What about Knives and Flashlights?

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This thread needs more USA made lights
 
Dcdavis said:
Know of any USA made lights like the Olight S1R? I searched all I could and never found one with that small size, magnetic, lumens, and usb charger
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No I don’t sorry. Performance wise Chinese lights are leaps and bounds above US made lights, but I’d bet my Malkoff and Surefire will outlast any olight. It’s similar in the knife world, a $100 Chinese made knife might perform just as well or better than my CRK’s but my CRK’s should outlast me.
 
johnnytoxin said:
No I don’t sorry. Performance wise Chinese lights are leaps and bounds above US made lights, but I’d bet my Malkoff and Surefire will outlast any olight. It’s similar in the knife world, a $100 Chinese made knife might perform just as well or better than my CRK’s but my CRK’s should outlast me.
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Gotcha. I’ve got a few surefire and Mag I keep in the truck and around the house but nothing real pocket friendly. I buy everything I can USA made when possible, just couldn’t find anything that filled the bill for me
 
I prefer to buy USA made but have some Chinese lights as well.

Love my Malkoff m61hot md2. Plain and simple light that has been dead nuts reliable. With the high/low switch it works for about everything. 18650 battery makes it nice. I have a Surefire g2x pro but the cr123 batteries get expensive when you use the light as much as I do. I did see they are selling rechargeables on Surefire's website now though. Would probably be a good investment. I don't see myself buying any more Surefires (maybe a tactician, maybe...) unless they just come out with something crazy. They kind of turned me off to the brand a few years ago with a black friday sale (never shipped what I bought and then discontinued the product to keep from having to honor the price).

My olight m2r warrior has been reliable for the short time I've had it. The magnetic charging is nice and it has many modes. I have an led Maglite Solitaire on my keys but the led AA mini maglites were so unreliable for me 10 years ago that I threw away the ones I used and gave away my new backups. Just like with knives, it's a good time to be a flashlight fan. Many good choices available.
 
Dcdavis said:
Gotcha. I’ve got a few surefire and Mag I keep in the truck and around the house but nothing real pocket friendly. I buy everything I can USA made when possible, just couldn’t find anything that filled the bill for me
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it doesn’t have a magnet and not as bright as your olight but my surefire Titan plus puts out 300 lumens on a single rechargeable AAA nimh (eneloop) and is very pocket friendly. I did have to grind the tail cap flat so it could tail stand. It’s a high quality simple U.S.A. made light. It also has a nice warm tint
 
johnnytoxin said:
it doesn’t have a magnet and not as bright as your olight but my surefire Titan plus puts out 300 lumens on a single rechargeable AAA nimh (eneloop) and is very pocket friendly. I did have to grind the tail cap flat so it could tail stand. It’s a high quality simple U.S.A. made light. It also has a nice warm tint
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When I get some time I’ll sit down and search around some more. The magnet is handy as hell in my line of work.
 
Dcdavis said:
Gotcha. I’ve got a few surefire and Mag I keep in the truck and around the house but nothing real pocket friendly. I buy everything I can USA made when possible, just couldn’t find anything that filled the bill for me
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Olight has a great US presence. Warranty is done state side, and in my experience was trouble free. You will not find anything imo that will touch the s1rii for pocket carry that is the size, output, or battery life. Surefire got left behind in the edc market years ago.
 
Yo Mama said:
Olight has a great US presence. Warranty is done state side, and in my experience was trouble free. You will not find anything imo that will touch the s1rii for pocket carry that is the size, output, or battery life. Surefire got left behind in the edc market years ago.
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So you've had to use Olight warranty as well...

Interesting; so did I... 3 times.

Size, output, and battery life are all subject to use and are fairly comparable among all brands these days.

Surefire has made recent strides with their EDC line IMHO and I've yet to need warranty service from them.

I only own one Malkoff, but it's performance has been stellar as well.

Not to bash all Chinese lights, I still love my Lumintop, Fenix, Manker, and others... edit: forgot Zebralight! Love them!

But when the illumination may be critical; I trust US brands above them.

YMMV
 
Jarhead Greasemonkey said:
So you've had to use Olight warranty as well...

Interesting; so did I... 3 times.

Size, output, and battery life are all subject to use and are fairly comparable among all brands these days.

Surefire has made recent strides with their EDC line IMHO and I've yet to need warranty service from them.

I only own one Malkoff, but it's performance has been stellar as well.

Not to bash all Chinese lights, I still love my Lumintop, Fenix, Manker, and others... edit: forgot Zebralight! Love them!

But when the illumination may be critical; I trust US brands above them.

YMMV
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Out of the 6 Olights I own, only one needed a new tail cap (my fault probably dropped 20 or so times before any issues), it was the old s1r, not yet the second version. That's pretty good odds to me.

I love American for sure and started with Surefire for everything, but I've used olight for a long time, and think they will outlast me. They just have more options and interfaces where tech outperforms in. I know I've relied on them a bunch without fail.

Then we get to look only at the olight s1rii, there is just nothing from surefire I can see that comes close in even carry size. Im interested what model were you thinking of in compatible size and output?
 
Jarhead Greasemonkey said:
So you've had to use Olight warranty as well...

Interesting; so did I... 3 times.

Size, output, and battery life are all subject to use and are fairly comparable among all brands these days.

Surefire has made recent strides with their EDC line IMHO and I've yet to need warranty service from them.

I only own one Malkoff, but it's performance has been stellar as well.

Not to bash all Chinese lights, I still love my Lumintop, Fenix, Manker, and others... edit: forgot Zebralight! Love them!

But when the illumination may be critical; I trust US brands above them.

YMMV
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I agree completely. Reliability and quality are most important to me. I will sacrifice a little performance and convenience for greater reliability.
 
Yo Mama said:
Out of the 6 Olights I own, only one needed a new tail cap (my fault probably dropped 20 or so times before any issues), it was the old s1r, not yet the second version. That's pretty good odds to me.

I love American for sure and started with Surefire for everything, but I've used olight for a long time, and think they will outlast me. They just have more options and interfaces where tech outperforms in. I know I've relied on them a bunch without fail.

Then we get to look only at the olight s1rii, there is just nothing from surefire I can see that comes close in even carry size. Im interested what model were you thinking of in compatible size and output?
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SureFire EDCL1-T would be the closest.

4.5" long vs 2.5"
1.125" wide at the bezel vs 0.83"

Output of 500 on high for an hour / 5 on low for 45 hours on the SF...
Output of 600 on lvl2 for 45 minutes / 12 on lvl 4 for 20 hours on OL.

Compatible size?

Too much subjectivity to that, but I often wonder what is gained by shortness?

All I can think of is maybe watch pocket carry and a bit better ease of use if attached to the bill of a ballcap.

But the footprint of pocket carry is about the same.

Unless that 3 tenths of an inch width more on the SF just makes it cumbersome???

Given, the Olight has a higher max output, but I'm over the lumen chasing game...

Have yet to encounter a situation where 500 lumens wouldn't suffice, but 1000 from a small reflector would.


I get that you're an Olight fan just as I'm a fan of SureFire and Malkoff; but don't think that I'm a hater...

Like I said I love my Chinese lights as well.


But if someone wants to buy American made, then there are comparable options.

All depends on what your preferences are.

Me?

I prefer US made when possible.


And we haven't even considered options from other US makers such as McGizmo, HDS, and Hanko...

Of course, that's when the price really starts to make a large difference.
 
Jarhead Greasemonkey said:
SureFire EDCL1-T would be the closest.

4.5" long vs 2.5"
1.125" wide at the bezel vs 0.83"

Output of 500 on high for an hour / 5 on low for 45 hours on the SF...
Output of 600 on lvl2 for 45 minutes / 12 on lvl 4 for 20 hours on OL.

Compatible size?

Too much subjectivity to that, but I often wonder what is gained by shortness?

All I can think of is maybe watch pocket carry and a bit better ease of use if attached to the bill of a ballcap.

But the footprint of pocket carry is about the same.

Unless that 3 tenths of an inch width more on the SF just makes it cumbersome???

Given, the Olight has a higher max output, but I'm over the lumen chasing game...

Have yet to encounter a situation where 500 lumens wouldn't suffice, but 1000 from a small reflector would.


I get that you're an Olight fan just as I'm a fan of SureFire and Malkoff; but don't think that I'm a hater...

Like I said I love my Chinese lights as well.


But if someone wants to buy American made, then there are comparable options.

All depends on what your preferences are.

Me?

I prefer US made when possible.


And we haven't even considered options from other US makers such as McGizmo, HDS, and Hanko...

Of course, that's when the price really starts to make a large difference.
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The SureFire EDCL1 is much larger, unless you have an olight s1rii in hand you really cant appreciate how such a small light you get at insane brightness.

With a few more inches in length, and a larger bezel, it hogs pocket space I'm sharing with any given leatherman. A 4.5 inch bar basically in your pocket, im going to carry as a camping/hiking, where as the tiny olight is truly edc and forget it.

The brands you listed for US made are works of art. But they are not priced in my arena.
 
Yo Mama said:
The SureFire EDCL1 is much larger, unless you have an olight s1rii in hand you really cant appreciate how such a small light you get at insane brightness.

With a few more inches in length, and a larger bezel, it hogs pocket space I'm sharing with any given leatherman. A 4.5 inch bar basically in your pocket, im going to carry as a camping/hiking, where as the tiny olight is truly edc and forget it.

The brands you listed for US made are works of art. But they are not priced in my arena.
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I didn't communicate my argument for size clearly...

Maybe it's just too much difference in personal preference to reach an agreement.

How does the LENGTH of the light take up more pocket space?

(other than vertical space... obviously)

Unless you've got something L-shaped or something riding horizontal in the bottom of the pocket...

Guess that could be the case.

But when clipped in a vertical position (probably bad assumption on my part; that's how I carry my EDC flashlights) the "wee bit over" 1 inch diameter lights only occupy a space that is 0.3" wider than the skinny Olights.

The only Olight I've got left is the S1R, which I found TOO small for EDC; was just too fumbly... couldn't ever get a decent grip on it.

Really though I shouldn't be one to discount someone's subjective opinion about the size of gear...

My carry pistol was chosen because it was less than a half inch longer than another model!


My apologies for the thread derail...

Stay Sharp!
 
Jarhead Greasemonkey said:
I didn't communicate my argument for size clearly...

Maybe it's just too much difference in personal preference to reach an agreement.

How does the LENGTH of the light take up more pocket space?

(other than vertical space... obviously)

Unless you've got something L-shaped or something riding horizontal in the bottom of the pocket...

Guess that could be the case.

But when clipped in a vertical position (probably bad assumption on my part; that's how I carry my EDC flashlights) the "wee bit over" 1 inch diameter lights only occupy a space that is 0.3" wider than the skinny Olights.

The only Olight I've got left is the S1R, which I found TOO small for EDC; was just too fumbly... couldn't ever get a decent grip on it.

Really though I shouldn't be one to discount someone's subjective opinion about the size of gear...

My carry pistol was chosen because it was less than a half inch longer than another model!


My apologies for the thread derail...

Stay Sharp!
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Thanks my friend! Yes with regards to carry, mine is dropped in the pocket, not clipped to the pocket vertically. That's where the leatherman is.
 
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