Thanks guys
No, unfortunately PK does not personally know the insignificant ole me though I'd love to have the opportunity to meet him, I am the second owner of this rarity. I believe the first owner (who I know) got it off PK directly, and many many months later gave me a chance to own it. Not many of these are known to exist, I only know of a couple of others which went to different homes.
Illum_the_nation: The light is essentially 'complete'. Lack of laser engraving denotes 'sterile' as in unmarked, some manufacturers make 'em this way.
Normally, the bare aluminium light is placed in a tank of chemicals to anodize it, and for hard anodize/satin gray this is done in the same way, to put the finish on it. The only difference is in the finish and the anodizing technique.
This light was electroless-plated in nickel, giving it the silver-ish finish. It will not be able to accept another coating of anodizing because the anodizing will not chemically bond to nickel. So the nickel is the final coating and surface. It tends to attract fingerprints though
I'm sure some of our materials experts will be able to explain the specifics in more detail than I have, especially electroless nickel. I know about electroplating, but electrode-LESS?
I have the satin gray version, which is not with me at this time (so no pics). The finish is considerably darker, almost blueish silver, whereas this one looks more sterling silver color than anything else.
Ganp: Thanks, I'm trying to improve my photography as well. I put the light down on my mousepad (black plastic) next to the mouse and it looked pretty good, so I set up a shot using that composition.