In case anyone is interested, Doug Ritter did a new run of ETS Photon Freedoms. These are bright yellow and much easier to find if you drop them than the standard black version is. It includes the "covert" shield to suppress annoying backscatter. It also includes the Nichia CS led.
The first run of the DR version was black plastic covered with a yellow coating (like the Realtree coating but yellow) that flaked off with wear and looked sort of cheesy. The new version is made of actual yellow plastic and should hold up a lot better. That apparently cost more to do in small quantity, since it involved mixing a special batch of plastic instead of just applying a coating. It costs $19.95 (a few bucks higher than you can get a regular Freedom for) but some of the money goes to ETS, a worthwhile organization.
I don't know why LRI makes all the normal Photons only in black. I bought the Spyderco Jester/Photon II combination in forest green more or less specifically so I could have a green Photon, which I've EDC'd for the past year and which I think looks great.
Anyway, info and an ordering link about the new DR version is here:
http://www.equipped.org/dr_photon.htm
(Edit: the new version includes the standard "covert" shield. The old version had a smaller version of the shield that let you keep a little bit more side spill, but increased cost; DR decided that the standard shield works well enough so switched to it in order to avoid a price increase from the yellow plastic).
The first run of the DR version was black plastic covered with a yellow coating (like the Realtree coating but yellow) that flaked off with wear and looked sort of cheesy. The new version is made of actual yellow plastic and should hold up a lot better. That apparently cost more to do in small quantity, since it involved mixing a special batch of plastic instead of just applying a coating. It costs $19.95 (a few bucks higher than you can get a regular Freedom for) but some of the money goes to ETS, a worthwhile organization.
I don't know why LRI makes all the normal Photons only in black. I bought the Spyderco Jester/Photon II combination in forest green more or less specifically so I could have a green Photon, which I've EDC'd for the past year and which I think looks great.
Anyway, info and an ordering link about the new DR version is here:
http://www.equipped.org/dr_photon.htm
(Edit: the new version includes the standard "covert" shield. The old version had a smaller version of the shield that let you keep a little bit more side spill, but increased cost; DR decided that the standard shield works well enough so switched to it in order to avoid a price increase from the yellow plastic).
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