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

+1…… have a :beer: with them taters!

Tally-ho is in no danger of getting banned for the last few posts. People are free to disagree here, as long as it is civil.

RIP “Sharpie 2.0”, and RIP my lame joke attempt.

I just assumed most people noticed when the almost constant crapping on the FW3A project stopped earlier this month. But I guess I came across a little too literal with Tally-ho.

Fair enough. I get you. Sometimes it can be a little hard to decipher intent online, but it certainly makes complete sense now. I just wanted to make sure Tally-ho knows that there is a long leash here, and that civilly posted disagreement is always allowed.

It’s almost like you guys take this flashlight stuff seriously.

I would like one

Maybe small patatoes but a few manufacturers understood that sometimes, listening small potatoes is good for business.
For recent examples : FireFlies decide to make and sell the stainless steel tail cap as an option (5:money_mouth_face:. They also modified the E07 head prototype when a deeper fined head was suggested, E07 chamfered fins, etc.

It would not be that difficult to make an alternative external battery tube for the FW3A with it’s original design : same lengh, different profil (thickness reduction on both side at 90° angle with a little chamfer on top off it).
Some people are not using pocket clip, or only as an anti-roll feature. No need for the Nitecore big slope chamfer in this case.

There are many online stores offering various options to select before ordering, it’s not a big deal, and we do like options.

I don’t want to force anyone, but maybe someone from the BLF team could suggest this type of option for a future FW3A-raw-material-with-machining-marks…I would be thankful, but not upset if it never happened as it is not a matter of life and death, just aesthetic, but aesthetic does matter even for tools.

Looks great, please add me to the list! Thanks

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Please add me to the list.

“What we hope for”, but without the hole in the end. :beer:

Didn’t want to hope for too much :smiley:

Just to give an idea for a future FW3A, here is a praxis copper mechanical mod (vaping) with exaggerated machining marks (more a light spiral “knurling”) which are grippy.

Sorry for the patatoe quality.

I would say one year from idea to market is normal for a Chinese company to develop a lamp.
The Sofirn C01 was unusually fast.
When BLF is involved you can add a few months, because there is no design freeze. The community will suggest stuff till start of selling and even afterwards.

I like to wrap a lanyard around light ant have to come out through the hole to go around my wrist.

Hole at the top, not the hole at the end of the clip.

There could have been a design freeze, but somebody decided it needed paint on the clip and the easter bunny on the button. That wasn’t BLF.

I did not say: Lumintop should not worry excessively about BLF.

The message was: We at BLF should not worry excessively about a particular flashlight.

Lumintop should care, because it is a business and we are its customers. But we should not let things like this bother us, because we are here for enjoyment, and being bothered defeats the point of being here.

If we come here for pleasure and find ourselves unhappy instead, that’s a sign that we should step away and do something else. People involved in the project may be kind of stuck here, but everyone else has the freedom to engage in a different activity, focus on other threads, or approach things in a different way which does not cause distress.

I thought it was cleared up that the clip wasn’t painted, and the logo isn’t going to be on the group buy lights?

Well said TK. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can be a bit obsessive over even the smallest details if I’ve spent too much time trying to absorb everything I can about a subject, flashlights being no different. When I get to the point of sweating (literally) about trying to cram entirely too much info into this little cranium of mine, small things can set me off down a spiral of anxiety as opposed to the joy I should be feeling learning about something I enjoy. Don’t get me wrong, I bought a ticket at the aft end of this crazy train, but I’m glad to be riding it!

“You need the dark in order to show the light.” Bob Ross

That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. :smiley:

Anyway, it seems the fate of the FW3A is in the hands of the potato gods now. If I understand correctly, production may have already started and all that is left may be the final assembly and sales. I have a tracking number for one of the samples in Neal’s pics — the ones with the dark clip. But I don’t know if that is how production units will look or not. We probably won’t know for sure until sales start.

As usual, I can’t really say anything with 100% certainty… but I heard a bit more about the emitter options:

  • It sounds like Neal is still looking for a good SST-20 tint bin. FA or FD tint, in J4 brightness. Not FB or FC, and not J5, because those are reported to be green.
  • LH351D is still possible but it sounds like international relations may interfere with that.
  • So it’s likely that only XP-L HI will be available at launch time.
  • Since the other emitter types haven’t happened yet, it sounds like Neal wants to offer XP-L HI in two tints, and he was talking about 3D and 7A.

I tried tossing the emitter poll data at him again, and suggested offering more choices, in ratios matching the poll data… but everything just bounced off. So I asked about a version with no LEDs. I haven’t heard back yet.