How did you get started?

[k1rod]

For me it happened like this. About 30 years ago I was a kid walking through the woods behind my parents house. I was skinning a stick with my pocketknife and I dropped the pocketknife. The knife fell through the leaves and branches of a small ground level bush. I bent down and pushed the branches of the bush to one side and there, next to my knife, mostly buried in the dirt was some black rubber thing. I dug it out and it was a rubber flashlight. It looked like it might have been there for 25 years. I don't remember the exact name on it but it was some corny thing like MI-T-LITE. (Looked like it was made sometime around 1950). I thought that there was no way this thing was going to work. I peeled back the lip of the rubber case around the lens (that was the way you extracted the guts) and surprisingly there was very little rust inside. After I cleaned it up and put 2 new D Cell into it, It worked! That was the first seeds. Between then and now, I built up a collection of Maglites. (because like most people, I thought Mags were the best you could buy.) Then about a month ago, I found this forum. It was then that things suddenly got real ugly. I suddenly found myself spending my bill money on flashlights. My first purchase was an M6-CB. My second was a Kroma Milspec. Then I had to have a CREE! I'm jonesing waiting for McGizmo to build another run of lights. Packages are coming to the door and I'm hiding them from my wife. I'ts terrible I tell ya. I don't know where it will end.

 

[PhotonWrangler]

I always thought that there was something special about being able to produce light whenever and wherever you needed it. I had a few flashlights as a child but the one that sticks out in my mind was a little plastic four color flashlight. It was a toy, something with a little rotating filter wheel that allowed you to choose the color you wanted. I remember thinking "Wow, a four-color flashlight. It doesn't get any better than this!"

BTW that little toy flashlight has recently reappeared in some stores locally. Must be a baby boomer thing, y'know?

 

[parnass]

When I was a boy my grandfather presented me with a red and silver, metal 2AA Eveready penlight for my birthday. I think it employed a #222 bulb and had a metal pushbutton tail switch. That was back in the late 1950s or early 1960s.

My grandfather had a few flashlights that he repaired and modified so I may have inherited his appreciation of flashlights and tinkering. He passed away in 1964.

Later, I enjoyed using 2C and 2D Eveready lights in summer camp, though I suppose that's common. What is uncommon is that I still enjoy using lights many years later.

 

[AtomSphere]

I always had a fasination with flashlights. I don't know the exact reason.

When I was young (think 7 years old or maybe younger). I always liked to play with it imagining it as spaceships and the light coming out from the back is the proportion system. :laughing:
Then I kept pursuading my mum to buy those energiser combo of batteries and lights and I kept quite a few lights. (maybe around 10 near my table lamp all incand). Then I remembered getting my first waterproof light which I never had before. I remembered having a hard time pursuading my mum in australia to purchase that one for me because I already had quite a few flashlights in my collection and that flashlight (a 2 D cell incand) was a bit more pricy. When i got that piece, I kept playing with it in the pool, on the beach and it always fasinates me how it is still able to operate underwater. And through all the harsh enviorment, it is squeeky clean inside...
After that, I didn't purchase anymore light for many years (around 5 nightmare years which is hell compared to current flashaholic standards) and all my other lights (except that 2D water resistant light) collected a hell load of dust. Then, when I was in the military (compulsary for singaporeans), I can't remember the exact reasons, I just got a StreamLight JR Luxeon from a CPF member called "flashlight" and I liked it (not love). I liked the idea that it can put out a good amount of light on Ni-MH Constantly for around 3-4 hours straight.
Then comes the stylish, branded, high quality, fierce lookin, E2D. I love this puppy as it still has that X-factor appearance that my eyes loves.

after that, SF C3 --> MXDL 3watt --> a cheap multi-LED light --> Convert my C3 to M4 Variant --> Q3 --> L2T --> and the soon to come L2D CREEEEEEeeeeeeee

 

[ABTOMAT]

I was bitten by a radioactive lightning bug.

 

[LEDependent]

My roommate in college. He had this stash, ya know? He called 'em "lux'ins". Once I tried them, I was hooked. I had to get more, so I found a dealer. Wayne J. His street name was crazy - "Elektrolumens". Everything after that was just a blur. A very bright blur.

 

[ACMarina]

Happened with my first DHS callout - I didn't know what I was getting into but I was promised long, dark nights and I figured I should get the best light I could. I looked around and found this BrightGuy store, and I ordered an A2 Aviator with a case of batteries. Haven't looked back since

 

[Hallis]

A friend of mine that i worked with had a SL Scorpion. I'd seen it but didn't think too much about it. One day he linked me Ginseng's Aroura thread and I was blown away. I didnt become a CPF member for about another year but once i did i started looking at flashlights a whole new way. I didnt even know Luxeon LED's existed. I had thought that the Mags and those 1-3mcp spotlights were the climax of handheld lighting. Now, to use a bad pun, I have seen the light.

Shane

 

[cutlerylover]

I am a knifenut and over the years from talking to people on the knifeforums and hearing about flashlights I thought why would anyone collect flashlights? exactly 1 hour from the time I had that thought I 1st checked out CPF, and in about 2 hours I was hooked, lol, I went out and got my 1st flashlight, a brinkmann maxfire LX, and the disease spread from there, lol...

 

[Spydie]

When I was 5 we were in the midst of moving across the country, and my dad asked me if I wanted to take either his old radio, or plastic ever-ready (sp?) torch. I chose the torch and here I am today.

Throughout my youth I EDC'd a mini-mag and had a solitaire on my key chain. At around 20, I worked a part-time job as night security at a building in a questionable part of town and had a maglite 4c with me always. The job basically involved keeping the junkies, dealers, and working girls out of the building, which they were pretty skilled at getting into. I didn't know much about lights at that time but felt that it combined with my CQC-7 and ASP would keep my butt alive.

The flashlight craze though really crescendoed for me two summers ago when I bought my Surefire E2D. That light has seen lots of usage, and I've yet to replace the bulb. Aside from a few battle scars (not literally) it looks and works just like the day I bought it. Being a knifeknut myself, I didn't blink at paying over $100 for a light because generally (not always) good kit does cost a little more.

My only wish is that Surefire would once and for all head the requests of its loyal consumer base and put out an LED E2D. I even remember seeing the work of some poor flashaholics on here who out of desperation of an LED E2D were able to jimmy a crenalated bezel ring onto what I believe was a black KL4 head and voila! I wish I could track the pics down as it was some decent work.

 

[depusm12]

My real interest in flashlights began when I was in the Navy on board the ship. We had to have either a red or blue lens on our flashlights that were used above decks after sunset so as not to show any white light above deck, plus the red is easier on the eyes. I went through several Pelicans an Mini M*G lights before I bought my first SF with a red lens used that thing constantly. It went downhill from there.:lolsign:

 

[bobbyt]

I was in search of a powerful & economical small flashlight after losing my mag. Found this forum and $55 later I have Fenix L2D CE on the way.

... and so it begins.

I can't wait until next week

 

[search_and_rescue]

My beloved housecat went missing one night six years ago. He is not an outdoors person. My wife shook me awake at 2AM. We went frantically searching everywhere. We were desperate!!!

She drove around in the car. I went around the neighborhood with my flashlight.

Who and how did we find him? I did, using my $25 2-D Cell Maglite that I had purchased from Sportmart several months earlier. The light got dim over the course of the one-hour search, but it did its job. Thanks to MAGLITE, our son was found.

I was hooked on flashlights after that, and there has been no turning back.

 

[Hallis]

My beloved housecat went missing one night six years ago. He is not an outdoors person. My wife shook me awake at 2AM. We went frantically searching everywhere. We were desperate!!!

She drove around in the car. I went around the neighborhood with my flashlight.

Who and how did we find him? I did, using my $25 2-D Cell Maglite that I had purchased from Sportmart several months earlier. The light got dim over the course of the one-hour search, but it did its job. Thanks to MAGLITE, our son was found.

I was hooked on flashlights after that, and there has been no turning back.

Wow i'll bet he didnt get to far. he's HUGE. I'll bet he's awesome.

 

[search_and_rescue]

Thank you for that nice compliment. We are very proud of him! :lolsign:

 

[Raptor#]

Hmmm. Very good question.


I think i was something arround 12. From arround 10 on, i had always carry'd a small knife - mostly a small sak, later a small lockback folder, and a few years later the bigger version of the very same folder. So arround 12... the thought hit me: I got a knife on me every day - i need a flashlight too!
And then i got a Solitaire. My first flashlight, my first EDC-light.


But then the dark times came... someday... my solitaire leaked. Oh damned alkaline battery! I thought about getting the thing outta there, but had absolutely zero success. And i didn't wanted to buy a new one, cause i still thought im going to get the battery out. And someday i put it.. errm, somewhere. No idea. And it stayed there for about 10 years.
Hell, i didn't even carry a knife for some time. I know, shame over me.
Arround 1 1/2 years ago, i've been shopping at a online-knifesshop... and i just happend to click on theyr flashlights. And then i saw a Photon Freedom. Thought thats nice, but before i drop that much money for a flashlight (hey! you can stop laughing now ), i want to have some info on it. Found flashlightreviews. Here are the thoughts that i had in this moment: "WOOOOW!!! HOLY SH*T!". So many flashlights... and then it hit me like a thunderbolt of raw enlightment: I'm gonna need more than a coincell flashlight! I bought the Photon Freedom... very well knowing that over time, this will become my backup and i'm going to get a bigger light as a main EDC.

Just for Nostalgia's sake, heres a pic of my old Solitaire (with the battery still stuck... grrrr).

I consider it used, not abused.


@search_and_rescue: Good story! I already thought why you have this nick... i bought my WF-500 for a similar purpose - we got a old cat, and well, even thought hes more of an outdoors person, he's getting old and we'd rather keep him in at night - sleeping instead of keeping other cats off his patch, but sometimes he just won't return and then we'll have to go looking for him... and the more light we've got for this, the easier it is.

 

[search_and_rescue]

Thank you Raptor#, cats are the best. I had forgotten about that incident until this thread showed up, and it jogged my memory of that "search and rescue" night. Boy were we desperate, and boy did that Maglite come in handy. Your own cat is very lucky to have such a concerned guardian/owner/father such as yourself.

 

[k1rod]

Thanks to MAGLITE, our son was found.

I was hooked on flashlights after that, and there has been no turning back.

That would explain the M6-CB in your sig. That would be a great light for tracking down your cat at night. Then you could use the crenelated bezel on the dome of the Rottweiler that had your cat treed. :laughing:

 

[tomcat017]

Fun thread :laughing: . My dad was an engineer on the RR, and I used to go to work with him quite a bit. Among his required equipment every day was a flashlight (he carried a black AA minimag). Of course, I wanted to be just like him, so we went out to the store and got me a AA minimag. Used that flashlight at work with him, and all over the place (I still do). I liked lights, lasers (got a few of those when I was younger as well), and lighting in general since I was young. Used to play around with different colored light bulbs, and now I light the piano every year around Christmas.

Anyway, I started looking at high-power flashlights in fall of '06, but was reluctant to buy any becasue of the relatively high price (compared to a maglight, which I though was about as good as they get). Then in January of '07, I found out that a friend of mine was a flashaholic (his wife mentioned it:laughing: ), and that sort of pushed me over the edge. I bought the light that I was looking at (the WE 6M), and my friend told me about this site. It's been downhill (for my wallet, anyway) since then .

 

[skalomax]

I always had a thing about flashlights.

What sparked a blaze was a Inova X0 that I bought at Fry's