Hi Tom, great to see you got your hands on it. Thanks for your work to make this a classic.
How is the grip on the tube, how is the knurling compared to the Supfire M6? Main reason I prefer a classic SRK over the M6 is that the M6 is too round and too slippery for its weight. Is the Q8 better?
Much obliged
OK so far though the tint could be an issue for some. I like heavy springs; my A6 has the bump for mode change issue and a spring bypass is easy enough though we did call for double springs. It seems to be going along well but Santa will have to wait this year- oh well.
LIKING IT 
Phil
I’m liking it too, it is good to see that many details are right, the output is good, the output drop at 30 seconds is limited, so the design is solid sofar and more than delivers what we aimed for.
And there is much that must be improved still, and that is what a prototype is for.
I can't see how anyone appreciates extra brightness when it's mostly just in that blue peak. Unless it's for a disco party, no thanks, but there's something for everyone I guess. Nothing $20 worth led's won't solve, oh wait, that's half the price of the light. Anyway, it's not like they can't ship it with different leds.
I've discussed in detail, and provided pics to ThorFire on bypass wiring. Hopefully they will do the bypass's because a bypass is more effective than double springs. The new Convoy L6, for example, comes with bypass's. Even if they used thin wires, like 24 or 26 AWG, it's a good improvement, and I think still better than double springs, but also depends on the type of spring or spring quality.
I would say it's slightly better - just compared the two. The knurling is slightly gripier and longer on the tube, but you have the 4 smooth spots around the tube, bigger patches than the M6 has. There are far more gripier lights though.
This is an early proto. We've discussed tint and emphasized our requirements as 3D, as listed in the OP. They are looking at sourcing V6 3D XPL's now, as far as I understand.
This is a first prototype and they used cool white leds for it, and many other parts that should and will be different in the end product, everything to discuss, but nothing to worry about at this point. (will save my worries for the final sample 
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As a flashlight manufacturer I wouldn’t bypass springs. There is a big risk the bypass gets teared off, as it happened in my L6 after a few days. Most people here can easily do bypasses, and non flashoholics won’t mind the litttle difference in output.
I replaced the bypass's in my L6 - very thin, not well soldered - poor quality. Did not have problems with them torn off though, or any bypass I've done with silicone covered wires, and I've done hundreds at this point.
We thought the double springs would be easier, maybe cheaper, like in the Mankers. That's why we spec'ed them.
As I understand that without double springs or bypasses, the Q8 protoype puts out well over 5000 lumen, I would like to leave both out to have the springs as proven effective fuses. Modders living a bit closer to the edge will have soldered them in in 20 minutes.
There are workers doing this bypasses manually, some are skilled, some not. The Q8 even needs 4 bypasses. Just a question of minimizing warranty problems.
This is my thinking as well. I see no reason to demand they bypass the springs as long as they can handle the current, even if run with a single cell (if that option is going to be advertised with the light). If the springs do not melt in these conditions then I would just leave them alone.
From a manufacturing perspective double springs is the easier and cheaper option as well. That can simple be reflowed onto the PCB and needs no manual labor / skill.
Yeah, not that it’s likely to happen but I’d pay 10-15$ more to get it with the new 90CRI 219C 
How about that? Enhanced Beryllium Copper Battery Springs
In the OP we called for "Double springs with the smaller being Phosphor Bronze springs". I'm thinking we should stay with this approach - this was decided on way back.
Yep, I'm emailing a whole bunch this morn with our manufacturer contact about the prototype and where to go from here. There were a bunch of things done he wasn't aware, and was out of his control then. He just wanted to get the proto out to us in a rush as-is, and realizes there's a bunch of shortcomings. Things have changed over there since, so it seem we have a much better line of communication right now. If nothing else, this prototype has kicked this off -- all good.
Sounds like a really good situation, not the details changing of course, but more importantly the unerstanding and interest to deal with it.
Phosphor Bronze is also good!
Please add me again to the list for another light. Thank you…….Jesse
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And OP list updated!
Wow what a huge number
I have yet to post the pics of the prototype on CPF, I think it will be ore then 18 when done