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

While I generally like black, painted clips chip over time and look bad. I’ll come out against this, but buy the same number regardless of the finish on the clip.

Yeah, I don’t like the black clip either, but I don’t care as long as I can get rid of the paint with some acetone.

is there more angles of the latest prototype ? hard to see the clips color in that angle really.

Rusty black, to be more precise.

As long as it’s durable, I don’t care at all about its color. Adding/removing paint is pretty dang easy.

I can’t tell from the photo if it’s painted or some kind of conversion coating like black oxide or parkerizing.

Or perhaps its light playing tricks on the photo.

Personally, I don’t have a strong preference one way or the other. I just hope the community doesn’t make collectively as big of deal about the clip color as we went through about the body color.

The community has collectively made a big deal out of

  • The body color
  • The body shape
  • The surface finish
  • The emitter options
  • The color rendering index
  • The color temperature
  • The tint bins
  • The battery compatibility
  • The optics

What gives you the idea there’s any chance the clip color/finish will be different? But I’ll buy just as many regardless.

Hmmmm, ’personally’ I do not see black; just lighting anomalies. But that & any other speculation is counterproductive at this point. It is useless. Time will tell.

The good news is new prototypes are being sent out, so hopefully we will have info soon. Also that “should” mean we are close to production. Maybe.

Actually, it says samples are being sent, not prototypes, which may be even better news. Maybe.

closer production then this it cant be since they are releasing those lights if it gets ok from those people they will start production so that sounds positive to me.

Sorry, we didn’t say that the production version will have a black pocket clip but this is definitely black and it is not due to a lightning anomaly.

The problem is to know if they are going to adopt this black clip for the production version or if it was just a color test that they finally rejected.
It is not the first and unexpected “drift” from the initial prototype, so we would like to know for sure what the production version will definitely looks like.

- “Maybe a black painted button to match the pocket clip ?”

I liked the silver clip, and I liked that the tip section was smooth. It has a good texture for thumb fidgeting.

Not really excited about a black clip, or having an extra hole in the end. Color will probably scrape off, and it already has a better place to attach a lanyard.

Would be nice if the only change was to fix the driver fit issue.

Yes, that would be nice. I don’t care about the clip at all, but I see no reason for making silly changes at this stage of this very long saga.

While the bare clip might be slightly nicer, I don’t think Lumintop’s decision to go with a black clip is enough to punt it back and hold up production.

As long as the light works and the driver fit issue was corrected, it might as well go into production as-is.

’Maybe’ your right and it is painted Black. I am still going with a lighting anomaly.

But I will say this, if it is paint; it appears to be a very poorly done job. There is still a lot of silver visible.
You can start with either side of your ‘red arrow point’ & then go right on to the edge of the clip to see silver.

If whoever orginally posted this picture would chime in, the mystery could be certainly solved……

Either way, it is what it is…… :beer:

I think that’s just a lighting anomaly. The white on the clip in that reflection looks to me to just be reflections off a shiny black clip.

Time will tell…… :+1:

In general, white and black are just the same color at different brightness levels. A white reflection on a black clip doesn’t mean there’s silver showing through.

The pic makes it look like the clip is painted black, but the pic was also taken by a potato cam. We might not know for sure until items arrive for testing.

Put me on the list for whichever version comes out first, if that’s SST-20 or what.