I like this little flashlight.

Regular readers know I normally carry a bunch of stuff on my belt and so don’t normally have a lot of use for a penlight. But for the past few weeks I’ve gone with virtually nothing on my belt and so adjustments have been required. I have a good folding knife that seldom comes out of the drawer – check. I have a semiautomatic and an IWB holster – reluctantly check. And thanks to a Generous Reader, just barely in time for this trip I have a new pocket flashlight…

…and I was interested to see how it holds up against my normal expectations – and honestly whether I would even end up carrying a flashlight at all. I never used to before I moved to the boonies, and got along just fine. But for many years I’ve lived in a place with lots of little utility outbuildings and without ubiquitous electric light, and would no sooner go without my flashlight than without boots so I’m used to having one around. And it turns out that yes, even in this strange world with lots of lights everywhere a handy flashlight is still … handy.

Getting that basket back on its track in the dark is a hassle.

Anyway, for the past few weeks I’ve been using this little thing, and except for missing my belt sheath I kind of like it. It’s an LED, runs on one AAA battery with three light modes, none of which are flashy annoyances. It’s not a “tactical” light’em up till their eyes bleed and then stab’em with the pointy bits light, it’s just a very handy and surprisingly bright little tool. Unlike my usual BLF…

…which is substantially bigger, heavier and more expensive, I actually like the pocket clip on the little Lumentop. It’s substantial and reversible and won’t pop off into the nothin’ without notice. Clip this bitsy thing to your hatbrim and you won’t even know it’s there except for the light. I can’t yet speak for the overall battery life but my trip is soon to come to an end and it hasn’t let me down yet and AAAs are cheap, so it’s all good. I can recommend it.