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.
True, and good recommendation, but I have a need for a thrower headlamp and have a few flooders so was just wondering if this might work. In the past I’ve used aspheric headlamps with decent results, but thought this might be better. Although, a dd flashlight pressed up against your skull would probably get a little warm on the scalp 
D1s in black arrived. Anno reminds me of thorfire C8 which I do like. Excellent throw with wide hot spot and nice spill. UI is excellent! Nice grippy feel to it. Showed it to an old timer and he really liked it. Said he would wear his hammer holster for carry. Very satisfied!! I grabbed a loose XTAR 2900 bat and it’s happy with it. Batt check showed 4.0 after some turbo use. Money well spent.
Throw right on spec. With a fully charged VTC5A I got 129245cd @ 30sec measured from 3.194 meters. 132336cd at 0 sec. Tint is very pleasant warmish and rosy. Mine is the 5D version.
@TK
from the OP
Are the petals a typo? I don’t see them on the beamshoots.
Nice to see the 5D variant has the rated candelas and a good tint.
If you own a D1, the “petals” are vaguely visible at closer range on a white wall, but they don’t interfere with actual use.
Anyone have a BLF D80 handy to compare with the D1 or D1s? Besides the e-switch, wondering how the beam patterns, reflectors, and feel in the hand might be different or similar.