Fenix HAIII, testimonial

First let me say I have no previous experience with HAI, II or III. I have never met, been seen with, talked with or fraternized in any way with HA. OK enough of that.....

You can guess I'm no expert on HA but I have to say the HAIII on my P1 is amazing. I EDC this thing with my keys, nail clipper and knife. It has shown no signs of even a scratch so far. But I really grew to appreciate it when trying to install one of the 8mm mag. alloy split rings today. To begin with these buggers are overkill, too tough really for the application. The also have a very sharp bevel on the ends. After a bunch of fidgeting I finally got the thing on on to find it was not going to work, so off it came. Getting it off was much harder. During the whole wrestling match this little ring is grinding against the P1 lanyard hole and making a terrible sound. I'm thinking that it must be scraping a pretty good grove in it. Nothing, not even a mark.

Pretty good I'd say but what do I know.

Abouna, you didn't say how long you'd had your P1 for.
Here's what my P1 looks like after being on my keychain since early May (almost 5 months). Not to say that I'm unhappy with the P1, but it is showing some wear. "Aging gracefully." Would you think this is about the normal amount of wear?

My Natural finish P1 and E1 are, so far, holding up nicely.

I'm curious how other CPFers Fenix finishes are doing???

sure sounds like fenix anodizing is improving...

to find out for sure, take a good knife. should bounce off

do it in a hidden area first, stay away from sharp edges

Mine is going well but it needs some more miles before I can truly say.

nightrider said:

Abouna, you didn't say how long you'd had your P1 for.
Here's what my P1 looks like after being on my keychain since early May (almost 5 months). Not to say that I'm unhappy with the P1, but it is showing some wear. "Aging gracefully." Would you think this is about the normal amount of wear?

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That doesn't look too good.... Al least not for a 5 months old light.
I have been camping, trekking and even caving with my black Inova XO for almost two years and it looks a million times better than your P1 looks now, and I'm not even sure if the XO is HA-III... It probably is considering how well it is holding up so far. You Fenix looks like it is standard anodizing just like in common mags (I'm not saying it is, Im just telling how it looks like according to your pics)

I'm curious to know how's the HA quality on the Natural P1's... Anyone care to provide a pic?

My natural P1 is holding out fine but I don't carry it very often. Been using it for about 3 months now.

nightrider,
It's pretty normal for HA to wear out at the edges first since that is the weakest point. Most of my other lights are like that too. Holds true for my VitalGear FB2 body too (which claims to have excellent HAIII) and my SF L4. Don't you think the P1 looks better that way?

my first/only fenix is a NAT E1... there is already more wear than any other HAIII flashlight I have owned...

the finish (as nice as it is)... just doesn't seem to be as hard as others... my ARC looks brand new and i've had it 3 times as long as the E1 w/ more abuse done to it ...

I managed to scratch off the anodizing on my E0 in a tiny spot while putting on the split ring and some wear is showing already on the edge of the bezel and tail. But, I don't think this is supposed to be HAIII anyway.

Geoff

Keychain duty is probably THE most brutal on finish. That said, I'd like to see how an ARC AAA-P would fair after 5 months in nightrider's pocket.

I carray a L0P on my keychain since May and it it a little less scratched than the P1 on the pictures. Before that I carried an Arc AAA-P for a few months and the anodizing is holding a little better but... The knurling became less agressive, aluminium started to appear on every diamonds. Also the sharp edges started to scratch like on the L0P. On the L0P I don't have any scratch except on the edges.

My natural P1 looks as good as the day I received it. I am very pleased with the durability of the finish.

Natural will look nicer, longer than black IMO.

I have an L2P on the CR123 for about 6 months now and my CR123 tube is sorta ok but some of the Ano is missing. The tail cap and my head is still fine except for some of the edges when I dropped the light. But still not as bad as the pics.

I have carried both a Peak and Arc on a keyring for more than a one year period. They have suffered very little damage to their finish.

I carried a Fenix LOP for about three months and it has held up well, except around the entire back end of the light. I guess that is a high point where my keys scratched off the HAII. I just got a natural finish EO. I would think the lighter color finish will not show the wear as much.

I think manner of keychain carry also affects the finish wear. I have a bunch of keys and a leatherman squirt on a carabiner, which bounces about as it hands from my belt loop.

I have other friends who have their solitaire on a keychain, but they just place the keys in their jean or jacket pockets and they rarely bounce about or abrade each other, so the solitaire looks still pretty decent. On the other hand, my recent addition of a Shasta got much of the HA removed after one day of carry!

Abouna said:

First let me say I have no previous experience with HAI, II...

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That's because there is no such thing.

chevrofreak said:

That's because there is no such thing.

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I think you pretty much summed up my opening statement!

i clipped the P1 outside of my backpack and literally throw my bag anywhere everywhere

needless to say, my P1 (natural HA) is already scratched up

i'm cool with that, i bought it to use it, not to keep it on shelf and looking like new

Abouna said:

I think you pretty much summed up my opening statement!

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There are a lot of people that think there is such a thing though