Where there’s a will there’s a way. Just glue a magnet onto the tailswitch with a trit slot in that and get 3 mods in 1: proud tailswitch, magnetic tail, trit. I’m sure a few people will find space somewhere to carve out a slot if that’s what they really want.
Given a choice between no trits or making the entire light larger and heavier, I’d rather go for no trits. That’s a matter of personal preference though. I have other lights with a focus on machining, and they feel like bricks in comparison.
I don’t have any lights which are truly similar to the FW3A. The Emisar D4 is closest, but it’s significantly heavier. Otherwise, the only lights I can compare it to are designed for AA/14500 or 16340/18350. For example, a Convoy S2+ with 18350 tube is only a few millimeters shorter, and about the same weight when both lights have a battery installed. My Rey Ti has trit slots, but it’s heavier even in 18350 form. The FW3A is pretty close to the same size and weight as a SK-68, but it uses an 18650 cell instead of AA.
FWIW, Fritz successfully replaced the button with a rubber one. This makes it stick out, but it can also allow light through if it’s a clear rubber boot. I’m not sure if that really helps though.
This render looks to have a grain type finish to it. Like it was spun and someone held some fine sand paper or scotchbrite to it. I think it is nicer than the bead blasted finish.
But, lets face it, this has become too big a run to have a very fine machined finish, that would require frequent re-sharpening of even the best carbide cutters, the best free-cutting alloys, slow cuts, and even then there might be moans about it not being quite perfect.
If it was made of e.g. SS it could be electro-polished, but that would defeat the whole point of this very fine minimalist torch, cut down to the minimum. It seems like a “Swiss Watch” construction, definitely not ordinary.
It looks good to me, preferably tumbled in ceramic media rather than crude bead-blast.
I was going to pull the plug on this light due to how long it is taking to develop, but that pic looks awesome, so I’ll continue to stick it out with everyone!
When I sent the PM was to check on the possibility to make a GAW with this light! After TK’s answer, I decided to go along with it and started the GAW. I will deal with the process when it’s on the move Thanks for the info on this!!
BTW: the more I see this light, the more I love it :heart_eyes:
I’ll wait for the things yet to be deciced, but this is growing and growing on me