Only on the switch ring from what I can tell. The Q8 wasn't spec'd to have type III or equivalent. I'm probably not a good judge on anodizing, but I've seen better, and seen worse. I really like the MaxToch and Lumintop finishes, but of course you pay for it. I don't think the production finish will be any different.
My concern is the switch ring. I used a needlenose that has a nice rounded back side that usually does well in these type of rings. If the ring was an aluminum finish, the scratches would not show as well, if at all. I did notice from barely touching it with the needlenose, the black scratched or chipped off, but after stripping it down, looks like the aluminum didn't scratch at all. Could be the ring wasn't finished with the same quality of the light housing. Aluminum finish switch ring would match up well with the SS bezel.
On proto #1, I was impressed with the black anodizing on the LED shelf, where I tried sanding it down. Cheap anodizing would come off fairly easy, but on proto #1, quite a bit of sanding hardly made an impact - I could see the anodizing was more embedded in the metal, similar to what I encountered when trying to do the same thing in a MaxToch light. Basically with a good deal of sanding, you can get the surface smooth but the color remains impregnated - that's my test for anodizing.
Very nice Tom. I found the same with my cheap light that the red anodising scratched way to easily on the switch retainer. I wonder if its some other process used on this component to colour it?
Well since flashlights are not easy placed in a category, most come without CE but the basic CEarking is done by writing a piece of paper stating a product and manufacturing is conform EU legislation and only special items need a third party to confirm.
Here goes
I, initializer of the project declare that,
the BLF Q8 flashlight,
manufactured by Thorfire,
2nd Floor West, Building A, Yi Li Technology Park, DaHe Industrial Zone, Guanlan Town, Longhua New District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China. 518000,
conforms to EU legislation,
and so do the manufacturing and quality control practices for it,
to show this the CE marking will be printed on box, manual, or flashlight.
Addendum
The BLF Q8 flashlight is hereby awarded the first “certificate of solar system compliancy” and as such it can be sold on the planets, moons and other heavenly bodies of the solar system Earth is part of included but not limited to: Earth, Mars, Earths moon and Jupiters moon Europa.
You are already on the list twice, does this mean you want two more?
Well, you guys make jokes about CE, I had orders (quadcopter) returned or destroyed for the lack of proper CE labels by the german customs.
I don’t know about flashlights and it really is not easy to find any usefull information about that. My Nitecore MT2A came with CE on box and flashlight, the EagleEye X2R had nothing. However I would feel better if it had the CE label, as the bigger and more expensive Q8 is more likley to get looked at by customs.
I really get you
I can’t find more then that it is self declaring for a lot of things AND that flashlights are not to be categorised so does not seem to need a CE branding. The vast majority of lights and stuff I receive from China does not have the CE marking, strengthening the idea it is not needed.
So I wrote the declarations above, and will ask TF to print CE on the box, label or manuel.
