What type of metal do you like for a flashlight?

With so many choices for the type of metal, i was wondering what type of material you will choose if money wasn't an issue in your decision.

It seems to me the most common ones are made from aluminium, sometimes with HAII or HAIII. The reason, I believe is due to cost, and the fact aluminium is easy to machine, lightweight, and can conduct heat away pretty well.

However, there are other material such as Stainless steel, Brass, and the more expensive Aluminium Bronze, Titanium, I've noticed that the higher end lights generally have more choice of material available. It's great, but does paying more necessary mean it's better?.



With aluminium bronze, it is a very hard material, but is heavier than alum, and Ti, it conducts heat away better than titanium, but not as good as aluminium. Titanium is the strongest, but has poorer heat distributing properties. Alum is the weakest in strength, but this can increase with hard anodise.



On my recent purchase it was a decision I had to make. I tried not to think about the cost in the purchase, as i budgeted for the highest end one, being the titanium. My personal thoughts was that, if I was going to buy one good light, I was not going to let the price influence my choice, it was going to be purely based on the material used for the flashlight. My final decision rested with what i thought was the "best one" suited for my needs. Anyway, i bought the Aluminium Bronze, which i thought will give good strength/hardness, and reasonable heat distribution, at the expense of being heavier the alum and ti, which i compromised on.

I've included a few other materials in the poll not commonly used as flashlights, including gold and silver. Although they will make nice jewellery, will you like them used for a flashlight?.



Haz

I'm going to say either Aluminum HA3 or my own type of "fictional unobtainium"

Aluminium HAIII is tough and the finish looks nice too. Titanium would be another spanking choice.. but I'd like to see the kind of titanium finish like that of titanium exhaust pipes which is slightly copperish instead of chromish and has the 'burnt', prismatic effect.

Osmium

Osmium is a hard metallic element which has the greatest density of all known elements. It is twice as heavy as lead, and has a specific gravity of 22.59. (The specific gravity of lead is 11.35; gold is 19.32; and platinum is 21.45.)

Osmium has an atomic weight of 190.2 and its atomic number is 76.

Radio said:

Osmium

Osmium is a hard metallic element which has the greatest density of all known elements. It is twice as heavy as lead, and has a specific gravity of 22.59. (The specific gravity of lead is 11.35; gold is 19.32; and platinum is 21.45.)

Osmium has an atomic weight of 190.2 and its atomic number is 76.

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Sounds like a good choice if the flashlight is going to be run over by a steam rollover, or see some heavy duty use, but geez it sounds pretty heavy to carry around.

Cr2 :naughty:

I think Osmium is the densest but not the hardest.
Prob Chromium instead.

I remember a metal... think Hafnium? That has a melting point of like 2000ºC. That will be good for using near volcanic activity. :laughing:

Imagine dropping it in a pool of lava and digging it out later when it has cooled to find the body intact!

I made a CR2 light out of Tungsten alloy abt 83% the density of Osmium. I gave it to Don, with the suggestion he take it swimming. :green: I am fortunate to have my choice. That Aluminum one in my avatar has resided in my pocket for over a year. :shrug:

Larry

don't mean to rain on your parade, but you guys are forgetting one important thing, toxicity!!! I am pretty sure that pure chromium is supposed to be volatile enough to be absorbed though the skin and requires proper handling.

I'm a fan of Titanium, myself..

iridium please =). Just kidding. wayyy to rich for me.

It is about the same density as osmium, if not more.

Less reactive, and somewhat less brittle, however, much more expensive.

I wish someone would make a luxeon Arc AAA out of heat-treated 17-4 stainless with a Titanium Nitride coating. That would be my ultimate EDC. No dings, no scratches.

I'm surprised that there aren't more bare aluminum lights, with all the talk of heat issues. Anodizing is an excellent insulator (So it holds heat inside of the light). Seems that this isn't mentioned much...

I like the harder aluminium alloys. A bare aluminum of 2011 or 7075 is very strong (don't worry much about squishing it) very hard (don't worry much about scratching it) and easy to maintain with an occasional buffing.

My EDC is 2011-T3 and has held up nicely despite the fact that there are parts that are just .020 inch thick.

Daniel

Eh....I'll go with Platinum and diamonds....


Just joking...who would want a gold or silver flashlight? I've never heard of such things....its like a gold plated car engine...too much of a "pimp" look for me.


Make mine Alluminum HA3, natural color and DULL. I don't want my flashlight blinding me with polished bright shining.

Given a sane choice, I'd like to own a stainless steel flashlight. If money wasn't a factor, TITANIUM! Heck, I'd like to see a Carbon fiber flashlight but, that wouldn't be too practical since the heat wouldn't have anywhere to go.

With respect to hardest material, what about the metals used to make knife blades?

Well, I chose aluminum bronze because I wanted something stronger than aluminum. Most flashlights are made with 6061 and then anodized to protect the finish; however the anodizing does little to nothing to protect the light from drops.

When I first started working with the aluminum bronze, I tested it by taking a 1 foot length of 1" stock, held it over my head and dropped it on an angle to insure that it would fall on an edge. All that happened to it was that there was a small inprint of the concrete in the stock. When I did this with the 6061, it left a nice size flat on the edge where it met the concrete. Aluminum bronze is some pretty tough stuff and it's pretty too. It also does a fair job of getting the heat out.

I did consider using titanium, but that stuff is expensive and it doesn't do a good job of getting the heat out.

BTW, I didn't know that someone else was using aluminum bronze. Good going. :rock:

I'd have to go with titanium. I'd just want a nice copper slug behind the led and a fin or two in the head to keep it that little bit cooler though.

eebowler said:

With respect to hardest material, what about the metals used to make knife blades?

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Knife blade steel is very hard, but because of this it's very brittle. You'd be able to saw through other flashlights even better than you can with a HAIII Surefire, but if you dropped your light it'd break into lots of small pieces

the-beast: that's almost scary. I can clearly imagin using one of those knives to pry open something, the blade snapping and my hand slipping foward severing a tendon or two in the process. :duck:

Aluminum. Ag and copper inside a Ti light will work too.

Yaesumofo

Stainless is notoriously difficult to machine or even polish, so any stainless flashlight would probably be stamped like dad's old chrome Eveready. But today, when inexpensive cups and thermoses can be stamped from stainless and sold for a few dollars, I wonder why manufacturers still insist on pairing easily machined soft aluminum with a ludicrously expensive finish?

If an even more durable surface finish is desired, hard chrome plate or titanium nitride are far harder and won't flake off stainless like aluminum because the base material doesn't deform as easily. But the most durable coating is rubber by far, since there is simply no visible damage from drops. Of course it insulates, but can't have everything.

LEDcandle, you could apply that "burnt, prismatic effect" yourself using a 9v battery and some cola: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/3f178ca927d05010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html