I'm trying to make my lightsaber curved, so it looks like, well, a katana, and I go into the .tga file for the lightsaber, and its a short stub. Would I curve this short stub and expect it to stretch into the correct shape, or can it be made larger?

The .tga is only an image file wrapped around the msh, a model. Changing the tga would only change the image around it, so you would need to edit the .msh model.

thats not right

the lightsabers tga defines how the blade looks (the blades tga)
i released a "real" katana as weapon,

im not shure if you cant get a satisficing effect by editing the tga

O my mistake, I thought he said handle.

I need the actual blade light to curve.

The bottom most part of the stub is repeated over and over, depending on the length of the blade I think, so try just giving the tip a more pronounced curve.

Ok, thanks, I'll try that.

I've done this. I made a saber pack ages ago. Just change the texture like you would normally if I remember correctly.

Well, I was gonna go into XSI and remodel a hilt with multiple hps and then shorten the blade via ODF so that it's curved no matter what.