So... Can a Surefire REALLY saw through another flashlight?

We've seen the claim on Surefire's web site regarding their HAIII finish:

"This finish is so tough that a flashlight coated in it can actually be used to saw through other aluminum flashlights with standard finishes."

I always thought this sounded impressive, but since I could never find any definitive proof of it, I decided to check it out for myself.

Let's meet the players.



On the left, we have a brand new blue Mini-Mag. On the right, we have a Surefire L4 body with HAIII finish (Serial# A203080).

My goal with this was to see if I could really use the L4 body to saw through the Mini-Mag, but before I began I first had to decide how to interpret the word "through". Did it mean saw the other light completely into two pieces, or just saw until a hole was produced in the body of the Mini-Mag? I decided that for my test (and my sanity :hairpull: ), I would go with the second option.

So it was settled... I would work at this until a hole appeared in the Mini-Mag. At approximately 8:00PM I began. My technique was nothing special; I just braced the L4 against my work surface and scraped the Mini-Mag body across one single section of the knurling. Imagine a Boy Scout trying to start a fire with two sticks, and you'll get a pretty good idea of what it looked like. If you can't picture it, here's a short movie clip. (approx. 3.5MB)

It took about 45-50 minutes of constant grinding, cramped hands, and listening to that horrible noise , but I finally saw what appeared to be a small hole in the side of the Mini-Mag. You can see it in the lower right area of the scar.




oo: Could it be true? Only one way to check. I removed the tailcap, inserted a red Inova Microlight, and turned out the lights.






SUCCESS!!! :twothumbs So now if anyone ever asks you (yeah, right), you can say with 100% certainty that a Surefire can indeed saw through a competitor's light.




OK, so that's all well and good. We know the fate of the Mini-Mag, but how does the Surefire look after all of this?

First some cleaning was in order because this was the mess I was left with when I was done:



Now for some before and after pictures of the L4.

This is what it looked like before I began:



This is what it looked like after. Again, bear in mind that it just went through nearly an hour of constant grinding, all concentrated on this one side of its body:



And a look from the other side:



There is definitely some damage to the finish, and the knurling on that side is a little "smoother" than before I started, but all things considered I would have to say that it really doesn't look too bad.

All in all, I would have to say that I even more impressed with Surefire lights than I was when I started. As far as torture tests go, this was pretty extreme. I can't imagine that any of my Surefire lights will ever have to endure anything close to this type of punishment in the real world, but it sure is nice to know that they could.


:thumbsup:

Pretty cool test. :wow:

Thanks underdust for this test! And for sacrificing your surefire so that we could benefit. I second the "cool test" thingy.
Rock on dude! :buddies:

WOW! fingernails on a chalk board really get me - I can only imagine the noise this made.

You should send this to surefire. I'm certain that they could use it as a great promo. Who knows - they may send you a replacement light as a thank you.

Just a thought - what about hooking the SF up to a drill to speed the process? (Just in case you were considering another test) :naughty:

I was wondering when someone was going to attempt this, and here it is! Thanks for the verification Underdust!

HOLY CRAP, THIS IS AWESOME. I can't believe you were willing to put a surefire on the line for this, but thanks. This is one of the coolest posts I've ever seen. I love all the detailed pics and movie. I feel like I was actually there. I've wondered about that claim from SF more than once and if I were made of money, believe me, I would have tried it. But alas, I can't come to inflict damage against any of my prized SF lights.

Thanks for taking the time/effort to do this and post it. Extremely cool!!

Thanks for going to all that trouble....very cool post!

Thanks for making the sacrifice to verified that Surefire statement.
Quite sure a lot of people had been wondering about the statement validity.

Lucky the destructive testing only damage the MM and not the L4.

Well done.

hahaha that is great! Thanks for the effort! A+ thread, will read again.

You should send this to Surefire, bet they would get a kick out of your test also.

wow, there shows you the difference between a 10 dollar light and a 70 dollar light---no comparison...

Thanks fella for sharing this info....I wonder how rough the minimag would look like if it went against a SF L6 Porcupine...any volunteers?

Only half way??? Where's the commitment:lolsign:

You could have sawed through a plastic flashlight and still proved their claim....

Wouldn't have made such a mess of the SF that way.

Thanks everyone for the kind words.

It really wasn't as big ($$) of a sacrifice as you may be thinking. I just picked up an extra L4 body from Lighthound rather than using part of a complete light. I had been contemplating this for months, but finally went for it the last time I placed an order with them.

I think the total cost of everything was only about $33 ($25 for the L4 body and about $8 for the Mini-Mag).

I just figured that I'll never be a great modder, and I don't have any great knowledge of electronics, but if there's one thing I AM good at, it's senseless destruction. I guess that will just have to be my contribution to the community.

I did try to figure out a way to connect one of the bodies to a drill, but I couldn't come up with anything functional with what I had on hand. Perhaps next time.

As far as future tests are concerned, there ARE still two sides of intact knurling on the L4, so who knows.... I am open to suggestions. (not now, though, my hands are pretty tired).

Have to keep that in mind, looks like it could do a better job than most nail fire in a Leatherman/Gerber tools

Now that's what I call a test! Great job! Surefire should give you a new light to replace the one you messed up doing the test...You've given me just another reason to go out and buy another Surefire

Wow, I can't believe you sacrificed a L4! (Ok, just the body) I could see using a P6 for the test, but you really took one for the team on that one. I wonder if you could send it back to SureFire for a replacement? Afterall, it does have a warranty that covers everything but the bulb and batteries. I've heard they replace flashlights that have been shot in Iraq, so they would surely replace your for sawing through a MiniMag! They might even upgrade you to a U2. Thanks for the pics.

hmmm , great, so if i am out in the woods, and dont know what i could possibly use to saw through another light, i will make sure if have a sure fire with me
in the meantime, they can quit sawing through my pants pockets, cause its COLD down there when that happens

nice, now we need a cpf version of "Mythbusters"

Geoff

Excellent Thread! I just got my hands on a surefire product and wanted to know if it could actually saw another aluminum light. Thanks for proving it to us. :wow:

Great test!