vision in which he faced Darth Vader, the Dark Lord of the Sith. As Skywalker used his lightsaber to strike down Vader with a high lightsaber blow, the illusory Sith Lord's helmeted head rolled on the floor, and the face shield cracked open to reveal the young Jedi's own countenance behind the mask.

Duel against Darth Vader
Following his duel in the dark side cave, Skywalker received a force vision of his friends being in pain on the Cloud City on Bespin. There, he faced Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel, where Skywalker demonstrated his new found skills with the weapon, that impressed even the former wielder. During the battle, due to Skywalker's fatigue, Vader sliced Skywalker's hand off that was holding his lightsaber and fell, along with the lightsaber it carried, into the depths of Cloud City. After recovering from his injuries, Skywalker built himself a new lightsaber to replace the one he lost.

Reappearance
The lightsaber resurfaced some thirty years later on the planet Takodana, in the possession of Maz Kanata. When Rey, Finn, BB-8, and Han Solo visited Maz Kanata's castle, Rey ventured into the castle's basement and found the lightsaber. Upon touching it, she received a series of visions and recoiled in horror, rejecting Kanata's attempt to give her the lightsaber. Finn later took it for safekeeping. Shortly after, the First Order attacked after having been informed of the presence of BB-8. Finn used the lightsaber against a First Order Riot Control Stormtrooper. After the attack on Takodana, the Resistance moved to attack Starkiller Base in an attempt to stop the First Order from firing its primary weapon at the Resistance base on D'Qar. Finn used the lightsaber again in a confrontation with Kylo Ren while on Starkiller Base, but was badly wounded in the fight. Upon seeing this, Rey used the Force to grab the lightsaber and overpowered Ren with the help of the Force. Rey and Finn were then rescued by Chewbacca aboard the Millennium Falcon. After discovering the planet where Luke Skywalker was hiding, Rey, accompanied by Chewbacca and R2-D2, ventured to the planet aboard the Millennium Falcon where she eventually found Luke and presented him with his father's lightsaber.

Behind the scenes
Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber in Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith was machined to look like Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V The Empire Strikes Back as they are canonically one and the same.

The original hilt carried by Mark Hamill in A New Hope was made from the flash attachment of a Graflex 3 cell flash unit, a flash tube attachment used on forties-era press cameras, with the ridged grips made by gluing portions of hard plastic T-track used for cabinet sliding doors (often mistaken for wiper blades) onto the bare cylinder, and the switch plate fashioned from the LED display of an Exactra 19 or 20 calculator. A D-ring assembly was also added to the bottom. The lightsaber used in The Empire Strikes Back was again based on a Graflex, but the 'T' tracks were instead screwed on, the switch plate was replaced with part of a circuit board, the Graflex logo was covered with mylar tape, and part of a Kobold camera flash was used to created the D-ring assembly.

For Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, genuine Graflex flash units were used to make the lightsaber props. As they were based on The Empire Strikes Back version, they feature circuit boards and 'T' tracks attached via screws. To hide the Graflex logo, a "wrap" was created that covers most of the flash unit's clamp.