Dinged and scratched on purpose?

anyone here ever stoop to that level? I have, not yet with a torch though.

A few years ago I decided the trit in my Stocker and Yale military lensatic compass wasn't cutting it anymore.

I drove 40+ miles to an Army/Navy store that stocked the new Cammenga compasses. These were $105 compasses at the time.

I didn't like the "brand new" look, so immediately after getting it out into the parking lot, I tossed it onto the floor of my truck for the ride home. I left it there for a week or so, encouraging passengers to not worry about accidentally kicking it. After this time, it was looking "used" so I was now pleased, and into my pack it went.

Anyone ever do this with a new torch? Some things just don't look right when they are "new"

LOL. Never done that, though I have been happy when I got the first scratch on a new car so I wouldn't have to worry about scratches anymore. My day to day use of flashlights is good enough for me, as they will get those beautifully earned scratches and dings as time goes by. BTW, have you thrown one of your flashlights in the back of your truck per first post?

Bill

Can't bring myself to that with a light...Not yet anyway!

I think some of the copper flashlight guys have. Esp the maratacs. Think they have a thread on here about aging them for use.

Put it in a plastic bag with a cut yellow oinion in the icebox for a couple of days. This was directed to the copper lights mentioned earlier.

We had a guy new on the fire department, took his helmet and used an acetylene torch without oxygen to make it look "seasoned." When he was off on a deployment we scrubbed his helmet back like new. He came into the station and there was his helmet, all nice and yellow. Boy was he pissed!!

PhillyRube said:

We had a guy new on the fire department, took his helmet and used an acetylene torch without oxygen to make it look "seasoned." When he was off on a deployment we scrubbed his helmet back like new. He came into the station and there was his helmet, all nice and yellow. Boy was he pissed!!

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Now that's just mean!

LGT said:

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Onions are claustrophobic the flashlight won't stand a chance.

No, just trust in entropy.

Motorcyclist here...... some guys take belt sanders to the sides of their tires to remove their "chicken strips" (the portion of unused tread where noobs are afraid to lean into).

I treat my HDS High CRI really rough. I purposely let it mix with pretty dangerous chemicals, and have scrubbed off most of the annodizing. Some of the stuff it mixes with is about as corrosive as oven cleaner... although that removes anno quite well. The light has been thrown off highwalls of coal mines and picked up at the bottom, it has been run over, lived in the tray of my ute for a week, got lost in a puddle for a few days, has been painted and stripped about 6 times now. I haven't torn through a boot yet, but i am waiting for it to happen any day now. the light has a great collection of dings and scrapes, it is totally abused, but my main reason... I love this light. When its clean, its a great EDC, and when its dirty, I don't have to risk my other lights for a dirty job.

It all started because I told myself that I would never sell the light, and the only way to do that was to make it unsellable. However, I think that a light with this much abuse in perfect working order, would still sell for a fair bit to the right person looking for the ultimate user light,.

Never done that with my flashlights before...but nearly all i own was dropped (unintentionally) at least once..and all of them are still working as new....~

I could see doing that with a flashlight, particularly a host light since they all tend to look so similar. Could never bring myself to do that to my Camenga Tritium, though it's good to know it could withstand it..

I would never do this for several reasons.

Being a perfectionist, condition is everything, even for my most used lights. This extends to all my possessions.

I had a camera, used regularly for 15 years. I took care of it and it looked just like it was fresh out of the box, right up until a friend decided to helpfully move my camera bag and dumped it onto concrete. People often wonder why I am so reluctant to hand around my things, but after you have looked after something for years and a careless moment from someone else damages it, your blood can boil. It is amazing how many accidents happen and yes they might not have meant to do it, but they did!

Oops looks like this thread might have brought out a sore point for me.

As far as making things look used, why would you? Some sort of insecurity? Oh that thing is new, obviously the person who has it doesn't know anything.... That is all rubbish.

Even the most experienced person needs to replace their tools at some point and then have a nice shiny new one. It has nothing to do with experience. In fact when it is obvious someone doesn't take care of their own things, just see how far away from them I keep mine!

Enjoy the newness, revel in the pristine, look how clean the lines are, how crystal clear the lens is, the finish so closely checked by quality control. Order and beauty incarnate.....keep it that way.

Entropy is the enemy.

Fender makes big money in there "Relic"model guitars. They purposely "customize" a new guitar with pits, dents, scratches, rust, missing screws, cracks in the finish. I guess it makes people feel that they really have a well used and worn guitar from the 1950s and 60s.

subwoofer said:

In fact when it is obvious someone doesn't take care of their own things, just see how far away from them I keep mine!

Enjoy the newness, revel in the pristine, look how clean the lines are, how crystal clear the lens is, the finish so closely checked by quality control. Order and beauty incarnate.....keep it that way.

Entropy is the enemy.

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+1
I like that. It would be cool if we could just tap a +1 button on someone's comment without adding a comment.

While I think that brand new lights are quite lovely, I certainly agree that the patina that comes from use is very cool too. I like the scarred up lights some people post pics of that say "Yeah, we've been there and done that, and we survived."

I can't say I've scratched them on purpose, but I don't do shelf queens, so they do get some marks eventually. My EDC McGizmos are getting marked up from banging against each other and other surfaces all day and the clips are scratched up from grinding against the benches at work. Oh well, they look well loved to me.

In trade circles, items that have been artifically aged or worn are referred to as "distressed".

For example, fake antique furniture is often slapped around with chains to give it a few dents to make it look convincingly old and used. Currency forgers use ploys like putting fake bills through a washing-machine cycle.

And of course practically everyone scrags their jeans these days, to make them look worn...

I wouldn't say that I intentionally make my lights (and knives) look worn and used... but i definitely do not go out of my way to baby them usually. I absolutely LOVE the way really used lights and blades look. But don't intentionally do it.

Also there are exceptions to the rule when you have special "rare" versions of something where I will rarely take it out if ever and it is babied like you wouldn't believe. For that reason I try to avoid anything that fits that description. haha