Well, the case that I carry my Strion in is very thin. It isn't thick & insulated by any means. Even after I pulled it out, turned it off & let it sit there for a few minutes, it was still too hot to hold.
So, yall are saying, that when you are actually holding the light, you have held a metal-aluminum high powered light for more than 10-15, maybe even 20 minutes, or even more without getting hot?
Like 2xTrinity said, what if you have to set it down for a few minutes? How in the world is someone supposed to pick it up if the heat builds up? Now, I don't expect an answer on that one, just talking out loud.
The insulating material wouldn't necessarily have to be thick. If it prevents air from flowing across the surface of the light then it's going to get hotter more quickly and reach a higher temperature. All lights have different heat dissipating characteristics so your particular light may take a little longer to cool. I'm a surefire guy and they cool down reasonably fast except for the X200. You can always trickle some cool water across a quality light to cool it down very quickly.
All high performance pocket lights are going to get warm but they stay much cooler in the hand. This is easy to test and verify as
Yoda mentioned. Run your Strion for 8 minutes while sitting on your mouse pad and pick it up with your hand or measure the temperature with a probe or infrared thermometer, if you want to be more technical. Now let the light cool for at least 20 minutes and run it for another 8 minutes while holding the light in your right hand. At the end of 8 minutes switch the light over to your left hand and compare (or measure) the difference from when it was just sitting on your mouse pad.
With regards to setting the light down, it depends on how long it's sitting. A few minutes wont likely heat it up too hot to touch. Perhaps you might be looking at this issue from the wrong perspective. Small, high performance, personal lighting is a convenience that we weren't able to enjoy 15 years ago because they didn't really exists for the average consumer. You could get reasonably bright light in a larger form factor or you get get a small light but the light output was a tiny fraction of what we have available today.
By its very nature a high performance, personal carry light is going to be small, and it's going to be bright. It won't be able to overcome the laws of thermal dynamics but you do have options if a "hot" light is unacceptable.
1) You can wear a glove or at least keep one handy if you like to frequently run your compact, high output light for extended periods of time.
2) You could consider the new generation of LED lights. They run cooler and are more efficient than the incandescent filament in your Strion. You often have the option of variable output allowing you to use just the amount of light that you need.
3) Since we have to work within the laws of physics you may have to get something larger with more mass, something of more average performance or a combination of both. A 60 lumen incan won't get nearly as hot as 116 lumen incan of the same size. A 100 lumen LED won't get as warm as a 215 lumen LED light of the same size. Both of these options will still produce much more light than what is available from a stock 3D mag.
4) Carry a secondary light of less light and heat output. Many of us flashlight folk often like to use the appropriate amount of light for the task at hand, thus we wouldn't use a Strion or other high performance light to write a letter on a park bench, if we didn't have too. A small button cell LED light like the Photon or something taking conventional batteries, like the ArcAAA or Fenix EO1, may be carried to supplement your lighting needs. These little lights can produce 5-10 lumens which is a fair amount of light for many tasks. If you don't like the idea of multiple lights, then refer to option two regarding variable output lights.
