SF HA3 and knurling questions

Hey guys,
I recall reading on flashlight reviews or somewhere that the elektrolumens TSP 4D version had anodizing and knurling that was so good that it felt like the light was sticky.

Is that the case with SF lights? Does anyone here feel like their anodizing is somewhat sticky on their SF lights? I keep trying to convince myself that the light is clean, but for some reason it just feels like there's something on the light. I've already tried to wash it with dishwashing soap and water. This is a brand new L1 with the head modded for a cree. So i'm pretty sure it's clean. But it feels residuey (is that a word?). I'm just paranoid that if the stuff gets on my hands, and i rub my face, it's going to get all over my face or maybe even into my eyes.

The sticky feeling is making me kind of wiery cause i've got no idea what that is. If this is normal with all types of anodizing and knurling. Please let me know.

Thanks in advance

Could just be you have some friends family (ship it to me) to feel the grip and see what they think of it. Some people have sticky hands.

Have you consider washing your hands instead of the light ? Maybe your hands is oily or dirty, that why everything feel sticky.

From what I have experienced the knurling of the Surefire lights has the best grip that I have found. It is very agresive which could lead you to think it was "sticky". If you look closely then knurled pattern is different to the standard seen on most other I have had. To my mind they mean that it was very gripy compared to others lights.

Maybe you just got a little too excited when fondling such a nice light and you had an accident. :laughing:

How do you store your surefire? If you have it up against a soft material (or even plastic), rubbing against it could cause transfer to the body of the flashlight. Case in point - when my L2 arrived, it had scratched and worn away at bits of the standard plastic bubble container they are all shipped in. It certainly tends to pick up small bits of debris from whatever it scrapes against - this could be part of what you are feeling.

How aggressive is the knurling on your L1? Knurling is formed by feeding a tool with hardened grooved rollers back and forth over the surface of a work piece. The greater number of passes or the greater the feed rate, the more agressive the pattern that is formed, from a light cross hatch pattern with flat diamonds to a deep cross hatch pattern forming diamond shaped points or some where in between. The knurling on my M4 seems more aggressive to me than the knurling on my E1L. I don't think I would call it "sticky", but it seems to make the M4 easier to hold on to while my E1L is easier on my pocket.

Scot

Correction: I just compared the M4 and E1L side by side, and can't really say either is more or less aggressive than the other. The M4 may just seem so due to the larger knurled surface.

AR_Shorty said:

Maybe you just got a little too excited when fondling such a nice light and you had an accident. :laughing:

Click to expand...

eewww:sick2::eeew::eeksign:

selfbuilt said:

How do you store your surefire? If you have it up against a soft material (or even plastic), rubbing against it could cause transfer to the body of the flashlight. Case in point - when my L2 arrived, it had scratched and worn away at bits of the standard plastic bubble container they are all shipped in. It certainly tends to pick up small bits of debris from whatever it scrapes against - this could be part of what you are feeling.

Click to expand...

It's a brand new light that was probably stored in the packaging for a while. It's a milky spit L1 that is amde from the old version of the L1. So it probably sat in the new packaging for a while.

AR_Shorty said:

Maybe you just got a little too excited when fondling such a nice light and you had an accident. :laughing:

Click to expand...

Well... it is a really nice light! LOL
But um... i dont think that's what happened.

other than the sticky issue, how do you like the ML-1 mod? I'm thinking of getting one of those from him pretty soon. How low is the low mode? I plan on using it in the cockpit at night, and would want the low mode to be very dim.

Thanks,
Josh

My L1 feels super grippy, but never "sticky." Couldn't say why - but I do love it dearly.

My various stories are already over at the Milky L1 Information Thread, so I won't repeat myself. The low is great, the high is awesome, the light is divine.

SCblur said:

other than the sticky issue, how do you like the ML-1 mod? I'm thinking of getting one of those from him pretty soon. How low is the low mode? I plan on using it in the cockpit at night, and would want the low mode to be very dim.

Thanks,
Josh

Click to expand...

Low mode is lower than a mclux PD if you've got one. If you have a specific preference to low, milkyspit can modify the low and add in a resistor to make it even lower. The light is much tinier than the pics make it look. The pics make it look pretty big. But in reality i was amazed at the size of the light.

By the way, anyone nearby me willing the hold the light and test it out for me to see if it's my hands? or really the light?

Thanks