12 Days of EDC Christmas, Day 10-Muyshont Aeon Mk 3
Tony Sculimbrene 12.13.16
Over the years my brother-in-law and I have become really good friends. He has two boys just like I do, and we both love being outside. Combining those two things and taking our boys outside is especially awesome. Two years ago around Christmas time, it was unseasonably warm for New England–a balmy 28 degrees–hoodies and sweatshirt weather. We went for a hike in the salt marshes in Rhode Island and found a treasure trove of awesome stuff: a sea turtle habitat, an amazing trail across the frozen marsh, and finally, at the end of the trek a hidden firing range.
The range was dug into the ground and the hole was about 12 feet deep, 40 feet wide, and about 300 feet long. At one end was a trailer with a padlock. On the other was a set of targets and probably 400 pounds of shell casings. It was a strange Christmas Eve, but an unforgettable one. The three boys did their best to ruin their clothes, sliding down the mud berm over and over again until they looked like each of them had wrestled the pig that would later be the ham we’d eat that night.
So what do you get that friend of yours that has walked with you through life, a person who is utterly reliable and worth just about any expense? Look no further.
Muyshondt Aeon Mk. III
The Aeon Mk. III is a great light, probably my favorite of all time. And that is saying quite a bit as the Mk. II was a light Enrique Muyshondt built to my specifications. That’s right, I like this light better than the light designed for me. What’s so great and why is this a gift worthy of your dearest friend? Let me explain.
First, the light is unbelievably small. That picture is not Andre the Giant holding the light, its my medium sized hand. The Aeon is just that small. It runs on a specialty battery, a CR2, which is how it gets by with such a tiny form factor. But nothing is missing. There is a full sized and excellently tuned reflector and a full stroke clicky in the rear. This the first instance (but not the last) of Muyshondt’s magical powers.
The light is also super tough, and just like that friend, it is unlikely to abandon you. How tough is this little light? Tough enough to be shot into near space, return to Earth, and keep working. This torture test makes the junk Cold Steel puts its knives through look like a trip to the spa. Enrique has always done stuff like this. With his first design, he used it to saw through a Mag Light mounted on a lathe. If there were a children’s services for flashlights, they’d be hunting Enrique down. More Muyshondt magic.
And finally there is the real draw with this light–the amazing run times. If you EDC the Aeon, you can reasonably expect a half year out of the battery, and that’s with daily momentary use. Enrique has tuned the output of the light to prioritize runtime over lumens, and the end result is a light that has no peer when it comes to runtime. Sure, some Zebralights can get in the same ballpark, but they do it by putting out so little light that they are basically useless. Here you get a real amount of light on low and runtimes that are measured in weeks or months. On high, I still don’t change out the battery all that often. In fact, I haven’t swapped out the battery since I got the non-protoype.
Lastly, and this is really just a side note but an important thing, the packaging that the Aeon comes in tells your buddy that this is something special–custom art, beautiful boxes, and nice packing. The light is not cheap. The aluminum version is $295, but like that amazing friend, it will be with you every step of the way. Oh, and for me, my brother-in-law would murder me if I bought him something so extravagant. I tried. I tried many times. In the end I gave him a good light, but it was inexpensive enough to not raise his hackles.
