I’ve been fascinated with flashlights ever since I was a young kid, and back then it was just my dad’s orange plastic (Eveready?) lights.
I just love gadgets, and especially useful ones. They help me with my other hobbies of fishing, mountain biking, and trekking through the jungles here in Singapore. In the grand scheme of things, they don’t cost much either.
My 13-year old daughter is on a school trip in Thailand right now, and she’s armed with a Skillhunt H03 headlamp and two Convoy S2+ I’m happy knowing she’ll have better lights than anyone else, probably including the adults!
Because it’s funny and there’s a little truth in it.
It’s about me.
It is unnecessary to have over two hundred lamps, but I like it.
I love lamps from my childhood. When I was a little boy, I couldn’t own more lamps. My parents were sensible and didn’t understand why I should have more lamps. There were also limited choices.
In the then Czechoslovakia, lamps were made, but almost nothing was imported here.
Now the situation is different, I have LED lamps more than two hundred and more than a hundred old lamps.
Nowhere do I boast, none of my friends cares. If anyone learns, I’m strange to them, or a jerk (in good, friendly).
I used to collect pocketknives but they are generally much more expensive and less useful. A cheap flashlight is generally higher quality than a cheap pocketknife of the same cost. I walk at night in the desert or along a canal because I live in a hot area and it’s nicer at night. Out in the big dark walking most nights I have come across many coyotes, javelinas, raccoons, snakes, scorpions…so I have come to depend on lights with good output, throw, and heat management. My “collection” is pretty utilitarian, all budget lights. I have about 20 which came about from me searching for the best light for one of my use cases. 1 - edc light (pocketable, good low, good color), 2 - task/urban light (nice flood, color, duration), 3 - trail workhorse (good power, throw, heat management, duration - while not being monstrous in size) - hardest use case for me to satisfy btw, 4 - spotlight (my weakest use case, very rarely needed), 5 - emergency light (high battery capacity, good flood, can charge other devices).
I do have one current fav in each category and could lose all the others, not too attached to them.
I think if I were a collector my collection would have unique or special lights but that’s not the case. Like lots of folks here more an accumulation pursuing a goal. I regularly give my less wanted lights to my nephews who love them.
Because it’s funny and there’s a little truth in it.
It’s about me.
It is unnecessary to have over two hundred lamps, but I like it.
I love lamps from my childhood. When I was a little boy, I couldn’t own more lamps. My parents were sensible and didn’t understand why I should have more lamps.
There were also limited choices.
In the then Czechoslovakia, lamps were made, but almost nothing was imported here.
Now the situation is different, I have LED lamps more than two hundred and more than a hundred old lamps.
Nowhere do I boast, none of my friends cares. If anyone finds out, I’m strange or crazy for them (good, friendly).
Wow! That is a story. ...........................Wow!, no WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! More than 300 flashlights/torches/lamps???? That is dedicated if nothing else. Congratulations. I'd be surprised if anybody else on this site has a collection even a fraction the size of yours. Good work.
I started out back in the 70’s with the old chrome and orange ever ready special. Then I was introduced to the Maglight. 4 D cells of raw power… It was the best thing since sliced bread. Then I managed to buy one of the Xeon lamps for it. Heh, Moar power!!! After a few years and going to a lot of gun shows I was shown my first really powerful Light. A Surefire. I was floored at the price and the fact it had these rare Cr123 batteries. It had a run time of 10-12 minutes and was a whopping 110 lumes. I could shine the light down from my 3rd floor apartment and in to the pond and see the fish! how cool was that? Then I found Candle power forums. Holly Crap! Those hand made custom lights were $200-$300+ each (waaaaaaaaaaay out of my price range) , took more funky batteries, had unreal run times. After a few interactions and deciding that group was not for me I wandered the earth looking for better and more lights. Then I found BLF… Now I have all sots of lights that are all over the place that serve all sorts of purposes.
I recently spent a few weeks shopping around via phone for a bigger safe for my lights; NY metro area has lots of the countries’ biggest stocking dealers. When I inform them that I need a bigger safe for my flashlight collection, they automatically think that I am just saying that in order to not mention various valuables. When I begin to describe, yes, flashlights, really; they just chuckle and laugh at what they think is my silly sense of imagination. I settled on a used UL rated TRTL30x6 3,235 pound ISM safe.
My “collection” is mostly flashlights that would be problems in the hands of uncautious people, either due to flaky drivers, tricky switches, or untrustworthy batteries or poor QC on hosts I bought expecting better placed screw holes and better cut metal shelves, and so forth.
Sometimes you just can’t even give this stuff away. At least without investing a lot of time in repairs.
This may sound stupid, but why do you need a safe to store flashlights in? Why not a regular box, drawer, cabinet, etc? Are your torches made of very special, rare, exotic or otherwise precious metals, e.g. gold?
".........but I don't have enough." Seriously, seek help. How can 300+ torches not be enough? OK, how many would you need before you felt you had enough?
For some people, sure. I may have one foot in that camp. But for others, it seems to be down to a myriad of other reasons. I too have other reasons for "collecting".
I don’t care about quantity. It’s not about use. I use Lumintop Tool AAA Cu together with Leatherman Surge and DQG 18650 in my pocket. I like lamps. In my collection I have bad lamps, I like interesting lamps, but also ordinary. I never sell any lamps from my collection. One day it will be an overview of what was produced. My collection of lamps has no rational reason. I just like it and have it at its disposal.
a firearm wont fail with a vent with flames.
i would only agree that flashlight collecting is cheaper.
i have never had any type of dangerous failure with a firearm.
and i do my own reloading.
i have had 2 flashlights melt down and threw them out in the yard to burn out.
and 1 was a surefire.
