Hi.
Pls share your experience on Surefire, Modlite, Cloud on how their FDE finish stands up to carbon or plain smudging?  I don't have direct experience, but I've read that SF matte finish is prone to smudge and have seen photos of them.  I really do like my lights to be cleaner (or can be cleaned), even after considerable use.

It’s more of a matter of the lighter color showing the carbon and dirt etc more, the anodizing is actually fine. You can scrub them clean if it really bothers you.

For example my tan x300u gets pretty dirty looking riding around in my holster all day

You’re going to have to elaborate on what you mean by “smudging.”

As already said, we’re talking tan anodizing here.  It takes quite a bit to damage anodizing, so it may appear dirty, but the finish hasn’t been removed or worn away, you’d just need to clean it.

I’ve seen the anodizing burnt off the head of a SureFire that was mounted on a 10.5” pistol / head about even with the leading edge of the A2 bird cage.

Otherwise anodizing is very tough.

Smudge (to me) to be would be 'induced discoloration' on the surface.

I have no qualms on the anodizing side, but I'm basing my experiences on the toughness of SF handhelds, especially the HA-III (natural). Some HA-BKs are in the semi-gloss side, and chips out more when compared to the -Nat version.

Again -- Tan (TN) finish is very rare as handheld, thus my difficulty in comparison.

Not following 100%, SF handhelds you are speaking of are the older models usually, which had the semi gloss finish IE the HA-III and DSB. The only difference between the old and new is the surface prep. Old lights were usually tumbled in media to make a smooth but slightly textured surface, whereas the modern ones are closest to being aluminum oxide bead blasted or some type of media blast that creates a rougher surface (speaking scout lights in tan). Ive never seen a semi gloss anodize not wear. I have some streamlights and surefires that are like 50% silver. If you dont want the anodize wear get a non aluminum light.

I found Surefire tan stands up as well as the black finish. But it shows more and you can't give it a swipe of aluminum black when you eventually burn through the anodization. Noticed most of the smudging I saw that I thought was raw aluminum or carbon on my tan X300U lights was actually just lead. Once I cleaned that my finish held up better than I realized. If you clean the carbon from your light and see Grey it is likely mostly lead.