Received my D1S ordered from Neal.
- Super fast FREE shipping with tracking: 7 days from China to Sweden.
- Impressive throw from a relatively tiny light that does fit in most (slightly larger) pockets and doesn’t weigh much.
- Solid quality.
- The new coating feels like chalk and I don’t like it (the original D4 coating is much nicer to touch); well at least it’s not slippery.
- Love the UI.
Quite mixed reports on the coating so far, i am holding off till the “normal” type ano is or will be available. Shame as the extra grip would be useful, but cant be doing with that type of feel. I can get a good idea from the “like chalk”. I am sure Hank will read comments, no doubt be addressed in future batches.
After a week you will not notice the feel.
The normal Ano is only available on the grey and black colors.
Funny, my friend picked up my D1S and shuddered. He said, “It’s like nails on a chalkboard!” 
He wants a D4 but is totally turned off by the texture.
I don’t get any weird sensations from the new ‘rough’ anodizing, but I understand the feeling.
I prefer the smooth texture of the earlier Emisars.
I would like to see each model have at least 1 colour offered in each surface finish so that people can choose.
I’m also holding off on the D1s in the hopes that a smooth ano version is released, though I asked Hank in an email about this and he said that there was no plan to release in smooth.
The texture on my new Cyan D4 doesn’t bother me in the least. Maybe it’s because I’m 65 and my hands aren’t as sensitive as they used to be. That said, I’m looking forward to getting my grey D1S from Mountain Electronics.
That has been my experience and the reaction of people I’ve handed one to. Really unpleasant finish and it also seems to be brittle compared to the original. It smooths out with use and no longer feels like nail on a chalkboard, just cheap feeling instead.
And these lights cost a fortune! The ano should be MUCH better! 
I was browsing online looking for a knife in a particular blade steel, seeing what’s out there… saw some custom’s in excess of $2000 for a folding pocket knife! Man am I glad I don’t have THAT bug!
It was awesome to start with, why ruin it?
I don’t see anything ruined. I have a green D4 and D1, my wife has a D4 in Cyan, I have a grey D1s en-route somewhere. I don’t have any problem with any of them and neither does my wife (or my mom for that matter)
Texture anodizing also caused the screw threads to be as rough as Ultrafire. Grinding feel from metals really irks me.
No one mention about ergonomic of this light? 
This is a deal breaker for me.
Ironic, you complain about the anodizing making a gritty feel then say it’s metals grinding, how can metals be touching if they’re anodized?
As with all new things, the break-in period corrects virtually all of the problems described.
Don’t tell us you haven’t seen custom pocket lights for $2000+.
Nope, he has never seen any expensive exotic lights. 
I know what the materials cost both for flashlights and knives, cannot see justification for the price of some of those blades, nor some of the lights that are out there to be honest. Material cost alone on the Mokune Gane Sinner is quite exorbitant! A blade in exotic supersteels doesn’t come at that kind of price, granted some can have quite a lot of man hours.
Point being, when you pay $40.00 for a factory hot rod flashlight how can one complain about the anodizing? It is neither dry nor dusty, flaky nor gritty, handling it puts no residue on the hands. Thus, not chalky. My 10 yr old has been grinding limestone rocks down on the concrete of our driveway, he leaves white chalky handprints on the door and footprints throughout the entry, quite familiar with “chalky”.
There is also a tremendous difference between seeing an expensive light and paying for one… I went through that process once with a custom builder and got an unexpected surprise at the end of it all… the bill. Because of that experience I will never be caught in the dark without a light, but I would have never gone into that had I known what it was going to run into. Yes, I paid an equivalent $800 for a light no bigger than my index finger. Wouldn’t do it again. (couldn’t do it again)
There is a new push for the machined look, no beadblasting and no dye, clear anodizing with visible machining marks. Truly beautiful in my honest opinion. I got one in yesterday that is just stunning…
Takes time to make a unique quality piece.
Yeah, well… I had just sold my truck and inquired about a custom light, relatively basic, drawn up from the design of a Leupold rifle scope. I asked if I supplied the Titanium could it be done around $200, was told yes. Then the design morphed and it grew more complicated and in the end I had to pay $500 plus the surgical grade Titanium I sent. I know he put a lot of time into it, making a small light from a 1” bar of Ti, didn’t see that coming. Was new to all this then, just didn’t realize. He did a beautiful job of it of course, and it was more my own lack of foresight than anything else, so…
Of course, now that I have a lathe I see how it can gobble up a lot of time and for me as a hobbyist thats one thing, but a custom builder does it for the money, right? And therein lies the rub…. gotta pay to play.
I got my Texas Poker (his name for it) making 134 lumens with a blank third mode in 4 levels. That was kinda weird. So ultimately I learned to build my own drivers and it now sports an 10mm FET driver at around 800 lumens. Been wearing it on a Ti chain around my neck virtually 24/7/365 for closing in on 4 years.
Makes that $40 D4 look golden, don’t it? 
Edit: I had a 1” bar of surgical grade titanium from a gunsmith friend that went to work at a machine shop specializing in medical implants. I’d had it for some 13 years, wanted to do something special with it. Hence the birth of the Texas Poker. I have a thread here on it’s build with pics supplied along the way by it’s maker, Photon Fanatic. It’s really a beautiful piece of work, done entirely on a Swiss manual lathe. It uses a 10440 Li-ion cell and pulls just over 3A in Turbo.
Edit II: Texas Poker Build Thread for those that wish to see how it’s done…
Thanks for all the helpful info. Does anyone who owns the smaller D1 know if it might work in one of the headlamp straps that are intended for convoy tube lights? something like this:
If you've tried it let us know. If not, do any D1 owners think the weight or head size being thicker than the battery tube would stop it from being a reasonable headlamp? (just for walking around, not wearing it on a roller coaster).
I don’t recommend using throwy lights as headlamps. It has a tendency to cause tunnel vision.