Whitish/Grey translucent stuff on LSH-P LED rim

I'm not sure what this is. I got my LSH-P a couple of days ago, and I'm very happy with it, except the following. If i look into the LS head, i see this whitish/greyish translucent stuff on the circular edge where the LED bulb meets the reflector. It's like along the rim, but doesn't circle it completely. Maybe a little more than half. Does anyone else have that? Is it some kind of glue? What is it? It's obviously bothering me a bit till i know what it is.

could it be the lubricant?

if not that, i suppose it could be epoxy.

could it be the lubricant?

if not that, i suppose it could be epoxy.

Are you talking about at the base of the bulb? Yeah, mine has that too... I have no idea what it is, but it doesn't seem to have any affect on how the light works, so I'm not going to worry about it much.

wow, that double-post wasn't there earlier...was it?

i really don't think it was...

Yes, at the base of the bulb. Peter, can you tell us what it is?

[ Rothrandir, you can edit out the duplicate post, you know. ]

i know, but i didn't think it was there earlier...was it?

Not sure what you guys are talking about exactly. A picture would help of course. Is this the "farkle" seen through the front of the lens around the yellow center? Those are chips in the optic from the firm pressure we use to mate the LED housing to the optic. This is a cosmetic issue. It will not affect the beam nor can the optics collapse at a later time because they have a seperate collar holding them in place.

Cosmetics are important in our pursuit of perfection. We have been testing a foam ring that goes between the two parts and spreads out the force. It adds it's own cosmetic but it does look more consistent.

Not sure if this is what you are talking about but I want you to know we are aware of it, it's won't affect the usefullness of the light and we have a fix.

There is also on the inside lip of the bezel (near the lexan) some blemishes in the hard anodize. These are normal. Sometimes you will see two rack marks, one on each side. The HA process generates a rack mark, which is required for electrical contact during the plating procedure. The trick in design is to posistion those rack marks either in a piece that is cut away or less visible. We have also noticed a small amount of scratches in that area sometimes. I think those are being caused by the racks being removed. These racks are titanium and clamp the piece very firmly so the operator has to muscle them off. I have asked our QC people to look for way to minimize these scratches (sometimes scotchbright will remove them). We also have rejected some blank heads this week because the rack marks were just too big to let pass.

We may be of a different opinion on what $160 should buy in a flashlight. I prefer function over form. Some of our customers may be looking for an artsy flashlight to show off. This is not our intent. Our design is primarily driven by my ideals, not the consesus of our customers. Trust me when I say that making a light that is absolutely cosmetically flawless is not something I lose a lot of sleep on. I am, however, quite interested in completely fixing anything that affects the intended function of our light. I will also try to make it look good, but not if it makes it cost a bunch more or sacrifice its usability.

Peter Gransee

I purchased a LS1 "second" and it has the same junk around the base of the LED where it enters the reflector. Looks almost like epoxy residue or dust. I was concerned about it when I received the light. However, it doesn't affect the light's beam quality or operation at all, (I do wish the bluish beam beam were "whiter" though). It does look ugly if you look inside the head but if it was loose and falling around, I would have sent it back. I bought a "second" because I use the heck out of this thing and am not concerned at all about aesthetics. I will admit though that if I had paid top dollar for a "first", it would bug me. This little LS1 works wonderful and when I went "snow camping" last weekend, my friends were just amazed and had to check out this little thing that was putting out all that light!