A co-worker of mine asked me today about a good light to take in the woods to replace his old maglite. His criteria was pretty straight forward, but left me stumped.
He wants a light that would be good to use like a hammer. He has used his maglite to baton wood and whatever light he replaces it with he’d like it to be equally durable.
Since lights these days are made of aluminum instead of the stainless steel like they used to be, I have my doubts as to durability. Ideas?
Just so you know Maglites are made of aluminum to. For that criteria I don't think anything could beat a modded Maglite of some kind. Probably a XML and a decent 3 mode driver.
Another Maglite, of course. 3D or longer for hammer use. The only one I’d consider.
I thought the older maglites were made of steel, but when they started updating recently they changed to the cheaper aluminium.
Nope, always been made out of aluminum.
4D mag would be my suggestion.
Curious… if hes surrounded by fallen timber, why not just use that to baton with? A lot of blade steels can chip/fracture with below freezing temperatures. The shock + impact of metal on metal I think would be asking for trouble.
nope… mags have always been aluminum
The only thing that makes sense for batoning is another piece of wood.
Hard things like hammers, rocks and flashlights damage the knife and may break it due to shock.
BTW, by far the most common way of making a fire is the 3 stone method. It is used by native people all over the world.
You put 3 stones in a triangle to hold up the pot and then feed in 3 logs through the spaces, as they burn you push the logs further in.
An old Maglite, so he battons with an incan? I guess the blade is steel and he’s hitting the narrow spine with a maglite? Really? Pics or STFU 
I’m just telling ya what he said he does with his light. I get what you’re saying that it’s a stupid thing to do, but this is what he says he does. People do stupid things. I guess that’s why he wants a durable flashlight, to do stupid things with.
He must go through a lot of bulbs in that old incan. Maglite!
-Garry
Feel better using maglite as a hammer, than a flashlight. 
No I think in a backpacking, wilderness (or even worse a dire survival) situation it makes GOOD sense to multi-task your tools. Often times for me single purpose only tools get left behind @ base-camp. And heck an old mag incan works better as a hammer than a flashlight anyways… IMNO of course.
People have different preferences, its wrong to critique someone elses wilderness methods. Sorry if I came across that way, that wasn’t my intent. Whatever works for the individual. heck if he can split a log with one-2 blows from a 4D mag, while I may need 4-5 swings from a cord of wood. Thats not necessarily a bad thing when your tired/fatigued and need to maximize calorie expenditure.
My Mags have all been modded with a PVC sleeve to run C cells . The additional weight and stiffness of the sleeve makes a Mag an even better hammer .
Fair enough but the argument about reducing a couple of swings by using the mag instead of a wooden batton is countered by asking would you risk losing your lighting capability to save a couple of swings?
Solarforce Gladiator??
Mag with match’s six led head is sounding good, maybe machine a stainless sleeve for the outside of the head and make the head deeper so it mounts to more of the battery tube…… Or, get an led mag, machine a stainless sleeve that fits to the tailcap?
Have seen a flashlight advertised as an extra hammer.Will search.
Lennart
http://www.biltema.se/sv/Fritid/Friluftsliv-och-camping/Lampor/Nodficklampa-24921/
This one.Do not ask me how to use it?
Lennart
Better put a Itp a3 in the hollow shaft of a hammer?
Lennart