FW3A, a TLF/BLF EDC flashlight - SST-20 available, coupon codes public

Alright, I’m gunna bite. Put me down for 2 please!

I’m not bothered by the taper; I just don’t like this sort of finish. In an ideal world, it’d be the same sort of finish as the blf 348; of course this is a different thing.

What type finish is it?? Is it bead blasted or what…. I can’t tell.

The BLF-348 is bare steel. The FW3A is not steel, but it could potentially be bare aluminum depending on how things go.

I prefer natural anodize to bare aluminum.

I find bare aluminum transmits heat to my hand much faster than anodized aluminum. The result is hot-rodded high-lumen lights are much less practical. I have to ramp down earlier to avoid burning my hand.

If I had to say something about this, I would probably prefer an anodized version instead of bare aluminium! But let’s see how things evolve :wink:

It’s good to have these updates :+1:

OK, thank you TK. :+1:

Like I said earlier, I am good with whatever it turns out to be.

A preference is clear anodized…. but certainly not a deal breaker in any way if it is not. It would not even bother me if it had a lightly blasted finish. :wink:

I’m easy to please on this one……… :smiley:

Well in that case, why not reduce the threshold temperature and let it do that for you? Generally conductivity is thought to be a good thing; isn’t it?

* I’m #510, please change to qty of 2.

I saw some bare aluminum recently that looked pretty nice.
They call it raw, tumbled aluminum.
Dont want to link to picture so I’ll just put a link if anyone wants to see it.

https://countycomm.com/collections/whats-new/products/raw-tumbled-peanut-lighter-xl-by-maratac

Interest list updated.


- TK

I could go for that.

They all look great to me. Just ordered a D4, can’t wait any longer to burn a flashlight profile into my hands, but I am keen to have both now to compare, and it looks like a holster made for one will fit the other so edc rotation works

I would like to buy two uf these please

I like it!
Can I please be added for a 2nd light!
I’m currently #783 on the list.

FB

Hmmm… The struggle is real when it comes to communication I guess. And not just about lights…… :smiley:

And… it would not be any better if the shoe was on the other foot & the ’English speakers’ were required to speak Chinese…… :wink:
.

For this kind of light, no.

Once heat gets to the outside of the light emissivity is a good thing. Conductivity, not so much. The interior of the light and the battery can all take much more heat than my hand can. All removing the anodizing on a light like this does is make it so I can’t run it in turbo as long. There’s really no upside.

This light doesn’t have a lot of thermal mass or a lot of surface area. If you want something which runs at 3000+ lumens for more than a few seconds without getting hot, this isn’t the light you’re looking for. It’s simply not big enough… so its turbo level is really a “burst only” mode, much like the D4-219c.

The default settings place the ceiling at the 8x7135 level though, which it can sustain quite a bit longer than full turbo. Last time I tested that, it looked like this:

Anodising is essential IMO, to improve emissivity. Bare or polished aluminium is not a good radiator.

See Thermal & mechanical properties of anodized aluminum

“Surface Treatment of Aluminum, Wernick and Pinner, 4th Edition, P.608, Ch. 9. Hard Anodizing:

The thermal conductivity of the anodic coating is between one tenth and one thirtieth of that of aluminum:

The emissivity of aluminium increases rapidly as the thickness of the layer is built up, increasing to 80% for a 10 um coating. A thick hard anodic coating is therefore well on the way to being a ‘black-body’ for heat dissipation, and there is very little advantage in dyeing it black as is sometimes done.”

Aluminum Highly Polished 0.039 - 0.057
Aluminum Rough 0.07
Aluminum Anodized 0.77

Put me down for one.