LoR 1.6 Mile Beamshot

Lets cut the foreplay shall we? Three images, the first is the Lance of Ra illuminating a mountainside 1.61 miles away, the second is the cheater shot (same camera settings, but with the light turned off), and the third is a google maps distance calculation. Enjoy

The Lance of Ra illuminating a mountainside 1.61 miles away.

The cheater shot. (same camera settings, but with the light turned off) 

The beam path of the Lance of Ra showing Google's distance calculation. 

Available EoS Models 8/11/17

Our Eye of Sekhmet lights are made to order. Occasionally though we'll have some lights available. Aside from custom engraving, they're available for purchase immediately. We strive to update these lists as lights are sold, however we can't guarantee they will be up to date. Please contact us if you see a light you would like to order. For more information on on specs and performance figures, please visit the EoS Product Page.  For more information on how we acquire our performance numbers visit our Test Protocols Page. 

Curly Yellow Birch over Cu, Hex 3000K - 440$
Curly yellow birch isn't in and of itself special enough to justify an exotic classification and a one-off. That vibrant iridescence, life, inside the wood though is just begging for painstaking embellishment with a special finish. Our proprietary tung oil, citrus oil, and beeswax finish was applied, a process taking weeks. The result maintains the beautiful natural satin sheen and texture of wood, while enhancing the glowing life within. Fittingly, the copper back was also brought up to a 1000 grit finish, as opposed to our standard brushed finish. To take things just one step further, we installed a beautiful Nichia 319A emitter, projecting a unique hexagonal beam, but unlike our production models this one is very warm 3000K - 68Kcd

Eye of Sekhmet curly yellow birch over 1K grit finish copper back and 3000K Nichia 319A, Microtech Tri-Grip Ultratech

Curly Walnut over Cu w/ copper accents and polished back, CRI (dedomed) - 440$
This stunning light was made from the sweetest piece of several large walnut boards we acquired. Too special for a premium light, we seized the opportunity to turn this into a special one-off. Further adding to the special little touches, we polished out the copper backer, and used copper composite accents for the charging board mount and switch-rod bushing. (they're normally GITD blue) Because we wanted this celebration of light and color to be able to show itself off, we dedomed and binned several 90CRI Nichia 219c LEDs to get about a 30% performance jump over stock and a beautiful warm tint. - 84Kcd

Eye of Sekhmet curly walnut with copper accents and polished copper back, Microtech Tri-Grip Ultratech

Bubinga w/ sycamore keys over Al, Lumen - 400$
Here is a light with some character, turn a flaw into a feature. This piece of bubinga has beautiful color and grain, so we stabilized the crack and installed three DEEP sycamore butterfly keys. You can see it in the photo where we deliberately violated the edge to show off, these keys aren't some aesthetic inlay, they run almost all the way through the light. The sycamore came from a tree we harvested and have been curing for the last 30 years, and are finally using it for projects! A beautiful piece, and truly one of a kind. The lightweight aluminum back beautifully contrasts the red of the bubinga, and cuts the weight to half that of a copper backed light making it easy to carry and use. A durable varnish finish completes the package. - 175Kcd.

Eye of Sekhmet bubinga w/ sycamore keys over alu., Spyderco Matriarch sprint

Bubinga w/ ebony keys and copper inlay over Cu, Lumen - 620$
Another beautiful piece of bubinga begging for functional embellishment. We used ebony butterfly keys, again full depth no shortcuts here, but instead of simply stabilizing the crack we filled it with copper composite. The result is stunning to behold. Fitting a key above the optic was particularly challenging, necessitating quite the unusual asymmetric design. A copper backer with a polished finish, rather than the standard brushed, really makes the engraving pop and completes the theme. - 171Kcd

Eye of Sekhmet bubinga w/ ebony keys and copper inlay over Cu, Custom Spyderco military Ti/g10

Storm of Ra (project update)

Storm of Ra prototype

What happened to the Storm? Why isn't it out yet? What is its status? All good questions. The short answer is that, since this picture was taken and initial photographs released, we've had to go in a rather different direction, one thing lead to another, and ultimately a complete redesign occurred. 

The crux of the problem was cooling. While we may some day release an ultra-short-turbo light, for the Storm we wanted the performance to be a bit more sustained. Furthermore, because we take our measurements after 30 seconds as per ANSI spec (unless otherwise noted) we couldn't live with the considerable performance drop from heat buildup. Even the heatsink integrated in the head just wasn't enough in this application. 

The solution we moved to was active cooling. Tap a little extra power off the batteries, and use it to shift heat off the emitter. This was so successful we were able to SIGNIFICANTLY increase performance, but not without a total redesign. New/different everything, right down to the cell type, and the prototype (not pictured) is producing 8000 emitter lumens and 1 million candela (1000Kcd). That is good for about 2 kilometers of throw and one hell of an impressive beam. Perhaps more impressive though is the efficacy of the active cooling, which allows the light to operate virtually continuously. 

We currently have a working prototype  (which produced the above numbers), are finalizing design tweaks, and are still debating a few optical elements and their relative effect on performance. We hope to start production in the next couple weeks. 

Out of office

We're out of the office until August 4th, during which time email inquiries may not be responded to in a timely fashion and some orders may be delayed. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Because of this we're offering a 5% site-wide discount. Enter the coupon code GVUWD0D at checkout. 

Available EoS Models 6/16/17

Our Eye of Sekhmet lights are made to order. Occasionally though we'll have some lights available. Aside from custom engraving, they're available for purchase immediately. We strive to update these lists as lights are sold, however we can't guarantee they will be up to date. Please contact us if you see a light you would like to order. For more information on on specs and performance figures, please visit the EoS Product Page.  For more information on how we acquire our performance numbers visit our Test Protocols Page. 

Knotted red oak w/ blue glow element over Al, Lumen - 215$ - SOLD
We love turning what others would consider a flaw into a feature, it is a staple of our one-offs. In this instance we had a knot, surrounded by beautiful grain, but with a gaping hole in the center. We filled it with SrAl, doped blue, and built the rest of the light around it. The aluminum backer cuts the weight in half compared to a copper light, while a durable varnish finish protects it. The result is a very attractive and functional light, with just a special little element. - 171Kcd

Eye of Sekhmet knotted red oak w/ blue glow element over Al, Kershaw laminated junkyard dog 

Figured bubinga over Cu, Lumen - 447$ - SOLD
Sometimes lumber is sold in lots, that is to say several boards bundled together. We bought a lot of multiple large boards JUST for this single piece of figured bubinga to become this light. Whereas our other one-offs listed here celebrate a "flaw," this light is a celebration of the pure beauty of figured wood. While pictures capture the rich color, they miss that "life" in the wood, an almost indescribable internal iridescence which is one of the most beautiful phenomena of woodworking. As a further celebration of the wood, we finished this light in tung oil, citrus oil, and beeswax, a process which takes over a month to complete, but significantly enhances the life in it while maintaining that unique texture. We love the results of this finishing process, but it just isn't practical in a production environment. - 170Kcd

Eye of Sekhmet figured bubinga over copper, Benchmade model 42

Eye of Sekhmet Reviewed!

Fantastic review of our EoS from Advanced Knife Bro over on youtube. He really is our kind of people, with a passion for lights and cutlery. You should subscribe to his channel if you haven't already. 

We are working hard to fill orders, but we should also have some special one-off EoS models available in the next couple weeks. Examples like this are typically made from truly unique pieces of wood, so unlike many "limited editions" being limited only by the manufacturer saying they super special pinkie promise not to make any more, there really will never be another which looks exactly one of these. Think Minority Report, except without Tom Cruise, creepy swimming pools, creepy metal spiders...... really nothing like the film except for utilizing the uniqueness of wood.

Custom Engraving

EoS showing our engraved logo. Spyderco Farid K2 for scale

Did you know we offer custom engraving? The back of the Eye of Sekhmet is a blank canvas, practically begging for customization. While our engraved logo comes as standard, there is a surplus of space for special messages, or simply artwork. Have some vector artwork you'd like applied to the back? We can work with you to make it happen. Go to our Custom Project page to get started. 

The EoS is the perfect blank slate for complex and exotic engraving. 

Astrolux SC

Custom Astrolux SC

Had another Astrolux SC pass through our shop. These little lights are just gorgeous. Not bad performance for such a small package either, Better  and with that much thermal mass they'll run flat out pretty much forever..... forever being defined as until the battery runs out. 

Lance of Ra - Product Introduction

The Lance of Ra, the most powerful production LED flashlight with >2.5 million candela

Welcome everyone to the Lance of Ra, the most powerful production LED flashight in the world. Compare to the likes of the DeftX, the former title holder with a mere 1 million candela, we have variants available with >2.5 million candela. This allows it to reach out and illuminate targets in excess of three kilometers away, or roughly two miles! 

It isn't just about performance though, we also wanted it to look cool. Scattered around the light we've added glow elements, some simply aesthetic, however the internal element behind the lens serves an actual function; charged by the light itself, this element glows brightly and projects its own diffuse beam useful for navigation, map reading, or other tasks requiring low diffuse lighting. This diversifies the light's functionality in a way unusual for lights anywhere close to its performance class. 

Eye of Sekhmet

EoS in cherry with copper heatsink. Spyderco Farid K2 for comparison. 

Why does a light have to be a metal tube? Corrosion of conducting surfaces, a series of troublesome thermal interfaces, and a pretty limited repertoire of materials are all disadvantages of the tube light. What if we solved all these and made a light in the package size of the modern smartphone? Charged off common micro USB, with familiar switch placement, and done in exotic woods, copper, aluminum, and brass this is a very unusual high performance reflector light. 

EoS beamshot. The was was deliberately not captured in this image. 

Speaking of performance, we have four standard options. They optimize for high throw (>1 kilometer), high lumens (>2000lm), and high CRI (90cri), although we can accommodate other emitters as well. In particular we're pleased to offer the Nichia 319A, which offers an excellent performance compromise of tint, CRI, lumens, and throw with a unique hexagonal hot spot and clean wide (~150 degree) wash. 

Showing the Nichia 319A (hex)  variant's unusual hexagonal hot spot. 

For more information on the EoS performance, emitters, and options, or to order one for yourself, check out the PRODUCT PAGE. 

EoS in cocobolo with copper heatsink, Peterson lock picks, Tesla lighter, Benchmade model 42

PROJECT - Lock Picks (part1)

Peterson lockpicks, Custom BLF A6 modded to 2200 lumens, Tofty Tritium, Spyderco Lum Tanto Sprint, Tesla lighter, S&W .45ACP, Liberty Civil Defense

We all love our EDC items here at STO. Fine cutlery, firearms, lighters, of course flashlights, and.... lock picks. Peterson has long been a source for some of our favorites, but picks wear out with time, then there is always the pesky lock you wish you had something special for, and you can never have enough medium hooks. So why not make your own? 

*DISCLAIMER*
Lock picks are not legal everywhere. Check your local laws before making or carrying them.

Yeah, okay, it is a Master Lock and will open at a sneeze, but as a quick test the pick works great. 

We're all fans of Youtuber Bosnian Bill, and he repeatedly references making your own pick sets from windshield wiper springs. He even has a whole series on making your own picks. Why not? Turns out he actually goes one step further, and has a pick handle design available for free download on Thingiverse.

Wiper springs, handles, Peterson Gem (to copy) 

Windshield wiper springs, a few printed handles (makergeeks garbage used for experiments like this), and one of my favorite picks (Peterson Gem in .015) to copy in hand, lets get started. 

Layout fluid on the spring steel stock (wiper springs) and a farcical attempt to make the yellow pick handle less hideous. 

Step one of anything is planning. Layout fluid (often sold under the brand Dykem Blue) and a carbide pen. You could probably use a sharpie and mechanical pencil to the same effect, but smoke 'em if you got 'em eh? I also threw some marking fluid on the handle. I had an idea with that, but pretty much immediately regretted it. 

Marking length to cut 

Glue the metal stock into the handle so you have a way to grip it. Pretty much as simple as that. The carbide pen is used, first anyway, to mark where you want to cut. Because we're using an abrasive cutoff wheel here, which is pretty inefficient and makes a lot of heat, I left some extra space to make sure I didn't burn the temper off that critical tip. You could also use a hacksaw if you wanted, and remove any chance of burning the temper. 

Tracing an existing pick design to copy

You can never have enough clamps right? With the length cut, and the burned steel ground away, it is time to lay out the actual pick. I used some squeeze clamps to keep things aligned, and then just traced the Peterson Gem onto the spring steel stock. 

Grinding the pick's profile

Here you can see the laid out pick shape. You can also see what my bad idea with the marking fluid on the handle was. It did work, making the "Bosnian Bill" logo a lot more visible, but there really is no redeeming this yellow plastic. The critical pat to grinding here is to use a fresh sharp belt. When you're grinding, you'll put a LOT less heat into the work if you're efficiently cutting the metal as opposed to just smearing and rubbing on it. For this reason, you'd do well to avoid bench grinders which function by breaking down as you use them and exposing fresh abrasive. They're slow, inefficient, and generate a LOT of heat. This, by the way, is part of why the professionals pay about four times the price for a dry cut saw rather than just using an abrasive chop saw. When you're grinding, don't forget you're not just grinding the profile, you probably want to grind the thickness as well. This stuff starts north of .025", but finally you have an endless supply of picks as thin as you want. I ground this one down to .020". 
Don't have a belt grinder, bench grinder, rotary tool, or any other sort of power grinder, you can always use a set of files. If you don't have any files.... use your teeth or just buy lock picks. This is a build-along, if you can't scrape together the bare minimum of a hacksaw and a half-round file, what were you expecting? ;) 
Little trick here: at least on the wiper springs I got, the sides are very nicely rounded and smoothed. So if you can lay the pick out so you only need to grind from the top and front, you'll save yourself time in finishing later as the bottom of the pick will already be pretty smooth and well rounded. 

Tedious hand finishing work with sandpaper to get rid of any sharp edges or rough surfaces

Finishing, the most annoying step of every project. We're off the grinder and now need to remove those grind lines. The finer the belt you go to on your grinder, the less hand work you'll have to do here. Sharp belts also won't leave you with big burrs on edges the way dull ones or many bench grinders will. At the end of the day though, there is nothing for it other than elbow grease. Bosnian Bill has a great tip using a book to sand both sides of the pick at the same time. Works great. Detailing the sharp corners and edges though is still tedious, no matter how you slice it, even with a rotary tool. And, of course, you're trying to just round corners and smooth edges without removing the definition of the pick. 

Success! First try and the pick works beautifully. 

First pick was a success, opened a Master Lock in seconds, but I want to improve the process. Allowing for heat mitigation is slow and fraught, the whole grind-and-dip thing is slow and makes keeping your angles more difficult. I'd rather work faster, and coolant is the obvious solution. So time for a round two. 

Improving the process by wet cutting (wet paper towel) to keep things cool. 

Same process up to this point, but now we just grind on a wet paper towel. This keeps everything cool, including drawing water up onto the wheel, which is excellent. A much quicker and safer way to cut, and you waste less metal.

And now wet grinding. Add a spritz of water to the belt from time to time as well. Note the little line seen on the paper towel here is from the previous cutoff process. 

On the grinder same thing, place a moist paper towel in a block and use a spray bottle to moisten the belt from time to time. The result is faster and safer grinding with less heat. No problem. Having round the first pick so easily, I didn't bother laying out a design on this one and just winged it. 

Pick #2 is done, getting better at this. This one I thinned out to a mere .018". 

Same finishing process as before.... and then there were two. This one I took down to .018" Thing is, all that detail sanding as part of the finishing process is still irksome to do. What if there were a shortcut? 

Pick #3 straight off the belt grinder

Steel tumbling media

Repeat the same process as above, omitting bonding the pick into the handle and most of the finishing work. Instead, post grinding, clean up the pick and toss into steel tumbling media. What you see here is my secret sauce of ballcones, pins, and other assorted bits of polishing media. If your grinder isn't sharp and is "smearing" rather than cutting the steel, you might want to start on a ceramic media before moving to the finer finish steel. 

Finished pick post-tumbling

And we're done. Good polish and all the corners have been smoothed out without losing their detail. You still have well defined points and edges, but they're no longer sharp. I feel like I have the pick making process down, but my god this yellow plastic is ugly. Next up, we'll be making prettier handles that you'd actually want to EDC. 

Product Certification Card

Performance certification card for a Lance of Ra

Did you know each of our lights comes with its own individual certification card? Every one is unique, attesting to  that specific light's test performance, date of birth, and bears a signature certifying said performance. Obsessive? Maybe. But yeah, we take performance that seriously. 

Development Project - Convoy C8 294Kcd

294Kcd custom Convoy C8

The Convoy C8, does it need an introduction? Being an incredibly popular host for thrower modding, we figured it'd be fun to develop an upgrade plan around this host to produce absurd performance. Just for reference, typically modified C8s fail to exceed 180Kcd, and we've never seen someone else pass 200Kcd.

Our goal is to exceed 300Kcd. As of writing, our dev. mule is at 294Kcd. That is good for an ANSI rated throw distance of 1085 meters. 

Performance is never without cost. Our optical upgrades have generated some artifacting outside the hotspot, so for people who that annoys this is definitely not your huckleberry, but in this size class, there really is nothing else out there which can compete for throw. You're carrying something almost 50% more powerful than a Dereelight Xsearcher in your pocket. 

Development Project - Storm of Ra

Storm of Ra displaying its unique hexagonal beam at 100 meters

We love lumens as much as the next flashaholic, but given that we actually use our lights and expect our customers to as well, they just need some throw to back them up.

Enter the Storm of Ra. Backed with the power of the the Cree MT-G2 spitting >4000 lumens (emitter), you're not left wanting in the raw output department. Whereas most lights with this many lumens simply squander all that power, we harnessed it with a 110mm aspheric lens to generate ~500Kcd, good for well over a kilometer of throw. A consequence of this is that the emitter's unique hexagonal profile is displayed in the beam. It is truly a stunning sight to behold. This can be seen clearly in the above image. The distance, BTW, is 100 meters. Just aside of the lower right facet of the hexagon, a 12x21 torso target can be seen, to give you an idea of the distance. 

Custom build - the other red triple

Custom Convoy S2 36Kcd

Pretty basic build here. Start with a convoy S2, add optics, thermal upgrades, the usual stuff, and pop a 36Kcd pocket rocket out the other end. Simple, practical, effective. For the astute among you, you'll note that the quad Astrolux S41 only pumped 32Kcd with a whole extra emitter. While voltage sag in direct drive is real, mostly it comes down to the S41 coming with garbage optics as stock, and the customer not wanting to pay for the machining  and other modification necessary to fit Carclo optics. Thus, the custom S41 project we did dumps more lumens, but is a few Kcd shy of this triple build. 

Custom Project - Astrolux SC

Astrolux SC w/ patina 87Kcd

This was one of our first custom projects. Meet the Astrolux SC. You may know this as the banner photo (at least at the time of writing) on our website. 

For those who don't know, these come pretty fully loaded, style-wise at least. Copper body, lit tailcap, and a pretty reasonable driver as a bonus. The problems come from the anemic power source, unsuitable emitter, and unfocused reflector. Throw in the usual suspects as well, potting, bypasses, thermal upgrades, etc just because, and you have a pretty sweet little pocket rocket spitting 87Kcd. Not bad eh? The thing has so much thermal mass with our upgrades and that anemic little cell, it'll never get too hot. 

But what to do with that dirty great slab of raw copper? It is practically a canvas, inviting further modification. We debated "painting" patterns on it in patina, but in the end went for more of a "found artifact" look where patina fills low points, gaps, and crevices. Finish it with a clearcoat to protect the patina and the ELU's pants pockets, and it is good to go. A real looker. Only really "unusual" part of the project was machining special covers/plugs to protect every aperture, the inside, and every mating surface from the etchant and of course clearcoat. 

New Product - SoH Holster

View fullsize

Strike of Hyperion quick draw holster 

We're very proud of our lights, particularly the Strike of Hyperion. It has, far and away, the most throw in its size class, yet being zoomable it is incredibly versatile. The question then becomes: how to create a carry solution as efficient and versatile as it is? 

Enter our custom holster for the SoH/Jaxman Z1. The light is firmly held and does not rattle. The light easily pops in or out with one hand. An O-ring gasket keeps the lens free of dirt when in the holster. And the light can be carried anywhere from fully zoomed in or out. We even offer an amber-tinted translucent head, allowing hands-free low-brightness area illumination. Belt mounting options are the Blade Tech Teklok, the Spyderco G-clip, and the AMSPRO Belt Mounting Clip. We feel these three represent the best three mounting options on the market.

These are sold in two variants, being mirror images of each other. "Right hand" is meant to be carried on the right hip with the tailswitch facing forward and manipulated with the right hand. Left hand is meant to be carried on the left hip with the tailswitch facing forward and manipulated with the left hand. Shown in this GIF is the left hand version. These are made to order, utilizing additive manufacturing, so customers wanting special colors/options are encouraged to go to the Custom Project page in order to get started. 

Custom Project - 100Kcd Zoomie

100Kcd Zoomie, Carbon Fiber S90v Spyderco Paramilitary2, Tesla lighter

Why do "all" zoomies suck? The overwhelming majority of them are so bad, they aren't even upgradable in any reasonable sense of the word. And yet, in concept, they're the ideal EDC light. When you need wash, they produce the most beautiful even wash of the precise width you require. When you need throw, they produce night-searing high Kcd beams, without the target-obscuring wash common to reflector lights. They're energy efficient too, allowing you to quickly and precisely meter out just as much light as your application requires with minimal waste. 

So why not build a premium one, or so the custom build request went? No more AAA alkaline cells in a carriage. No more Chinese soldering. No more mediocre performance. Real performance upgrades, in terms of output, mechanical upgrades, and thermal management. After an extensive quest, we found a host which was adequate and set to work.

The result was a fantastic little light everyone who has handled has loved. With 100Kcd, good out to 630 meters ANSI throw distance, there is ample power to hand when zoomed in. 100Kcd may not sound like much for us, but for a light with a head diameter (OD) less than 31mm, it is still pretty good. Zoomed out though, lumen distribution is even, producing beautiful short range wash. It is a great little light, one that is hard to let go of. I hope we do more with this host. Already we have ideas surrounding machining a new head........ 

100Kcd Zoomie, Spyderco Paramilitary2, Tesla lighter

GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Our GITD tailrings. As seen from left to right: Convoy X3, Convoy C8, Convoy M1, Strike of Hyperion, BLF A6, Convoy S2+ 18350, Astrolux S41

We're doing a giveaway, aka free stuff in exchange for shameless self promotion.

The free stuff details: 
We're giving away three GITD tailrings to people, selected at random, who like our Facebook Page and share THIS POST. We'll leave this open for two weeks (1/30-2/13/17). Winners can choose between green or blue. For those aware of how GITD materials work, green in inevitably brighter, however blue has a certain exoticism to it which is hard to describe. Both are very cool and add a great flair to your light.

And the bounty we're putting up: 
We'd like to add the Overready BOSS to our stable of available tailrings. Anyone who has calipers, a BOSS, and will work with us to build a tailring we will send two for free GITD tailrings in the color of your choice. Alternately, anyone willing to ship us a BOSS, can have the same. We'll even install one of the tailrings on your BOSS for you. :P

The dirty dirty fine print: 
You must have an address in order to win. Winners will be selected, messaged, and then will have one week to respond. People who do not respond will be dropped and someone else given their spot. Currently we're limiting the giveaway to tailrings we have available. (see our website)

>2,000Kcd project update

>2000Kcd Lance of Ra prototype

We're in production on our project to build the most powerful LED thrower in the world. >2000Kcd, or 2 million candela, for an ANSI throw of three kilometers. 

We finally have a name for this project: the Lance of Ra. It really is fitting. More than any other thrower we've seen, the beam profile is that of a light lance, rather than a sword. It is just unlike anything we've handled before, and given that it is over twice the throw of the current record holding "most powerful production LED thrower in the world," I suppose that makes sense.

Pre-production-wise, we're in the home stretch. We finally tackled the weight issue once and for all. We were going to machine it out of a solid billet of aluminum, but that would weigh roughly 1.8 kilograms for JUST the head cone. This would be excessive to say the least, not to mention expensive as aluminum billets of sufficient size in 7075-T6 would be about 250$ each BEFORE adding machining cost. Our solution was to use a lightweight honeycomb head cone, while integrating a heatsink in addition to the WoR thermal upgrades to meet the thermal requirements of the light. Best of both worlds, light weight and extended operation in high. Our bare head cone, that is to say no heatsink, glow elements, lens, etc, is a mere 240 grams. The whole head of the Wrath of Ra is 330 grams. Complete with batteries, our current pre-production prototype is 1.145kg, which is no featherweight, but is perfectly handy and can be easily manipulated and used with one hand. 

New images are coming, images of the final production variant (prototype seen above).