HA III: How good is it *really*?

[cognitivefun]

If you keep your HA-III light and your keys or your pocketknife together, will the light get scratched after awhile?

How good is type III hard anodization?

What's your experience?

 

[leukos]

My HA cookware holds up pretty well! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[js]

I don't do this, but my brother does, and according to him, the HA on his Arc AAA held up very very well, but after 1.5 years it started to wear down on the high spots. But it still looks nice. This is an Arc AAA-LE, which didn't have as thick a HA build as on later Arc AAA's or on the LS series or the SF lights. I suspect they would hold up even better.

HA is very hard to scratch, but if you continually rub metal against it, it will get scratched up. However, even then, the nice thing is that it still looks good. In my opinion, anyway.

Concrete is a much more deadly foe to HA than a pocket knife. If you want to really mess up your HA light, just drop or throw it multiple times onto concrete.

 

[J_Roc]

I dropped my County Comm X5 (HA III) and it landed on my basement floor which is unfinished (cement), it fell about 4-5 ft. Not a scratch!

And yes, I usually use a lanyard but took it off for some reason...can't remember why.

 

[beezaur]

I don't like it on agressively knurled lights like the surefires. It scratches my other gear pretty badly, basically acts like a round file.

It scratches the lanyard hook provided with the lights too. J_Roc, maybe that is why you removed yours.

Scott

 

[BlindedByTheLite]

Inova X5T-HA: has very minor wear on the edges of the "fluting" around the body of the light. by wear, i just mean slight smoothing of the HA3. it's still completely covering the metal. this is a regularly used light that gets tossed in my bag amidst all sorta of junk. i once forgot it in my bag when i was collecting rocks to line a friend's garden with. there was a good 120 pounds of rocks in my bag on top of the X5T-HA and i believe that's where the smoothing of the HA3 came from.

Arc LS: has no wear what-so-ever. not even around the lanyard attachment. there are two small chips on it by the lanyard attachment that i put there with a knife when testing the HA3 coating. again, like the X5T-HA, it did not expose any metal.

Arc AAA: some may remember the pictures i post after dropping it off of a mountain-side (doh!). it got pretty mangled, and from the looks if the flashlight it would appear several rocks landed on it @ the bottom of the fall. it was really beat up looking, but the HA3 was barely effected. it chipped in places that appeared to take direct impact during the fall but were rather small. i also found the HA3 to be a little flexable, even.

i couldn't be happier with my experiences with HA3 flashlights.

 

[Lightraven]

I read in the Surefire 2005 catalog that Type III aluminum oxide is the second hardest substance known to man. I was surprised by that. Anybody know more details?

 

[RonnieBarlow]

I EDC an Infinity Ultra-G on my keyring, and the only wear is on the knurling. This is mainly due to the fact that I've dropped it several times.

 

[AuroraLite]

Pretty good I must say. The Peak HA3 body that I had attached to my key ring only scratch up my keys, but not the other way around. If it was a m*g, then it would be a totally different story.

 

[V8TOYTRUCK]

I wasn't really impressed with my ARC-AAAs HA finish, as the weeks went by the black flashlight turned into a silver flashlight. The raised portion of the HA on the knurling had almost completely gone away within IIRC 2 months. I had 2 keys on my keychain.
I never carried a Surefire on my keychain so I am not sure how it would survive in the same situation. I have however used the L4 body to file other materials and it still looks new.

 

[UnknownVT]

I used to do archery.......

OK, what's that got to do with HA(III)? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Well, in the early to mid-80's Easton aluminum shafts were the standard.

In the good budget range were the early Gamegetter shafts - in anodized dark green - but NOT hard anodized.

And in those days one can see people who shoot Gamegetters because the shafts would show their wear in pale green worn sections to bare aluminum.

Whereas the equally early but superior XX75 Autumn orange shafts were hard anodized and I have some that date all the way back to the early mid 80's and probably have been shot several hundreds if not thousands of times into regular straw bail and foam targets - and arrow shafts that are not otherwise damaged do not show any wear at all on the anodizing.

Easton Archery Products page

 

[dougmccoy]

I'm not impressed by the HA111 anodising on my Arc AAA. The only thing its ever been exposed too has been the Stainless steel Russell Tweezers, which it lives with on a neck lanyard. The HA111 has worn quite badly on one side and is very noticeable. I've got around the problem by using a piece of black heat shrink but for whatever reason the heatshrink will loosenup after a couple of weeks and need shrinking down again!

OBTW, the HA111 on my Surefire's is much better, but still seems to easily wear off at the edges of the bezel and in particular around the chequering of the tailcaps.

Doug

 

[jtice]

Personally, I think all HA is overrated.
Yes its nice, and a heck of alot better than say apint, but still..

Its great for a pocket light, to protect it from your keys, coins etc.
But it wont stand up to HARSH use. Like dropping it to concrete, sliding it over a rock, or taking it through caves /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif

If you want your light to look good, but you know you will abuse it, I use bare AL. I know, that sounds odd huh?
Well, if you have a black HA light, and scratch it bad, the AL shows through, and thats alot more noticable than just a scratch on bare AL. Plus you can take fine steel wool, etc, and sand it down, and repolish it /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Vbeez]

Agree with you, Vincent. I used Easton (Hoyt Easton ?)shaft for target practice in the 80s. Still have the green and orange shaft till now. They don't wear easily, do they ?

 

[code09]

[ QUOTE ]
js said:
I don't do this, but my brother does, and according to him, the HA on his Arc AAA held up very very well, but after 1.5 years it started to wear down on the high spots. But it still looks nice. This is an Arc AAA-LE, which didn't have as thick a HA build as on later Arc AAA's or on the LS series or the SF lights. I suspect they would hold up even better.

HA is very hard to scratch, but if you continually rub metal against it, it will get scratched up. However, even then, the nice thing is that it still looks good. In my opinion, anyway.

Concrete is a much more deadly foe to HA than a pocket knife. If you want to really mess up your HA light, just drop or throw it multiple times onto concrete.

[/ QUOTE ]

hmmm, i would have to disagree with this one....
Just last sunday, i had a slight hangnail, and it was just killing me! So, i was looking around for a nail clipper or a file...the best thing i had with me was my E2o. So, i thought, what the hell, and i started filing my nail with it. Before you know it, there were scratches everywhere.

I know i know, the e2o wasnt designed as a file...but my nails werent designed to scratch HAIII either.

 

[pyro]

Your fingernails scratched HAIII ?
Then there is something wromg with either them or the anodizing.
Are there really scratches on the light or is it just dust?

 

[code09]

[ QUOTE ]
pyro said:
Your fingernails scratched HAIII ?
Then there is something wromg with either them or the anodizing.
Are there really scratches on the light or is it just dust?

[/ QUOTE ]

yeah....you shoulda seen the look on my face afterwards...i was shocked, and like pissed at the same time. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
At first, i thought it was nail bits, so i started rubbing it, and yeah, for sure, some of it came off. But then where were like 3 or 4 spots that didnt come off, so im like yeah ok, i'll dunk it in water, it'll have to come off then, but then it didnt. After closer inspection, they were scratchs and after running my nail over them, you could feel a slight indentation

 

[code09]

pyro, when you said "something wrong with either them or the anodizing". What did you mean by "them"?? my nails?!

hahaa

 

[pyro]

yes, your nails /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
at least mine can not scratch my surefires, maybe i should visit the doctor...

 

[code09]

[ QUOTE ]
pyro said:
yes, your nails /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
at least mine can not scratch my surefires, maybe i should visit the doctor...

[/ QUOTE ]

hahahahaha shuuutup hahaha. I dunno how that happened, anyways, back on topic.