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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Just 2 Questions
- Thread starter Ryan0619
- Start date
Esav Benyamin
MidniteSuperMod
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Question 1. I have a Traser watch (the original: the "Navy Seal" watch is the same with a logo added) and it does light up very brightly in the dark by itself -- it's slightly radioactive!
Question 2. What is it with the Ball wrist watch website, is it some kind of video game? I tried to log on and I kept getting run back to a new home page. It said something about 25 year light -- that's the same tritium half-life the Trasers use.
Question 2. What is it with the Ball wrist watch website, is it some kind of video game? I tried to log on and I kept getting run back to a new home page. It said something about 25 year light -- that's the same tritium half-life the Trasers use.
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2001
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- 292
about Ball watches, sorry. Did a search at www.Watch-U-Seek and at Timezone.com, came up empty, also. They look nice.
Not sure how much you have looked around, there are some other brands that are in the same price range as the Ball, such as O & W, Seiko, Glycine, Chase-Durer, Marathon, Poljot (Soviet company) to name a few, just food for thought. Good luck & let us know how the hunting goes. Stinky
Not sure how much you have looked around, there are some other brands that are in the same price range as the Ball, such as O & W, Seiko, Glycine, Chase-Durer, Marathon, Poljot (Soviet company) to name a few, just food for thought. Good luck & let us know how the hunting goes. Stinky
Well the only thing is that I want the tritium or whatever it is and I think Luminox and Ball are the only ones who make them with that arent they? I think Sinn used to make one but I want one new. And in answer to your question Esav Benyamin no it is not a video game just click on the links on the right of the page. Im looking into the trainman Quartz series. Also I wanted to know if the hour markings AND the acutall numbers lit up on the luminox. For example 1 2 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Thanks again.
Ryan
Ryan
Cougar Allen
Buccaneer (ret.)
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- Oct 9, 1998
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A lot of watches have tritium paint on hands and dials (and Super Luminova paint is possibly better -- it's brighter at first but dims as the hours pass). The Luminox is so bright because it uses vials of tritium gas. There's a limit to how much brightness you can get from paint because light can't penetrate much thickness of paint -- no matter how thick you make the paint only the surface gives off light. A vial of tritium gas can be thick and glow very brightly -- but you can't make it into a number; it's just a bar or dot.
I wear a Timex Expedition 43391 with Indiglo myself. Indiglo is a backlight that glows perfectly uniformly -- the whole dial glows, not just a bulb behind it. It's very bright, bright enough to find a keyhole with, and the black arabic numerals on the dial show up very clearly against the green glowing dial, but of course you have to push a button.
I wear a Timex Expedition 43391 with Indiglo myself. Indiglo is a backlight that glows perfectly uniformly -- the whole dial glows, not just a bulb behind it. It's very bright, bright enough to find a keyhole with, and the black arabic numerals on the dial show up very clearly against the green glowing dial, but of course you have to push a button.
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There are some Marathon watches out their with the tritium as well.
- Joined
- Dec 25, 1998
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Stocker and Yale also made some. Check out www.broadarrow.net and look under watches for sale.
The tritium vials do glow like nobodys business. They are great. I wish more watches had them.
The tritium vials do glow like nobodys business. They are great. I wish more watches had them.
Cougar Allen
Buccaneer (ret.)
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Turns out I was wrong and Ball actually is forming tritium vials into arabic numerals:
Bronco
Moderator
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- 7,580
Ryan,
As far as I can tell tritium vial technology can be found in watches made by Traser/Luminox, Marathon, Ball, Stocker & Yale (used market only, I believe) and Meprolight (apparently now being marketed under the Kimber brand name). For more info on the Kimber watches (which are all quartz, as I remember) you may want to try contacting Arizona Gunrunners. They don't have any photos of these watches on their Website at present, but they may be able to email you a photo:
http://www.arizonagunrunners.com/Products/tacticalgear/tacticalgear.html
As far as I can tell tritium vial technology can be found in watches made by Traser/Luminox, Marathon, Ball, Stocker & Yale (used market only, I believe) and Meprolight (apparently now being marketed under the Kimber brand name). For more info on the Kimber watches (which are all quartz, as I remember) you may want to try contacting Arizona Gunrunners. They don't have any photos of these watches on their Website at present, but they may be able to email you a photo:
http://www.arizonagunrunners.com/Products/tacticalgear/tacticalgear.html
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I have Trijicon night sights on my Glock 21. The Glock is about eleven years old and the sights are starting to dim. I'm thinking about getting them replaced. I believe that they use the same encapsulated tritium in a glass tube coated with phosphors technology as what's in the trasers and Luminoxs. From all I've read and experienced, these things don't last forever. On a gun it's fairly simple to replace the sights once they dim if the gun was a popular model.
What happens to the tritium vials after a dozen years in a watch? Can they be replaced?
I only ask because I have been sorta looking for a replacement to my old Casio beater and Luminox has some cool watches for reasonable money so they're on my short list.
jmx
What happens to the tritium vials after a dozen years in a watch? Can they be replaced?
I only ask because I have been sorta looking for a replacement to my old Casio beater and Luminox has some cool watches for reasonable money so they're on my short list.
jmx
Cougar Allen
Buccaneer (ret.)
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Tritium vials are so bright it probably won't be until they dim to a quarter of their new brightness in about 25 years (assuming the phosphorent material holds up as well as the tritium) that you'll even begin to think about replacement. 25 years from now ... who knows if replacement tritium vials will be available. There is a move away from tritium to superluminova going on mainly because although the tritium is not dangerous to the watch wearer, there are hazards involved in manufacture, and some concern about eventual disposal, especially if tritium paint and vials were to become very common. 25 years from now tritium might be banned in every country.
At worst, it'll certainly be possible to replace with superluminova dial and hands, or whatever kind of luminous paint is state-of-the-art 25 years from now.
If it's a quartz watch figure on replacing the movement sometime, too; 25 years is a good lifespan for most quartz movements.
Although a mechanical watch movement can last for generations with regular servicing, that servicing costs a lot more than replacing a quartz movement whenever it wears out.
Most of the watches with tritium vials seem to be in a price range where it'll make more sense to replace the whole watch than to replace movement and vials (if not the complete dial and hands) -- the cases are not that expensive.
To sum up, if you're looking for a watch to hand on to your grandchildren: buy a high-grade mechanical, expect to pay plenty over the decades for servicing, and you'll probably be better off with superluminova than with tritium.
At worst, it'll certainly be possible to replace with superluminova dial and hands, or whatever kind of luminous paint is state-of-the-art 25 years from now.
If it's a quartz watch figure on replacing the movement sometime, too; 25 years is a good lifespan for most quartz movements.
Although a mechanical watch movement can last for generations with regular servicing, that servicing costs a lot more than replacing a quartz movement whenever it wears out.
Most of the watches with tritium vials seem to be in a price range where it'll make more sense to replace the whole watch than to replace movement and vials (if not the complete dial and hands) -- the cases are not that expensive.
To sum up, if you're looking for a watch to hand on to your grandchildren: buy a high-grade mechanical, expect to pay plenty over the decades for servicing, and you'll probably be better off with superluminova than with tritium.