Every flashlight I ever owned that required a single battery never really produced a whole lot of light. In fact every single battery powered flashlight I ever owned, and my last, “the Maglite Solitaire” pretty much sucked. Okay it did the job finding stuff outside in the dark with its sorry ass flickery dim light, and served its purpose many times over. One day I decided my keychain was getting a bit too heavy having this mini flashlight attached so I decided to eliminate it as an “EDC” aka, “everyday carry”. I do own a rather small, but not suitable EDC, Mag-Lite XL50. This flash light requires three AAA batteries and produces a respectable amount of light, in flash light terminology, “104 lumens”. I happened to stop by an outdoor recreation store and was checking out the knives when I stumbled upon a flashlight about the size of the Maglite Solitaire. It produced 110 lumens of light, which is about the same amount of light as my bigger Mag-Lite X50 series but only requires one AA battery. So I picked it up for about 30 dollars after taxes. To my surprise this flashlight was even better than my Mag-Lite XL50 and only needed one battery! I can’t believe I went all this time wasting so many batteries. This Flashlight is called the Fenix E11.
After this awesome purchase I did more research about single battery powered lights and there are a few that can produce up to 70 lumens on a single AAA battery as well!. You can Google “Olight i3 EOS” and check this one out too.
Being that my new E11 is so small I’m going to pocket carry this little guy every day. I’ve read one review about the Fenix E11 that stated, “It’s always bright; it digitally regulates its own power supply so it’s always 100% bright, even as the AA cell wears down, regardless of what sort of cell you use”. However I’ve only owned this flashlight for one day; it will be great if this is true considering my Mag-Lite XL50 dims as the battery wears out.
Okay, I been eyeballing this blade for some time and contemplating whether or not I should actually buy it? I finally came to a decision after recently getting my Blue Paramilitary, I said to myself, “I need a bigger knife, possibly a fixed blade for food prep, etc”. After searching for a fixed blade with decent quality steel I’d really couldn’t find one under $200 dollars. There were a couple Benchmades offering D2 steel, and a few Spydercos with vg10. Nonetheless I found an online company that had a close out deal on the left handed version Spyderco Military s30v. It’s as big as a fixed blade, but yet another folder.
Hence I am a lefty I finally bit the bullet and ordered this baby. In addition to this knife I’ve ordered the Spyderco Sharpmaker standard complete set, no more honing my knives on the back of a coffee mug. I can pretty much bet that this left handed model isn’t going to be readily available for long. Not only will I have a nice 4 inch folder, I’ll possibly possess a lefty’s collector’s item. Can’t wait till it comes!
Updated January 22, 2013
Welp I’ve finally received my left-handed milli along with the Spyderco Sharpmaker and I must say they are both outstanding! The knife size is perfect for any task that comes in front of me. Unfortunately being that the blade is 4inches long it can definitely raise a few eyebrows if I’d ever decided to disengage it in an everyday environment. In other words “This folder is fuckin big!”. It will probably be best to back pocket a smaller knife for everyday tasks if I’m ever amongst weenies.
The Sharpmaker is an awesome, and I’ll say it again “awesome!” knife sharpening system. It even got my $2 dollar Walmart and Target kitchen knives razor hair cutting sharp. In the past I’ve used everything from a diamond flat stone, fine ceramic stones, sand paper and even a coffee mug that produced a workable edge, but nothing like this. After using the Sharpmaker you can effortlessly shave hairs off your arm without applying pressure. I’m blown away!
Went a whole nine days! Fuckin Blue Paramilitary!
I been wanting to get this knife for awhile already. Rumor has it that a sprint run of this knife might be available sometimes this December once again. It is a limited edition version of the Spyderco Paramilitary 2. Anyway a website named Bentoboxshop is now accepting pre-orders. The knife is going to be $179.99. However I am not going to take the risk pre-ordering because there is no refund. If for some reason Spyderco don’t sell Bentoboxshop this limited m390 steel version this year I’ll be out of 180 bucks.
What I plan to do December 1st is to check bentoboxshop at 1am to see if they are available yet. From what I’ve heard, it took them a approximately a month to sell them out last year. I know I am a idiot for spending this much on a knife after I just dropped a ton of money on a root canal but I want it bad.
Updated December 31st, 2012
OK just received my new M390 Blue Paramilitary in the mail on New Years eve 2012. Here is the video I took with my cell phone opening up the USPS package.
I would like to thank everyone at SharpThings.net and Bentoboxshop on making it possible for me to have such an awesome knife this New Year’s Eve.
