Have you ever got sentimental about your flashlights?

After this auction it was time for me to send the flashlight mod overseas, for the first time in my CPF "career". When packing the flashlight I felt somewhat sorry for the fact that I was "abandoning" it and will never see it again. After all it took me quite a long time and lot of effort to finish the mod... :candle:

So, have I just gone crazy or are there other CPFers who have got sometimes sentimental about their flashlights?

-N

I know what you mean. I have trouble parting with lights that I've been through alot with.

This doesnt belong in the Cafe.. it's a General Flashlight Discussion "On Topic" thread if ever there was one and it has the potential to be a very good thread.
Whoever said "parting is such sweet sorrow" must not have liked sweets.

I don't necessarily have "feelings & emotions" towards the lights themselves - however I've certainly been humbled, am very appreciative, and respectful of some special folks and their actions around these hallways in reference to the hobby!! Enough said!!!
:thumbsup: :thanks:

Actually - this whole group is special and deserving of these thoughts!!

Ok, enough of this group hug stuff ( :grouphug: ) - back to listening to your sensitivity towards torches!

...and BTW - I actually DO have some lights that would hurt more than my wallet, if I parted with them!! (I'm man enough to admit it! )

"Have you ever got sentimental about your flashlights?"

Sure. Like others here I've had some very memorable experiences over the decades with a flashlight in my hand (or teeth). Good memories, bad memories, scary memories. The works. I think about it now and then.

I have an ArcAAA Premium on my keys as well as a PhotonII Max White - I only really need one but the ArcAAA reminds me so much of SHOT Shows past so it is sentimental.

I simply wouldn't part with a light i actually use, and i don't get attached to stuff i don't use.

i would not sell my surefire m3 even if they paid me retail and i could get a completely new one. so i do definately feel attached to that (or maybe i just don't want to be remembered to how much they sell for).

I can never finnish a sale thread. I've only parted with my 2 night coms and one I sold after I though I pulled the listing lol

I tired selling wihtout success (i kept pulling th elisting lol) L4, A19 and i'm sure others I cna't think of. I'm mulling over selling my E2L but I know how that goes

When my 1st LED flashlight started to disintegrate after 5-6 years of nightly use I was sad. The rubber ends of the 'Radio Shack' branded TurtleLight started to peel back from the body. Transferred the Tectite LPR-113 bulb to a backup I had bought during a sale so I got over it fairly quickly.

Hmmmmm.....
A thread that got moved into General Flashlight Discussion instead of out of it.
Velly Intellesting!

I feel the same way. A few months back I sold my L5 to a friend and fellow CPF'r and I have been missing it ever since. I have contemplated buying a new one on more than one occasion, and finally this week I picked up a used one in the sale section

Not only flashlights, but most of my toys. It's tough for me to part with my old stuff.

Geoff

LEDninja said:

Hmmmmm.....
A thread that got moved into General Flashlight Discussion instead of out of it.
Velly Intellesting!

Click to expand...

Indeed.
If we can keep this thread on the topic of flashlights (rather than generalise it), and further, but sharing examples of lights that mean something to us, I believe this thread can serve a positive purpose.

We can talk about how useful or robust/durable something is, or isn't etc etc.

What I think we're discussing here is how specific flashlights can make us feel sentimental in addition to whatever other qualities the flashlights may have.

The list of flashlights highlighted in this thread could well be different to others that judge performance or rarity or durability etc.

As Flashaholics we care about flashlights as objects that are more than just tools.

I hope that we can keep this thread positive - perhaps we will be able to define the emotional essence of flashlights for us Flashaholics?

Al

My wife wanted to buy me something nice many years ago. She found a 5C Maglite and had some chap engrave my name by hand into the side of it. Nice job too. It can't be easy engraving a curved surface but this artist had managed it beautifully. Lovely penmanship without a wobble to be seen. I was never in love with the Mag's lighting abilities but I must have shown that light to hundreds of people.

A not-nice person stole it. I still think about it every time I pick up a Maglite.

I'm really sentimental about my old ARC LSH-P. that's the light that really hooked me and my first real EDC. amazingly it still functions perfect and does the job it was designed to do.

ARC LS may have been world's first production luxeon light and a lot of folks first luxeon light by default. but Peter really hit the sweet spot with ARC LS's timeless design.

When I was a kid, my best friend and his brother pooled their funds to buy me a 3D Maglite as a birthday gift. This was back when we were making a $2-a-week allowance.

When my friend got married a few years ago he gave me an Eveready LED flashlight as a groomsman's gift, and told me it was because we both always sought the "perfect" flashlight to suit our main hobby at the time, astronomy. The Eveready light came with a red filter, which we would have killed for back "in the day."

I left that Eveready LED at my office when I quit my job at the time... the only time I've regretted losing a light.

The one I miss the most is my old 4D Maglite. Circa 1990-1991. Thicker barrel than the current generation.
That was my first serious light. Got me through many a dark night changing tires, taking out the trash, and cutting through the darkness.

In the summer of 1993, I was working down the Jersey shore in Wildwood, where I went to high school actually. My best friend and I worked at the Acme, and we met two girls who had come over from Ireland for the summer. We were all talking and we began to hang out, the four of us. They mentioned that they wanted to take a bus up to Philadelphia, to the Franklin Mills Mall to go shopping. We said, "Hey! We can drive you up there! We'll make a roadtrip out of it!" So we did. It was a blast. Two guys, on top of the world, with two beautiful women in the backseat of my friend's fabled 1983 Nissan Stanza. Until. Until, while waiting for them to come out of a store, we drove over to get some refreshments from a convenience store, and noticed the temperature gauge on the Stanza was climbing much higher than it should have been. Hrm.... not good (we found out much, much later that the thermostat chose THAT weekend to go south). They came out and got in the car and we informed them that there was a problem. What to do? Idea. We could stay at my friend's Aunt's house in NE Philadelphia as they were on vacation. The keys. The keys to said house were in my friend's mother's purse. So, the end result is I was crouched in the bushes with my ole' 4D outside my friend's house while he rummaged around and found the keys. Get keys. Go to Aunt's house, stopping every 1/4 mile dumping water into the radiator and watching it blow out the overflow tube, we sleep over (no funny business) at his Aunt's house. Next day, we took a taxi to the train station, to the bus station, back down to Wildwood. We apologized to them about 84 million times for the havoc and uncomfortable conditions, but looking back, it was a blast. One of the said girls actually became my first girlfriend. (Yeah, do the math, I peaked late. )

Everytime I think of the old Maglite, I remember that night.

Lights, and other gear, can serve as tangible reminders of beautiful experiences..

Click to expand...

Amen to that Brother.

My E2O will forever remind me of the time I explored the Catacombs outside of Rome with my Father.

Just the ones I have invested a lot of time and effort in modding. Then you sell it or give it away and regret it the same moment. I modded a SL PP Lux, sold it, missed it so much I bought another one just recently. The only other one is a Mag solitaire I used when I was in the Navy. Who knows what happened to it but it helped me out many times.

Not that I can think of. Maybe regarding the Mini.Maglites that my father used. . .