Personalized Lights

Summary: Some Maglite owners personalize their lights with engraving and accessories. Shown below are some of the more interesting ones I have in my collection.

As I've previously covered Maglites were at one time very costly and were priced at over $100 in 2017 dollars. They were a premium light and the choice of professionals. As such many folks spending this much money on a light took great pride in them and opted to customize them to make them their own. I always collect interesting and rare Maglites and I enjoy the personalized lights too especially when they come with a story. I've collected several over the years that are shown below. Lights were personalized in a variety of ways through engraving and modification and really speak to the owner's profession and intended use. They are an interesting take on otherwise standard models.

Some of these lights were professionally engraved, most likely by a gun engraver or gunsmith. One of these is the 6D is a 1979 light and I briefly covered it in my earlier post. It has a very low serial number of 3,207 and was professionally engraved with the owner's name. The owner was a trucker and purchased it during the summer of 1979 while in California. He carried it for many years before retiring it. It is well used and must have some fantastic stories. It was restored and sold to me by a fellow collector after a battery was stuck in it. The longer lights were popular among truckers for checking air pressure in tires, removing snow and ice, and occasionally self defense.

The red 2D belonged to a mid-western fire marshal who carried it for many years on inspections and investigations. The light is very well worn and was likely originally purchased because it was red and easy to find in a cluttered truck or office. The red worked well for fire fighters in general. It is scratched, nicked and has been dropped countless times but still operate flawlessly. It has faded to a really cool shade of pink over the years. It is an R bezel 1,400,000 serial which puts it between 1987 and 1989.

I've also briefly covered the 3D at the end of my 5D restoration post. It is stamped "Paten Pending" making it a 1980 model from the second year of Maglite production. It is serial 63,798 and was purchased at an estate sale from a wealthy Tennessee family who owned a large construction business. It was the wife's personal light and oddly enough was engraved with her driver's license, social security, and phone number which I have blacked out for the pictures. In the 1980s identity theft wasn't much of a concern and it may have been handy to have this info on a light that was carried everywhere. This light was surely highly valued by it's owners and was only gently used during family camping trips and outings.

The black 2D has an extra special engraving and was owned by the owner of a sporting goods store in California. It is shown below with some ads for the store from 1981. The owner was so impressed with the stock of lights that he bought for the store that he ordered a 2D and had it engraved with his last name. The light is in fantastic shape and the engraving is still crisp. It is a 1980 Paten Pending model as well. I was also able to purchase some NOS, new old stock, lights from the owner. They are a very early red 3D and a very rare 7D as shown below.

This blue 4C is a very special light although I didn't manage to get a backstory behind it. C cell finishes are very rare, especially older ones. I've only seen one other TM bezel finish and that was in silver. An early Mag insert from 1982 to 1986 makes mention of blue 2C - 4C lights although this is the first early blue C cell I've ever seen from that time. What's even more curious is that the personalization is laser etched and not engraved. Laser etching did't come about until the late 80s so that was definitely done at a later date. The light came from Temple City, CA which is only a couple miles away from Mag's headquarters so I'm going to guess that this light was owned by either a Mag employee or a close associate of Maglite. I got it from an estate sale but the seller didn't have any info on the prior owner and a search online didn't turn up much. This is one of my favorite lights in my collection and looks brand new and unused.

Of course police officers also personalized their lights too. Many officers carried the same Maglite models and even with their unique serial numbers the lights were sometimes mixed up. Shown below are two examples of "Cop Lights" that I have. One is another 1979 light but this time it's a 5D and it was owned by a Chicago police officer who routinely carried it on duty. It is serial 14,033. The other is a 1983 5C light, serial 29,898, and was from an officer in Massachusetts who used it both on and off duty. Some lights like this were engraved with the officers badge number. 5 and 6Cs were discontinued in 2003 and I did a previous post on them.

As I've covered before, and as the title of my blog alludes to, Maglites were far more popular among the tradesmen and outdoorsmen than with law enforcement. Only a few of the lights I own were from law enforcement. 90% of them came from another profession or were used for personal use even though most folks think of a Maglite as a "Cop Light". Interestingly enough many lawmen preferred C cells over D cells as they were closer in size to the batons they were used to carrying. As I've covered in my other blog C cells at one time greatly outsold D cells when aluminum Kel-Lites were first introduced in the late 1960s. The legacy law enforcement market is likely the only reason Maglite continued to produce C cells for so long.

The 2D light shown below is a great example of Maglites being used for other professional purposes. It belonged to an aircraft mechanic stationed at Norton Air Force Based in Southern California. It is like many other early lights that were distributed near Mag Instrument's headquarters. It is serial 787,508 and is from approximately 1987 based on its features as can be found in my Quick Dating Guide. In addition to the engraving with name, rank, and other info it has also been personalized with a lanyard ring style end cap. The metal eyelet is aluminum and doesn't appear to be a standard part so it is pretty likely this mechanic used an airplane part and his mechanical skill to fashion this lanyard ring. The lanyard is also sewn over on itself showing that someone took a lot of pride and put a lot of time into making this light their own. This light was purchased at an estate sale and unfortunately I didn't get much of a back story other than that. I do have another 2C light that was specifically produced on a custom order for Edwards Air Force Base.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my post on the personalized lights I've collected over the years. If you have an early personalized light or a good Maglite story I'd love to hear from ya and I am always interested to see some of the modifications that are done to lights especially for professionals. My contact info is at the right. Thanks for reading!

As always I'm looking to buy Vari-Beams and Vintage/Rare Mags. Please let me know if you have any, top dollar paid.