Cold Steel Brute 7aa flashlight

They used a picture of the light smashing a watermelon in their ad.
Nuf said?

aznsx said:

Well, a machete isn't really as "edgy" as these lights, which were edgy enough that USC wouldn't even ship them to CA, etc. Examples of other edgy products they sold are things like what was essentially a duplicate of their popular regular Tanto fixed-blade, but was constructed entirely of glass-filled Zytel (nylon variant), and which were extremely strong and capable, although obviously being completely non-metallic - along with some 'delta darts', etc. made of the same material. Those are other examples of 'edgy' products, and they sold a few such things; all 'sterile' and with no documentation / packaging as I recall.

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Mailman drops off a magazine covered with plain brown wrapper and a Cold Steel Brute thinks to himself "now I know what's behind this plain brown wrapper but I wonder what's in this foot long plain brown bo...... no wait, I don't want to know".

bykfixer said:

Mailman drops off a magazine covered with plain brown wrapper and a Cold Steel Brute thinks to himself "now I know what's behind this plain brown wrapper but I wonder what's in this foot long plain brown bo...... no wait, I don't want to know".

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Let's just say that between all those pkgs., and all the ones from USC, Midway, Dillon, etc.........an eyebrow might have been raised at some point. My memory isn't entirely clear .... just sayin'.

My pop (rip) used to get a Dillon catalog. He had several bags with a Dillon logo.

One year I ordered some barrel inspection lights from them for my dad that were not actual light but was a prism "stick" with a right angle like an allen wrench. It used available light. It sent the available light down the barrel to inspect for cleanliness. It worked about as good as an old maglite solitaire with a tired battery in a typical room. With a bright over head light it worked pretty well. You stuck it in the far end and it shined light toward your eye. I used to buy my Gargoyles sunglasses from them too.

Each month my dad would have a pile of catalogs and magazines about a foot tall. Midway was one also but I don't recall any US Calvary catalogs.

^^^^
Their catalogs were always worthy of a look. I use an RL550B.

I use to get Brigade Quartermaster and Midway. I miss those catalog days.. Also, don't remember US Calvary catalogs. They could have been banned in CA due to printing ink causing cancer (-;
Those round plexiglass rods transfers light down rifle bores so nice. I still have one, it came with a pocket clip, it's around here somewhere..

BTW, @bykfixer : Is your Brute running the stock OE bulb, and if so, is it using any spacing shim/washers?

Yes it's stock and has 2 washers between the bulb retainer and the bulb to move it further into the bezel.
Early Maglite 7 cell bulbs come with two washers. Later ones did not. The Brute bulb did as well.

So cool! What a rare beast!

bykfixer said:

Yes it's stock and has 2 washers between the bulb retainer and the bulb to move it further into the bezel.
Early Maglite 7 cell bulbs come with two washers. Later ones did not. The Brute bulb did as well.

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Thanx Byk! I wondered what would be optimal, but am not sure what's in mine or if that's the way it came originally. It has been ~30 years, and I'm not sure how I left it / if it's stock, but yours should be 'stock', so that's what I'll go by!

My "Brute" replacement lamps (of which I bought at least 10 from CS, (expecting I'd need them and they might become hard to find) all shipped with 3 washers in the little ziplock with the bulb.

Between the lines there is that I've also not had the bulb in mine out in that long, having never replaced a failed one, and that speaks well of the bulb. It may not have a zillion hours or operations on it, but it definitely has a zillion miles of vibration on it, and has seen quite a temperature range to boot! It's never failed to work when I push the button, either.

I well remember this flashlight
from my U.S. Cavalry catalog !

I used to get Brigade Quartermaster, US Cavalry, and SHOMER-TEC catalogs.

SHOMER-TEC was were I got my first SureFires from.

As @knucklegary said, I rather miss those old catalog days. Now, nothing arrives in my mailbox that's even worthy of a second (or even first) glance, then it all gets carried back outside, and goes straight into the trash bin. Effort - with no payoff.

Of course I'm missing a 7C Mag-Lite, but here's a comparison of the Brute next to other popular 7-cell duty flashlights from back in the day. Unfortunately the camera perspective doesn't show the relative size very well. In person the difference from one side to the other is greater than it appears.

Is that LA Scew to the left a 7 cell(4+3)? Um err uh, is it an LA Screw?

bykfixer said:

Is that LA Scew to the left a 7 cell(4+3)? Um err uh, is it an LA Screw?

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I would say I'm 95% sure that would be an L.A. Screw flashlight, looking at the emblem on the right side (on the middle switch).

Let me see if I can find a picture of that emblem from my Smoke-Cutter.

Here ya go!

You can see the Logo on my Smoke-Cutter (Red flashlight)

LA Screw Smoke Cutters were offered in anodized colors!!

bykfixer said:

Is that LA Scew to the left a 7 cell(4+3)? Um err uh, is it an LA Screw?

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knucklegary said:

LA Screw Smoke Cutters were offered in anodized colors!!

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It's an LA Screw Sea Probe. A really bad attempt at a diving light. The switch was replaced with one from a Smoke Cutter long before I got it, but I have an original Sea Probe I'll get pics of when I have a chance.

They tried to market a different flashlight model to every industry out there. Police, fire, diving, EMS, businessmen, homeowners, etc. Mostly just anodizing color and lens/reflector choices. Didn't work too well other than the police and fire models.

Roger that.. Red = Inferno... Gold = Davy Jones's locker