I have been pretty good about not getting anymore flashlights and really don’t need anymore flashlights, but I did end up buying a really small AAA light recently (I’ll write more about it later). I wound up getting it from a website called GoingGear.com because they had reasonable shipping rates and a 10% off discount code. I was surprised to be charged sales tax, but it turns out they are located in Smyrna.
GoingGear has some neat stuff. It is mostly camping gear. They have a neat video about the iTP flashlight I got on their home page. Under “most popular items” they have an array of “firesteel” products. These are rods made of iron, magnesium, and rare earth metals that you can rub quickly with the back of a knife and flaming globs of magnesium come off to help you start a fire. The YouTube video he has on this page shows how it works. Anything that makes showers of sparks like that and helps me start a fire when I don’t have a lighter or matches and only costs $2 is something I need to have. However, I will admit that I don’t think I have ever in my life needed to start a fire when I didn’t have matches or a lighter. Still, *firesteel*! So I got the “bobcat” size (larger than squirrel and mouse sizes, smaller than moose or wolf sizes).
Also in the firebug category were these powdery rocks that catch fire fairly easily when exposed to the sparks and help you then get a real fire going with some more tinder. The powdery rocks even float in water and repel water themselves, so you can make a fire when it is pretty damp out. Another kind of neat video here.
The last kind of neat thing he demonstrates in a video on his home page is a line of pens and notebooks called Rite in the Rain. These let you write (in the rain?) on paper that is water resistant and the ink doesn’t run even when submerged. I could see where if you had some kind of field work to do that sometimes had you out in the rain (like a park ranger or something) that would be neat to have. I did not buy any of that or the wet fire stuff, but it was neat seeing it in action.
“The most important step a flashaholic can take is a step in the dark.” — Unknown
Kathy walks the dogs in the morning and it is getting darker. What flashlight do you recommend for every day dog-walking use? We keep 4 AA batteries charging at all times for our cameras, keyboard, mouse, so that could be a consideration.
Geocachers like the Write-In-The-Rain pens and paper.
I like having something bright with good “throw” (it will shine a long way) so I can see things 100 feet or more down a dark sidewalk. But for close up stuff like picking up poops you don’t want blinding light, so a low mode is good. I can let you borrow my Fenix with the different body sizes and see which size you like and how the different modes work (most higher end lights are similar). Trying it out is the only way to know what you like and don’t like.
If the Fenix isn’t too complicated, then there are other brands of lights that can be programmed to different brightness levels. Also some lights have a warmer tint to the light that is supposed to give better contrast against green vegetation.
Maglite also has a 2 AA multi-mode LED light that is pretty bright but has a 25% low mode too (and flashy modes) activated by twisting the head back and forth and is available at Home Depot.
The little AAA thing I ordered might be good, but won’t have much throw compared to the Fenix.
The flashaholics all look forward to power outages. It gives their lives meaning.
I got my order form GoingGear pretty quickly. The firesteel is smaller than I thought. And it doesn’t create showers of sparks, but just a few sparks if you strike it the right way with the right piece of metal (keychain swiss army knife, keys, and a Craftsman screwdriver blade didn’t work, but a Stanley screwdriver blade did) and only after knocking the tarnish off. You’d have to have some really flammable tinder to get a fire from those sparks (it took 10 or so strikes before I caught a little wad of steel wool on fire). So that was a little disappointing.