In my own EDC experience, the hands on part of actually using a copper light keeps the tarnish at bay. Even if you WANT that rich dark patina, handling it keeps that worn off for the most part. The green that some people seem to want can only grow on copper that’s left solely alone, handling it of course means it won’t happen unless there are crevices that don’t get touched in daily handling.
I got a light to repair lately that was taken swimming in the ocean. Solid copper, brass fittings inside. The salt water corroded the copper at the silicone boot and cause a leak into the switch area, everything inside the tail cap was NASTY!
So, while copper conducts electricty and is thermally excellent, it’s also soft and gets scarred up and has some issues with exposure in extreme instances. I wouldn’t recommend a solid copper light for extreme work environments, enthusiasts might like the solid copper for it’s ability to handle and extreme driver/emitter set-up, there’s just going to be some extra care needed to keep the light in good condition.
Thanks J-Dub74, will be interested to hear about wether its coated copper. I think someone also asked if it was raw copper or an alloy, do you know this?
More in line with thread topic, what’s your opinion on Convoy supplying cerakote or similar style coatings in the future? Based on your experience would there be any demand for this?
Sounds good, so if made of raw copper the solution is simply to handle it often or take to it with a cloth every now and then to stop the tarnish building up. I do prefer it shiny
I’ve actually cleaned a copper light up pretty nice sitting at a restaurant waiting for my meal… used the slice of lemon they put in my tea.
Any coating will wear off, some quicker than others, but it usually looks pretty bad as the coating chips and peels off and leaves the light in a calico pattern of shiny and patina’d. There are products that are supposed to leave a protective film, but I haven’t found one that actually works in this instance. Well, I used Renaissance Wax on my Solarforce M8 pill that Bucket made for me and it’s still shiny sitting on the shelf, that’s been a few years ago now. Never use the light. Supposedly it’s a Museum quality restoration wax that was developed for priceless antiques so…
Note that these only come with the XM-L2 and the old 3/5 mode firmware by default. If you want the XP-L HI and Biscotti, start a purchase but stop when you get to a spot that lets you add a note to your order. Use that to request Biscotti and the emitter of your choice. Don’t submit payment until Simon updates the price to reflect your modifications.
If anyone’s looking for the violet, orange or cyan S2+ in the Biscotti / XPL-HI / AR glass / smooth reflector configuration, Simon has listed them as a standard version:
Wow the purple and orange looks great! I especially like the orange as it looks nearly identical to my copper S2+ host. I wonder why they don’t sell host only versions.
I just realized none of the images or descriptions for the new colors mention a clip - are clips not included with these lights like they are with the other colors?