I’ve always wondered why “twisty” lights don’t work like the little Maglites? It’s more intuitive to tighten the bezel clockwise to turn them off instead of the other way around.
Any reason for this?
Probably because youre familiar with a certain method or design? I’ve had an itp (and before that an arc aaa) for years so I find any other orientation strange.
It’s less reliable than a tighten-on switch.
If you take a Maglite twist switch apart, you’ll see why. It relies on pressure from the tail spring to achieve and maintain contact and that makes it prone to flickering and other contact related problems.
It also causes problems with heatsinking. The Maglite switch needs the light engine to be free floating when in the off position, so it can’t be screwed into the body.
It’s also requires more parts, leading to a light that is less compact, more complex, and probably more expensive to make.
I recently got a solitare led, I do like that when the head is tight it is off. Less likely to lose the head when it’s on a keychain 
The beam still isn’t pretty but it is a huge improvement over its predecessor.
There are lights threaded the other way but most are still head loose for off.
I’m a lefty and I prefer to twist the other way 
fishmaniac,
No, I’m used to the counterclockwise twist to deactivate but I’ve always admired the little Maglites as it seems like such an intuitive method of turning off. Kind of like taking a jar’s lid on and off.
rojos,
Interesting info! I’m sure the counter-clockwise off is a price consideration and I do have to admit that the little Mags do have flickering problems now and then but as CarpentryHero stated, lots of folks have lost rough use flashlight heads because of it.
“Tighten on” switches are mechanically much simpler to make. All you need are two pieces with screw threads in between. Anodize the threads except for the very end so that it won’t turn on until screwed in all the way.
“Tighten off” switches like maglights require a completely separate switch mechanism with its own spring. As the bezel is tightened it presses down on a small plastic spring loaded plate which cuts off the current.