BLF A6 Special Edition cosmetic damage

Hi all,

New to the forum, but have owned a BLF A6 Special Edition for a couple of years now and have really enjoyed it with very casual use around the house and outdoors.

Much to my dismay, after using it tonight under my kitchen sink, I sat it on my kitchen counter and promptly knocked it off the counter and onto the tile floor (around 3 feet high or so).

Looked it over and all seems to work fine, but it must have landed on the corner of the LED end and put a dent/abrasion On the rim around the LED glass housing.

A couple of things-- Should I be concerned with any effects to the inner parts/battery from a drop that high?

Also, I'm a little OCD and was wondering if this is normal "wear and tear" for those of you that use flashlights frequently, and if it is easy or cheap to get a replacement head or casing? I figured that would cost as much or more than buying an entire new light. I touched it up a bit with a black Sharpie. It doesn't feel too rough to the touch in that spot, but it isn't as smooth as the factory finish.

Pardon the newbie questions, just a very casual user at this point.

Thanks for any and all help!

Most lights these days are rated to withstand a 3-foot drop with no problems. Unfortunately, there have been many instances reported that a short, survivable drop are killing our lights. the bezel does change the corona to some extent but unless it’s flattened to a crescent moon shape, i don’t think you need to worry about beam pattern. as long as the reflector is still in the same spot and not shifted away from the focusing ring, that should be fine. check the battery top for denting, which should be your main safety concern

Your light will be fine.

This is what a lot of perfectly functional flashlights look like.

I bought mine as plain aluminum to use as a work light specifically because it wouldn’t show the wear and tear as much as an anodized light. SBO.

I have a plain aluminum one also for work and have dropped it 3 or 4 times. So far no issues other than I’ve hit the sharp spots on the housing with a stone and buffing wheel.

that’s a historical relic mate.

I used to have a grey convoy s2+ triple that looks like the current silver clear ano due to wear and tear. Now it’s gone somewhere in a convention center and never to be seen again

You should see my bobofett light (looks like bobofett’s helmet) after spending lots of time in a pocket with keys, loose change, etc., treating it like a river-rock.

Only after the switch croked and I couldn’t figure out how to nondestructively remove/swap it did I ditch the corpse for a new one.

You can sand ,polish and buff out the end to almost make it look like a SS bezel. If that doesn't work than either bake it ,beat it into an antique..or strip it sand and polish it . Black marker really doesn't work ,Barely better than nothing at all . Colored ano is at least twice as soft vs. black ....sometimes much worse

Or do like Justin and spray it with texture paint, maybe bedliner, or file some buenos notches.

I would stonewash it

I don’t think I have seen a properly stonewashed S2+ before, has anybody done this here on BLF?

Thanks for all of the replies. The ding is relatively minor, and everything is still fully functional as far as I can tell.

Nice light, but for the price I paid, I would hate to put too much work into refinishing the whole light.

I would post a picture, but for some reason I can’t figure out how to do so easily. When I hit the “Insert Picture” button, it seems like it is asking me to link to a website URL for a picture instead of searching my device.

How to Post Images on BLF . :+1:

Ha, not my picture but I’ve definitely got a few lights that are pretty close to that beat up. Most of my recent buys that see a lot of use have actually held up pretty well though. Thrunite and Zebralight have some pretty good anno.

teacher—Thanks for the link!

Here’s mine—Ding is to the right of the reflector in the pic.

BurningPlayd0h — I guess I have a long way to go before mine looks as well-loved as yours!

My pleasure KYdealsPR0…. :+1:
That little ding on the bezel just adds a bit of character…. :wink:

yeah, I wouldn’t worry about that.
In a year or two there will probably be more scratches and on mine the rear threads barely have anodization left.

All seemed well at first, but I’ve now noticed that the light won’t come on randomly. I have opened the light up, taken out the battery and put it back in. Last time I was able to check over the weekend, the built-in battery meter blinked twice, which would lead me to believe that the battery isn’t the problem.

I also noticed that on two occasions now, in the midst of it not coming on, it did light up for a split-second, then powered back off and would not come on. On another occasion, it functioned fine.

Something must have jarred loose inside of it.

Maybe time for some flashlight Heimlich manouvers?

- disassemble the flashlight into 3 pieces: head-combo, tube/body, tail-combo,

- perform a visual inspection if the driver-board and switch board have signs of damage,

- check if you can give the retainer rings in head- and tail-combo an extra nudge (in a clockwise direction),

- clean the front and back rims (the naked metal parts) of the tube/body,

- do the same with the surfaces in the head- and tail-combo that are in contact with the tube/body,

- screw the head-combo firmly back on the tube/body and look if there remains a (small) gap on the outside, if so that’s OK,

- lower the battery back in the tube/body and use a piece of copper wire to short circuit the underside of the battery with the bare end of the tube

- does the light switch on? If not, the problem is most likely in the front-side of the light,

- if it is on, and you repeat this intermittend, try to imitate the switching operation from one mode to another,

- screw the tail-combo firm on the tube/body and try to do the switching operation by using the actual switch.

  • if things are not OK now, the problem will be most likely in the rear-size of the light.

FYI It took me some time to change my (first edition) BLF A6 from DOA to fully functional.
Reading through multiple threads I got an impression that a lot of it was caused by the treads on the tube/body that were (an itsi bitsi tini wini) too short. But a gap of 1µm is as bad as a gap of 1km: no contact.
If that’s all there is, it can be cured by adding an improvised ring (the size of the tube, made of a piece of paperclip) between the tube/body and the retainer ring.

Thanks for the suggestions! I did a simple disassembly last night and visually inspected the parts, all of which seemed fine. I checked the O-rings to make sure they were properly in place. I re-assembled tightly, and for the time being everything functions well. I will continue to keep an eye on it and if anything goes wrong moving forward, I will take the extra steps mentioned above.

Again, thanks for all of your help.