Eras
A hilt forged in the Old Republic and one rebuilt after the Empire fell share a crystal and almost nothing else. Four thousand years sit between them, and the catalogue reaches across the whole of it.
Every period the galaxy built a saber in.
Era comes from the franchise a hilt belongs to, so a good part of the catalogue — design themes, games, and the ARTSABERS Exclusive originals — carries no period at all.
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The Old RepublicForged before anybody wrote the rules downLeads Darth Revan · Satele Shan · Darth Malgus51 hilts · c. 4000–3600 BBYExplore The Old Republic →
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The High RepublicThe Order at its height, and the shadow already movingLeads Qimir · Elzar Mann · Master Vernestra16 hilts · c. 232–100 BBYExplore The High Republic →
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Fall of the JediThe Republic's last years, and the last hilts built to a standardLeads Obi-Wan Kenobi · Anakin Skywalker · Youngling139 hilts · 32–19 BBYExplore Fall of the Jedi →
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Reign of the EmpireSurvivors, inquisitors, and hilts built in hidingLeads Cal Kestis · Starkiller · Ezra Bridger97 hilts · 19 BBY – 0 BBYExplore Reign of the Empire →
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Age of RebellionThe three silhouettes everybody can draw from memoryLeads Luke Skywalker · Darth Vader · Obi-Wan Kenobi43 hilts · 0 BBY – 4 ABYExplore Age of Rebellion →
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The New RepublicOld grudges, new blades, and no Order left to answer toLeads The Mandalorian · Baylan Skoll · Shin Hati50 hilts · 5–9 ABYExplore The New Republic →
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Rise of the First OrderSalvage, inheritance, and one hilt built from scratchLeads Rey "Skywalker" Palpatine · Ben Solo · Kylo Ren31 hilts · 34–35 ABYExplore Rise of the First Order →
Legends is a continuity rather than a stretch of time. Its characters sit after Return of the Jedi, in the books and games the sequel films later wrote past.
A crystal, a cell and a housing. The housing is where the centuries show.
The Old Republic had foundries and no reason to hide them
Hilts from the oldest end of the catalogue run heavy and ornamental — long grips, exposed emitter cages, machining that exists to be looked at. Both Orders were building openly and at scale, and the object was as much a mark of rank as it was a weapon. Nothing about a Revan or a Malgus hilt is trying to pass for anything else.
Ceremony does something to a design that no longer has to survive a war
Take the war away and the design stops arguing. High Republic hilts are slimmer and quieter, with proportion doing the work the ornament used to do — restrained detailing, clean collars, a finish meant for a hall rather than a trench. It is the one stretch of the catalogue where a saber looks made for being seen at rest rather than in use.
Concealment changes the shape of a hilt
By the Imperial years carrying one is a death sentence, and the hardware answers to that before it answers to anything else. Shorter bodies. Matte finishes that will not catch a torch beam. Parts salvaged off machinery that never started life as a saber component. The inquisitor hilts are the opposite case and look it — factory-made, hard geometry, spun rings, nothing personal anywhere on them.
Inherited is not the same as built
The Sequel era works with whatever survived. A blade handed down twice, a hilt rebuilt out of a staff, wrapped grips and welded collars holding together parts that were never machined to fit each other. The seams show because there was no foundry left to hide them, and that is the look of the newest end of the catalogue.
Through all of it the crystal, the cell and the emitter stay exactly where they are. Everything a smith could argue about sits on the outside — how long the grip runs, whether the shroud is a cage or a collar, how much of the mechanism is meant to be visible. That argument is the whole difference between one period's hilts and the next.
Other ways in
Period is one cut. Here are three more.
Same catalogue, different question. Who carried it, what board is sitting inside it, and whether it was built to be swung at another one.